UCAAA
In September 2019, the UC Adjunct Association sponsored a series of events and interviews both on campus and off, to raise awareness of the importance of adjuncts, as well as their myriad problems to the larger University of Cincinnati community, and specifically, to President Pinto and the university administration.
On Monday, September 23, we started a with a Part-Time Faculty meeting in the new Faculty Enrichment Center (Langsam Library, 5th Floor) and made the meeting available live and as a recording by WebEx. The UCAAA leadership reviewed efforts underway in the UC Faculty Senate, as well as the rest of the week's plans and events. You can download the presentation on the Resources page.
Tuesday, September 24, UCAAA President Mark Kissling was a guest on WVXU's radio show, Cincinnati Edition. You can listen to the interview here. Later in the day, Mark also participated in a town-hall meeting with a coalition of student groups inspired by the ideas behind Adjunct Week. This meeting, entitled "Boldly Bankrupt," which as well attended by students, was led by the student group Young Democratic Socialists of America, and also featured speakers from other student groups including Fossil Free UC and the Roosevelt Network. (Later, together with the the Sustainable Fashion Initiative and and Sustainable Industrial Design student groups, they officially formed the Boldly Bankrupt coalition.) Mark spoke to the students in attendance about the challenges many adjuncts face at UC and nationwide. Boldly Bankrupt continues to include the fair and ethical treatment of adjuncts in their list of major concerns both at UC and nationally.
The highlight of the week was the "positive demonstration" on Wednesday, September 25, in which members of the UCAAA, some faculty representing the American Association of University Professors (AAUP -- the faculty union), and students from the previous evening's town hall demonstrated on UC's "Main Street." The demonstration was written up in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
On Friday, September 27, Adjunct Week was capped off by a happy hour at Taft's Brewporium and the publication of an op-ed by Mark Kissling in the Enquirer.
In total, the efforts of adjunct week and the UC Faculty Senate's unanimous resolution in support of adjuncts were very successful in raising awareness of adjuncts to the university, as UC President Pinto, in his address to the all All-University Faculty Meeting on October 31, 2019, stated, "Our part-time faculty are valuable contributors toward the university’s educational mission. I am glad to know that the Faculty Senate has taken leadership in assessing the environment for our part-time faculty, and will make recommendations to the Provost following this assessment. It is vitally important that all faculty, including part-time faculty, have ownership of their roles at the university. We will work to ensure that this happens."
Our thanks to all who participated in Adjunct Week and helped to make it a huge success!