This week, TruthtoTell will explore issues facing higher education’s growing class of low wage workers: part- time adjunct faculty who are doing more of the teaching at wages that are little short of scandalous. In response, growing numbers of adjunct faculty are joining unions.  

Three St. Paul private colleges are part of this national trend.  Two weeks ago, adjunct faculty at Hamline University voted to form a union.  At the University of St. Thomas, adjunct faculty will soon be holding a vote of their own. At Macalester College, an intense conversation continues. Meanwhile at Metropolitan State University, where adjuncts  already have the option to join the faculty union, issues facing the university’s large pool of part time professors are receiving renewed attention.

Co-hosts Siobahn Kierans and Tom O’Connell will talk with adjunct professors about their experiences as part- time faculty.  What brought them into teaching?  What keeps them going?  And how can union organization lead to a greater recognition of their critical role on the front lines of higher education? 

Learn more about this issue:

Adjunct Action

National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education