Marquette University’s Faculty Council has issued a report urging the university to focus on its use of adjuncts, which the report says “risks engendering an institutional dependency on the exploitation of adjunct labor.”

The report, prepared by a council subcommittee, calls on the university to consider equity in salary and benefits, as well as a larger number of annual contracts for adjunct faculty members. The report draws on earlier discussions within the university’s theology department, which pushed for extending health and dental insurance to adjuncts last April, arguing that the university had an ethical obligation to pay adjuncts “a living wage and basic benefits if we demand first-rate teaching from them,” according to the report.

The department also noted that Marquette, as a Jesuit institution, had a “theological obligation” to adopt policies consistent with its religious morals.

“The tolerance of a class of ‘permanent adjuncts’ within the teaching ranks perpetuates the ‘second class’ status of adjuncts … [and] fails to accord them a status commensurate with the benefit that their labors provide to the university,” the report reads.

The report also points out that graduate teaching assistants will receive health insurance next year, a move motivated by a desire to keep the positions competitive. No such competition exists for adjuncts, the report notes, but “market forces” should not necessarily be the “sole determinant for coverage decisions.” —David Shieh