Every year about this time, many tenured faculty members use their scholarly clout to coerce their institutions to give them more of what they want. They've gone on the job market, gotten a few serious bites, and now leverage that into a demand for more money, a bigger office, a course reduction, research money, paid leave, a job for their spouse, or whatever. If their current institution doesn't come forward with the goods, they threaten to leave for greener pastures. Typically, the institution will cough it up somehow in order to keep a star.
We adjuncts, however, live and work in a parallel universe. We don't have the clout of full-time faculty members. When we, as individuals, threaten to leave, our hiring administrators are more likely to yawn, and then pull out a thick file of CVs from adjunct wannabes and hire our replacement within the hour. Of course all half a million of us currently working in North America could suddenly walk off the job and refuse to teach unless we received better perks. Wouldn't that be incredible? Just think of how many university systems across the country would literally shut down without adjuncts for even a week.
It's a great idea, but I suspect it's a dream. Adjuncts hold such varied relationships with hiring institutions, state by state, and department by department, that great numbers of adjuncts don't feel the need to protest, form unions, or stage strikes. Far more feasible, perhaps, would be for all the adjuncts within a large division, department, or system to collectively walk off the job and see if the ensuing vacuum would prompt attention to desired perks.
Most of us, however, will have to negotiate on our own for any perks in our job. And the reality is that we, as individuals, aren't in any position to make demands for the things that often matter most to us, like health insurance and retirement benefits. Rarely do the big systems, the ones hiring the most adjuncts, give these kinds of perks to any individual adjunct if they don't give them to all adjuncts. Granted, adjuncts in business schools or other flush areas of the university are given higher salaries or other perks because of their clout in the outside business world. In that instance, the department thinks itself fortunate to have them for a semester, and pays them accordingly. But that is not the case for most adjuncts.
Given this hard reality, what can we adjuncts hope to get, and how do we go about getting it?
Some things we should get regardless of adjunct status simply because we can't otherwise do our job: adequate classrooms, space to hold office hours, a mailbox, access to a telephone, copying privileges, basic office supplies, and vehicle parking are not even "perks" -- they are job necessities. Also in this category is any particular equipment, furniture, or storage necessary for your class (e.g. storage space for student artwork if you teach an applied fine arts class). Adjuncts shouldn't even sign the contract if those things aren't provided, unless of course they aren't provided to the full-time faculty members either.
All of which brings me to my first negotiating tip: Find out what comes with the job before you sign the contract. Have a full battery of questions ready for the hiring administrator so that you are clear on what you're getting, what is lacking, and what perhaps can be supplied if it's lacking. Bringing these things up in the initial hiring interview gives you the chance to back out of a bad situation, or to get some things fixed for yourself and other adjuncts in the process. Believe it or not (it's actually not that hard to believe), many institutions hire adjuncts without anyone giving any thought whatsoever to the basic needs that must be met for adjuncts to do their jobs. At any rate, be assertive and make sure that the basic job needs are met; otherwise you are in for a semester of trouble if you sign the contract anyway.
Adjuncts should also try to get additional "perks" outside the basic necessities. You may not get them, but it doesn't hurt to ask. And the more that adjuncts ask, the more likely it is that these benefits will move from the "perk" to the "necessity" category. Included here are university e-mail accounts, reduced parking fees or mass-transit tokens, additional office space (even to share with other adjuncts), and consideration for teaching awards.
(Before I go on, let me just take this opportunity to say that I think it is absolutely appalling that most of the major teaching awards, both on the national and institutional level, do not admit adjuncts to the competition. Adjuncts teach nearly half the courses offered in higher education in any given semester, we are hired exclusively to teach, and because of this we are some of the best teachers to ever set foot on a campus. Yet when it comes to dishing out the teaching awards, adjuncts routinely are overlooked. The full-time faculty members who win these awards need not feel proud of their "accomplishment" since they didn't have to compete with the primary teaching professionals in academe. Unless they include adjuncts, teaching awards are a total sham and should be exposed as such. OK, now back to my story.)
The best approach is to find out from your office administrator whom to ask about these perks, and then approach that person directly. Sometimes all it takes is an appeal from one adjunct -- or even better, from several -- to raise awareness of a problem.
The group approach succeeded a few years ago for those of us who work in the University of Houston system. I was one of many adjuncts who worked for several of the system's campuses, all of which considered themselves independent entities and had separate parking regulations. Adjuncts wound up paying for parking privileges at all of the separate institutions (which was quite expensive), while the full-time faculty members at one of the institutions could park at any of the others with their "home" parking sticker. Several adjuncts complained together about this financial hardship, and while it took several semesters, eventually the problem was fixed: Adjuncts can now buy one "home" sticker and park free at the other campuses.
We were fortunate to have a sympathetic full-time faculty member on our side. In instances where this is not the case, you have to be more persistent or go up the chain of command. Find out who you need to approach -- often it's a full-time faculty member who is leading a committee that oversees parking policies, benefits issues, or other matters -- and approach that person or that committee directly.
The key here is to be firm, but professional, in your requests. Appeal via a letter or e-mail message, then follow up with a face-to-face visit, either to the individual faculty member or the entire committee. If you get no results, work your way up the chain of command -- but be careful. Anything short of unqualified professionalism in tone and manner could put your job at risk. Is this right? No. But it's reality, and we have to live in the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. You want these committees to view you as reasonable, convincing, and deserving, not as whining, griping, or threatening. This is spin. Remember last month's advice about paying attention to your image. I know it's galling, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Finally, there's the category of perks called "what you probably won't get, but might ask for anyway." Included in this category are health insurance, retirement plans, extended contracts, research money, and other benefits accorded to full-time faculty members. The problem is that institutions hire scads of adjuncts precisely because they don't have to provide them these kinds of things. Therefore, adjuncts face a tough sell to obtain them. If you work in a private institution, rather than a big public system, your chances are better. Private, top-tier universities hire adjuncts to teach courses their stars won't teach; usually, they are not looking for adjuncts to improve the bottom line, as are the big public systems. Therefore, adjuncts with several semesters of good service in these private institutions may have better luck in getting insurance coverage or other perks. Outside this, though, individual adjuncts most likely are out of luck. Here, collective action, rather than individual appeal, has a better chance. However, it's often difficult to organize and, since the market in many areas is glutted with potential adjuncts, those who collectively bargain can be replaced if they get too demanding.
So, adjuncts might consider trying to finagle the perks in this category from outside sources. Set up independent retirement or savings accounts. Buy major medical health-insurance policies. Although they aren't as comprehensive as other policies, they are less expensive and will cover you in the event of a major illness. If any of your income is reported on 1099 forms rather than W2's, the costs of these accounts and plans may be tax deductible. Join teacher credit unions to get other benefits in financial planning. Scout around for grants or research support from independent sources in your discipline, region, or area of specialty.
If you think about it, getting these benefits on your own has a kind of silver lining. The next time your institution expects you to show up for a meeting or asks you to do something outside your adjunct job description (isn't it amazing what they think they can get away with?), remind them of what they don't provide for you, and that they haven't paid for the right to ask these things of you. If they threaten to fire you, well, at least you won't be losing your health insurance. You'll just lose the piddling money they pay you in the first place.
We adjuncts have to look out for ourselves because our institutions aren't going to. We must demand what we need, ask for what we want, and get what they don't give us on our own if necessary. Getting more of what we want is usually possible if we're persistent, opportunistic, and creative.
