Adjuncts at American U. Vote to Unionize

Adjunct faculty members at American University have voted, 379 to 284, to unionize, according to a memo posted online on Thursday by the university’s provost, Scott A. Bass. The vote on unionization came even though the university’s Faculty Senate was seeking ways to improve conditions for adjuncts, and the university had already afforded an exceptional number of rights and privileges to one group of contingent faculty members not covered by the new union: full-time, “term” faculty who work on renewable contracts. Advocates for unionization argued that the remaining adjuncts needed to move ahead on their own to try to contractually guarantee for themselves job protections and privileges not yet offered as a matter of policy. In his memo Provost Bass said the university “respects the choice of its adjunct faculty to have union representation and, therefore, will not file any legal challenges to the election’s results.”