Adjuncting

"Material Conditions: Adjuncting & Wellness": A Cleveland Humanities Festival Event

The CSU Poetry Center is hosting an online event as part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival, whose 2023 theme is “Wellness.” On Thursday April 27 at 4 pm Eastern Time, find us on Zoom, no registration required: https://tinyurl.com/AdjunctingNEO

According to the 2022 Contingent Faculty Survey conducted by the American Federation of Teachers, “75% of faculty [nationally] are not eligible for tenure and 47% hold part-time positions.” Fewer than 50 percent of the respondents reported having employer-provided health insurance, most make well under $4,000 per class, and only 20 percent report being able to comfortably cover basic monthly expenses. When we discuss “wellness” in academic and community contexts, who is included in that conversation? What is wellness if not healthcare, livable wages, predictable schedules, and on-the-job resources—none of which are available to most part-time faculty? This hour will be dedicated to a conversation about adjunct issues and futures. We will discuss the current conditions of adjuncting in northeast Ohio; national movements toward unionization, higher wages, and workers’ rights; and ways our specific academic communities might contribute to the wellbeing of this ever-growing faculty population via amplification, resource sharing, activism, and job creation.