Official Offers Harsh Critique of Policies Toward Adjuncts

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, long criticized for its workplace policies, is a “more-honest employer” of part-time workers than colleges that employ thousands of adjunct faculty members. That was the harsh message delivered to a group of college human-resources officials here on Monday by one of their own: Angelo-Gene Monaco, associate vice president for human resources and employee relations at the University of Akron.

Mr. Monaco’s presentation was a rare airing of such a controversial topic at an annual meeting of a higher-education association. Such meetings are typically plain-vanilla affairs that closely follow a script. In this case, the meeting was of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, and Mr. Monaco didn’t hold back in his critique of how poorly most colleges treat adjunct professors. He filled his presentation with examples drawn from surveys he has conducted, and his own experience as both an administrator and a consultant.

“We helped create a highly educated part of the working poor, and it’s starting to get attention from outsiders,” he said, noting that unions are trying to organize part-timers, and lawmakers in nearly a dozen states are examining the issue.

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