CUNY union members blocked the entrance to the lobby of CUNY Central at 205 East 42 Street last month. Photo by Dave Sanders.
By Marcia Newfield
Twenty-two thousand CUNY students and 1,326 adjunct faculty and graduate fellows live in the three Upper West Side NY Senate districts 29, 30 and 31.
Why is this important? There are several reasons. One is that CUNY’s 24 colleges are the primary source of higher education for New York City high school graduates. Compared to private colleges, CUNY schools are relatively inexpensive — annual tuition at CUNY 4-year schools is $6,330, not including books and living expenses. But given that the majority of CUNY’s 275,000 attendees come from families that earn less than $30,000 a year, getting tuition together — often while working — is not easy.
Another reason CUNY is important is that most graduates stay in the city after graduation, contributing to the tax base. But the state’s contribution to CUNY’s operating budget — and its workers’ salaries — has not kept up with inflation or enrollment.
Less well known is that CUNY relies on part-time faculty: 53% of the courses are taught by adjuncts, whose numbers have risen every year since the 70’s. Adjuncts are paid very little. Despite having advanced degrees and being dedicated to providing insight and opportunity to working people, they earn less than $30,000 a year from their teaching. At approximately $3,500 per 3-credit course, they have to teach eight courses a year to earn $28,000, and often they don’t get all the work they need. If they don’t have a higher-earning partner, a cheap apartment or another job, they too are poor. The state’s underfunding has contributed to this. Governor Cuomo’s intransigence about adding more than 2% to CUNY’s budget has been relentless. New York State consistently underfunds its public universities. Is it because our students are mostly African-American and Latino?
That is why, on November 4th, 53 members of the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents 25,000 CUNY faculty and staff, got arrested as part of a protest against CUNY management. We have been without a contract for five years and without a pay raise for six.
After a protest in October in front of the luxury building where CUNY Chancellor James Milliken is provided with a $19,500 a month apartment (in addition to a $670,000 salary, a car and driver), the university made an offer of 6% over six years. PSC members are understandably offended. The offer does not match inflation or the 4% retroactive pay that other state unions received in 2010.
To learn more, follow the website of the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY’s union.
Marcia Newfield, a longtime Upper West Side resident, has been an adjunct in the English department of BMCC for 28 years, She was elected as Vice President for part-time personnel from 2003-2015. She currently serves on the negotiating team and as an adjunct grievance counselor.
Strike!
Shut down the campuses.
…or beg Milliken.
What this article fails to mention is that adjuncting, by it’s nature, is a PART-TIME job. You aren’t expected to support a family through adjuncting. It is a side job to earn some extra money.
The real issue is the fact that universities and colleges across the nation are turning to adjuncts to teach courses as opposed to hiring full-time faculty lines. The full-time faculty are the life-blood of an institution as they contribute more than just teaching to the college including committee work, curriculum development, student mentoring, running labs, etc….
Many adjuncts are dedicated professionals that deserve full-time positions. The political pressure should be directed towards increasing the number of full-time faculty at CUNY campuses.
while it’s true that there should be many more tenure-track full time faculty jobs opened up, the implication in your posting is that adjuncts don’t really need the money and don’t deserve a “living wage.” this is reminiscent of the old argument from a past generation that women don’t need equal pay, they are just working for “pin money.”
In fact, many if not most of the adjuncts are adjuncting full time — when they can get the work.
do the math. if you teach 4 courses, that is definitely “full time”, much more than 40 hours per week. an adjunct with that course load will make 28K per year plus whatever courses they will pick up over the summer.
Does this seem fair and just to you?
Interesting article, but hardly journalism. Written by a partisan, in a partisan matter.
By all means, please give us your unbiased and informed thoughts on this matter.
I am not informed on the matter, which is why I would appreciate a real journalistic piece, not just the point of view of someone involved in the issue at hand.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply and comment. Thank you, and best wishes this holiday season.
The shameful exploitation of adjunct labor is not just a CUNY problem. It is a national provlem, and that is why a NATIONWIDE STRIKE is needed.
I went to Baruch at night for my MBA. Many of the professors I had were professionals who were teaching part time. They seemed to be teaching more for the prestige than the money.
I mean, it looks great on your resume to state that you’re a part time university instructor in your discipline.
I would assume many of the adjuncts are in a similar situation. It’s misleading to suggest that all adjuncts are exploited and poor.
ALL adjuncts who are single with no second source of income, and are not independently wealthy, are indeed impoverished, at least in NY.
I too adjuncted at CUNY in the 1990s. It was a great experience and helped me in my professional life. however, i had a full time job. and the adjuncting was a lot of work.
when CUNY has 53% of its faculty as adjuncts, we can deduce that many are doing this full time. it’s not like the old days.
there have been stories about full time adjuncts living in their cars.
i hope the writer Marcia Newfield will comment on this debate.
Out of true curiousity, how can you deduce that because CUNY has 53% adjunct faculty (is that 53% of the faculty are adjuncts or 53% of classes are taught by adjuncts? I wasn’t sure) many of them are doing it full-time?
with that many adjunct faculty, even if 1 in 5 is doing it full time, that is thousands of people.
being familiar with CUNY and also familiar with people who work as adjuncts, i know there are thousands of full time adjunct faculty in New York City.
don’t they deserve a living wage?
Yes. I used to adjunct for SUNY and CUNY (1-3 courses a semester) because I really enjoyed being in the classroom and helping students as well keeping up with recent research in my field and having an academic endeavor on my resume. I was/am not impoverished and many of my colleagues were women who LOVED the part-time hours that kept them current and working in their fields while offering plenty of time off and flexibility. Agree, however, that universities need to keep a vibrant staff of full-time faculty who devote time to curriculum/admin issues/hiring/department deliberations
The exploitation of adjuncts by CUNY and other universities is a scandal.
a story of a homeless adjunct professor:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/nyregion/without-tenure-or-a-home.html?_r=0#
Here’s another perspective on the homeless adjunct.
https://callmemiss.com/2014/05/15/more-angst-from-the-adjuncts-mary-faith-cerasoli-is-hungry/
so the argument in that article is basically, “if you don’t like it, lump it.”
you don’t believe that adjunct professors deserve a living wage?
race to the bottom, here we come.
Don’t put words into my mouth.
My point is that there is more to this woman’s story than is apparent per the NY Times article.
i didn’t put words in your mouth. i asked you a question. and you didn’t answer it, so i’ll ask it again:
do you believe that adjunct professors deserve a living wage?
the fact of the matter if someone works full time as an adjunct professor in NYC, they will be living in poverty and not be earning a living wage. that doesn’t strike you as wrong?
New York’s budget is limited – we can only spend so much.
Rather then make improvements in the infrastructure that benefits all new yorkers, special interests control most of the pie, so monies only go to government workers bloated pensions (friend just retired from Sanitation at 50 for $100K+ a year). and of course subsidized housing for the select few – all of which just increases costs for everyone else.
I wish we valued education as much as freebies for the mooching class.
1 million times this.
Get ride of Tenure world wide.
Get rid of Summer’s off for students older than 12.
Hire full time teachers, and pay them decent salaries with bonuses based on their students grades.
Just like everyone else.