Cat Herding and Windmill Chasing

by Lee Shainen

EVER SEE THAT commercial about herding cats? It reminds
me of trying to get adjuncts to organize. Faculty members,
in general, are an independent and eccentric lot. Off the
top of my head, I’d say they are right up there with quirky
inventors and solitary gold miners on the wacko scale. But
adjuncts are not only weird (imagine going to college for
six to ten years and then picking a profession that pays less
than the national poverty rate and provides no benefits, or
that pays a decent wage and benefits, but is a complete dead
end); they are also paranoid. The typical adjuncts are afraid
that one wrong move or word will mean that their contracts
will not be renewed.

They are reluctant to join anything or to sign anything,
and most feel incapable of paying dues or membership fees
of any kind. This is a difficult group to organize. Oh yeah,
and all that education makes us opinionated as can be. No
poverty consciousness in the opinion department, no sir, which
means getting faculty to agree on anything (besides wanting
more money) can be a hair-pulling, frustrating exercise in
endless verbal volleyball.

Despite all of that something is happening, something wonderful.
Following the success of California’s part-timers’ “equal
pay of equal work” campaign that has added $62 million for
part-time faculty compensation to the state’s budget, and
last year’s success in Washington State to add $20 million
for part-time equity, a joint U.S. and Canadian movement for
equity throughout higher education is underway. Get this:
faculty and representatives from all of the major faculty
unions, associations, and disciplinary organizations from
Canada and the U.S. have banded together, formed a binational
steering committee, and are designating October 28 to November
3, 2001, as Campus Equity Week. This is a first!

Nothing of this magnitude of organizational energy has ever
been mustered before. It is an amazing opportunity to focus
the collective attention of two nations on the issues that
educational activists and this magazine, the Adjunct Advocate,
have been championing for years. Now is not the time to assume
that others will do the important work. This is our turn in
the spotlight, an educational Harmonic Convergence of sorts.
Given our unique, peculiar, and maverick make-up, it is unlikely
to get so many cats chasing the same windmill at the same
time again. Take advantage of it. Make sure you and your college
are involved. Contact any of the organizations involved in
the planning, check out this Web page, www.cpfa.org,
or join the discussion at CEWAction-subscribe@topica.com.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP),
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT),
The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), The
California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA), The Canadian
United Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA), The Coalition
of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL),
The Communications Workers of America (CWA),
The National Alliance for Fair Employment (NAFFE), The National
Council of Teachers of English/Conference on College Communication
and Composition (NCTE/CCCC),
and The National Education Association (NEA),
are all part of the organizing effort with more coming on
board all the time.

Here in Arizona, on May 12, 2001, adjunct leaders, union
organizers, and concerned educators from around the state
met, swapped stories and strategies, and agreed to make Campus
Equity Week their number one priority. If you know anything
about the Arizona “Right to Work” state consciousness, you
know what an accomplishment this first step was. In other
words, if it can happen in Arizona, it can happen anywhere.
I’m grateful, impressed, even humbled by what is happening.
However, for years I have said that I would like to give more
attention to my teaching and writing rather than forever campaigning
and lobbying for change.

So, shut me up. Please. Get organized!