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Only half a vote for adjunct teachers
Submitted by mnadmin on Thu, 10/13/2011 - 23:43
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Carmine Pesca is an assistant professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Hudson Valley Community College, and a member of the Hudson Valley Community College Faculty Association. This year Pesca ran for the position of delegate-at-large on the HVCCFA's executive board. He lost. But he didn't lose because not enough people voted for him. He lost because not every ballot cast was counted as a full vote. In fact, because most of the ballots cast for Pesca came from part-time and adjunct faculty members they counted as only 1/2 a vote each.
The Hudson Valley Community College Faculty Association represents approximately 700 faculty members, education specialists and faculty librarians, on issues of contract negotiations, labor management and related grievances at Hudson Valley Community College. The faculty association's membership consists of approximately equal numbers of full-time and part-time/adjunct faculty (about 350 each). Yet while their numbers may be about equal, their democratic representation is not. According to the HVCCFA's bylaws, part-time and adjunct faculty members are only allowed 1/2 of a vote each in elections, while full-time faculty members receive a full vote per person.
Pesca however, is well aware of the unequal treatment which certain groups of faculty members receive. He previously filed grievance against Hudson Valley Community College for hiring temporary faculty members at a lower rate than permanent faculty members. With the HVCCFA behind him, a settlement with the college was eventually reached which ended this practice. Now temporary faculty members are hired at the same pay rate as permanent faculty members.
The HVCCFA’s purpose, according to its constitution and bylaws, includes the charge “to unify and strengthen the profession...” and "to enable the members to speak with a common
This year when Pesca ran for the HVCCFA’s executive board, his platform denounced the undemocratic bylaw which only provides part-time and adjunct faculty with fractional representation in elections. Of course the HVCCFA works on behalf of the interests of the part-time faculty members as well as those of the full-time faculty. Were it not for the work of the faculty association temporary faculty would likely still be hired at lower rates then perma
nent faculty, and part-time and adjunct faculty would be at even greater risk of the mistreatment which they are sometimes subjected to by the administrations of our current education system.
The HVCCFA’s purpose, according to its constitution and bylaws, includes the charge “to unify and strengthen the profession...” and "to enable the members to speak with a common
voice...” Pesca however sees that allowing part-time and adjunct faculty merely 1⁄2 a vote in elections runs exactly contrary to the aims of unifying, strengthening, or enabling the common voice of the school's faculty.
Despite his failure to be elected in April, the election results vindicated Pesca. They speak to the very reforms he advocates. If they had been in place, and part-time and adjunct faculty had
equal voting rights, he would have been elected as the majority choice.
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