They dubbed it the “Un/Happy Hour” to make a strong statement about the inadequacies part-time and contingent UUP faculty face in Cortland and on campuses across the state and nation.

That’s how Cortland UUPers spotlighted Campus Equity Week (CEW) on their campus.

The event was also an opportunity for members and students to say thank you to adjuncts for the essential work they do.

“It was really meant to extend our appreciation to part-timers,” Cortland Chapter President Jamie Dangler said of the Oct. 29 event. “Our part-time members do feel that they are marginalized on the campus. They need to understand that we value them.”

Held biannually, CEW is an AFT-sponsored national initiative to publicize issues of fairness and quality related to higher education part-time and contingent faculty in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. CEW was held Oct. 26-31.

This year, UUP was one of hundreds of higher education unions affiliated with AFT that observed CEW by calling attention to the injustices these oft-exploited employees endure.

“Campus Equity Week is a wail of pain and rage at some campuses, as sweeping layoffs are disguised as ‘nonrenewals’ and a quasi-invisible instructional faculty is gutted, unemployed and uninsured,” said UAlbany UUPer Jill Hanifan, who co-chairs the union’s Part-Time Concerns Committee. “At other campuses, it’s an urgent and sobering message about workload creep. It’s also been a catalyst for (administrators) to publicly acknowledge the essential contributions of part-time and contingent faculty.”

UUP and its chapters have done the latter, achieving significant gains for part-timers since the first Campus Equity Week in 2001.

Since then, chapters have worked for starting salary increases for part-timers and enacted separate labor/management meetings for part-time issues, as provided in UUP’s contract with the state.

Statewide, UUP has secured full health, vision and dental benefits for eligible part-timers, as well as vacation and sick leave benefits.

“UUP has worked tirelessly for the fair treatment of part-time and contingent faculty,” said UUP President Phillip Smith. “Their contributions are significant and deserve to be highlighted, and not just during Campus Equity Week.”

Higher education unions nationwide have held up UUP’s negotiated gains for part-timers as examples of equity during their heated contract battles. Still, adjuncts are paid far less than full-time faculty and lack job security—which essentially robs them of academic freedom, proponents say.

“Campus Equity Week raises the awareness of the contributions of part-timers and the insidious attack on tenure, as there is a rising number of contingent faculty in ranks of higher education across the country,” said Stony Brook HSC member Carolyn Kube, co-chair of UUP’s Part-Time Concerns Committee.

Now more than ever, a growing number of SUNY colleges and universities are increasing their reliance on part-time faculty as a way to stem extreme state budget cuts to the University.

Nearly half of Cortland’s faculty is made up of part-timers. Farmingdale and Plattsburgh also employ large numbers of adjuncts.

At New Paltz, where more than 100 part-time faculty weren’t renewed in the fall due to campus budget-cutting measures, CEW was a chance to shine light on the importance of adjuncts there and statewide.

New Paltz Chapter President Richard Kelder and Peter D.G. Brown, the chapter’s vice president for academics, talked with students and colleagues at a CEW informational table in the college’s Jacobson Faculty Tower.

Said Kelder: “Many of our adjunct faculty have served the college with distinction and dedication for many years. They are entitled to job security and better compensation.”

“We have achieved much, but our work is not done,” said Smith. “UUP will continue that battle.”

— Michael Lisi