PART-TIME AND OTHER NON-TENURE-TRACK FACULTY

WHEREAS, the AFT higher education program and policy council has updated and reaffirmed AFT's 1979 Statement on Part-Time Faculty Employment; and

WHEREAS, AFT represents more than 32,000 part-time faculty in the United States, far more than any other union or association and is currently organizing more than 3,000 in the New Jersey State Colleges; and

WHEREAS, part-time, or adjunct faculty, constitute 43 percent of the nation's higher education teaching force, and make a valuable contribution to U.S. colleges and universities; and

WHEREAS, some institutions now rely on an excessive use of underpaid part-time and other non-tenure-track faculty to lower labor costs while reducing the number of full-time tenure-track instructors through retrenchment and attrition, creating a two-tier structure of faculty employment that is divisive, demoralizing and exploitative; and

WHEREAS, part-time and other non-tenure-track faculty often face uncertainty about their continued employment and are subject to termination and periods of dislocation with little or no notice; and

WHEREAS, thousands of part-time and other non-tenure-track faculty remain unorganized in states where they are eligible for coverage under labor legislation:

RESOLVED, the AFT, its state federations and its higher education locals renew their commitment to organize and represent part-time and other non-tenure-track faculty and negotiate contracts that improve salary, benefits and establish seniority as a means for job security and increase opportunities for full-time tenure-track appointment, and

RESOLVED, that AFT full-time and part-time members recognize the need for solidarity in faculty ranks, granting part-time and other non-tenure-track faculty the opportunity to participate in institutional and union governance to the extent that their status and other employment permits; and

RESOLVED, that AFT will promote legislation at the national and state level that will allow part-time and other non-tenure-track faculty to receive unemployment benefits during those periods of time when they are not on the college payroll and not employed elsewhere; and

RESOLVED, that AFT will work to increase the number of full-time tenure-track positions available, through negotiations, political action and legislation.