Contingent Faculty

The mission of the CFIC is to empower contingent and part-time faculty to improve their working conditions, and in turn improve their students’ learning conditions.

By Jacqui Cain, Vice President for Contingent Faculty, and Enrie Marusya, Union Organizing Representative

Regular readers may recall the action that adjunct faculty took back in October 2021: dozens of adjuncts and their tenure-track peers attended a virtual meeting of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to present a petition reminding the State Board of their obligations to treat faculty equitably under RCW 28B. Many gave moving testimony about their experiences with loss of work during the pandemic. Since then, we have attended subsequent meetings with the goal of sparking a commitment. These actions included meetings of the entire board and also conversations with some board members.

We’ve made our goals clear to the State Board. They include adding benchmarks to the State’s Best Practices for Part Time Faculty (which you can find on the State Board’s website at https://www.sbctc.edu) of 85% pay parity per credit hour for adjuncts, and moving towards 70% full-to-part-time faculty ratios.

As of yet, the Board hasn’t taken any actions towards our issues. Instead, they are continuing their practice of “informal conversations” with no resulting commitments. We need to make sure they know how the lack of progress on these issues is hurting adjunct faculty. The Contingent Faculty Issues Committee (CFIC) is asking members to prepare for another action at the next State Board meeting on March 30th-31st. Public comment tends to be on Day 2, so stay tuned and mark your calendars!

Contact us directly

CFIC Chair: Jacqui Cain, Vice President for Contingent Faculty at AFT WA, cfic AT aftwa.org

CFIC Staff Support: Enrie Marusya, Union Organizing Representative, emarusya AT aftwa.org or 206-495-8589

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The Contingent Faculty Issues Committee is excited to announce this annual conference, hosted by AFT Washington and co-sponsored by Washington Education Association (WEA).  Day one will feature Joe Berry and Helena Worthen, co-authors of Power Despite Precarity: Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Education and a workshop on how to tell the story of your precarity, with a view toward meeting with elected leaders. Day two is professional development focused: SB 5194 has resulted in 200 adjunct-to-full-time faculty position conversions. Workshops will discuss teaching philosophies, diversity statements, and preparing for the interview. No cost for members to register.

Register here.

A lot of research and energy has gone into understanding what helps students to be successful.  Colleges are investing in programs that improve support for students based on the findings.  Those things that make students successful are the same things that make faculty successful.  It has been shown that there is a direct link between the working conditions of faculty and student success.  Yet many teachers are denied even the most basic kinds of support that would make us better able to help our students reach their goals. Download an excellent document written by AFT Seattle President Annette Stofer that outlines the connections between student success and faculty working conditions.

You can read more on the correlation of faculty working conditions and student learning conditions through the annotated bibliography the AFT has put together. Another bibliography, from USCRossier, contains additional research sources.