Dear Colleagues,
The UUP Buffalo Center Chapter requests the following considerations be made by chairs when assigning or canceling courses taught by adjunct and contingent faculty:
- Please assign adjunct and contingent faculty courses chairs know are more likely to run. Course cancellations do not affect tenured faculty financially, but they do negatively and often drastically impact contingent faculty who were counting on the income.
- Think twice before canceling an under-enrolled course taught by an adjunct; if chairs are allowing under-enrolled classes to run, please consider favoring adjunct appointments whose livelihood is at stake.
- Consider assigning or maintaining at least two courses per adjunct, because the course load is what determines the instructor’s entitlement to UUP benefits.
While the ability to assign and cancel courses is certainly at the chair’s discretion, the UUP Buffalo Center Chapter is encouraging chairs be cognizant of the ways in which course assignments and cancellations affect the most disenfranchised members of our community and profession, namely adjuncts and contingent faculty. These are instructors for whom, in contrast to tenure-track and tenured faculty, a course cancellation entails a serious financial setback.
In Solidarity,
Ken Kern
Chapter President
UUP Buffalo Center