The first ad in the AFT's new "Just Ask!" campaign appears in the hugely popular "Best Colleges" edition of U.S. News & World Report, which is now available on newsstands.

We know that colleges and universities are investing less and less in the educators who are crucial to a student's success. But many parents don't know that, and the institutions they are considering for their children's higher education aren't going to volunteer this information. The Just Ask! campaign is aimed at parents, counselors and students, with the goal of getting them to ask the following questions of instructors and college representatives:

• How likely am I to be taught by full-time faculty in my first year?
• What percentage of courses is taught by grad students? By part-time faculty?
• How much do part-time faculty get paid per course?
• Do part-time faculty have offices and hold office hours?

Faculty who are undercompensated and underresourced aren't exactly what parents and students have in mind when they start dipping into their life savings—or incurring considerable debt—for college. Students deserve professors who have the resources necessary to meet with students in suitable office space, and who will be around the next year when a student wants to take another class or get a letter of recommendation.

The goal of the Just Ask! campaign is to start putting pressure on colleges and universities to end the harmful trend toward using more underpaid and overworked part-time faculty. Just Ask! seeks to raise public awareness of this issue and the AFT's role in addressing it, as well as to educate more of the AFT's membership about the union's Faculty and College Excellence (FACE) campaign.

In addition to the Just Ask! ad that appears in the U.S. News "Best Colleges 2010" issue, watch for other references to the campaign in op-eds and videos. On the Just Ask! Web page, you can download the questions to ask instructors and college representatives, request copies of the Just Ask! brochure, and learn more about the campaign. If family or friends seek out your advice on college, remind them to find out the value that their first-choice colleges place on their core teaching staff by just asking!

August 20, 2009