Several weeks ago, amid the fanfare and spectacle of AFT 2024 national Convention in Houston, with presumptive Democratic Nominee Kamala Harris coming to speak before the first national union to endorse here, what may have slipped the attention of many was AFT Higher Ed’s Launch of its “Real Solutions for Higher Ed Campaign.”
The campaign, the general outline of which can be seen here, is essentially calling for AFT higher ed locals, and their respective federations, hopefully in conjunction with other higher ed advocacy groups to, press for funding and legislation to promote or protect higher ed affordability, access, and academic freedom, with addressing academic contingency, or more accurately, academic precarity as a component.
Academic contingency/precarity’s connection to Real Solution’s three main directives is as follows. Higher ed unaffordability reduces enrollment and the first workers to subsequently lose their jobs are contingent/adjunct, or so called “part-time” instructors, often referred to by a myriad obfuscating terms like “visiting professor,” or “lecturer.” (Think of how the lower tier worker Target is called an “associate”).
At the same time, access in turn affects also enrollment. The issue of academic freedom, whose recent urgency of concern has been tied pointed political attacks in states like Georgia and Florida, and at the same time, the sanctioning of academics for speaking out on issues regarding the Israel/Gaza conflict is on its face on academia in general. However, what is lost in this view is that approximately 75% of higher ed faculty do not enjoy the protections of tenure, and that as such, academic freedom is sadly the privilege of a few, and one which, administrators, seeing academic freedom’s tenuous hold, are happy to disallow in favor of striking down unpopular views.
It’s hard to engage in contract enforcement and legislative efforts to preserve it when protections are unequal, and thus solidarity is weakened.
The urgency of the “Real Solutions” Campaign is underscored by this very inconvenient truth—higher ed is the most endangered sector of public education in this country, and academic contingency/precarity is either reflective of this, or in fact a partial cause.
Make no mistake, AFT, along with other educational unions’ endorsement of Harris, and her subsequent election are essential in the face of the clear existential threat of second trump administration, and prospect of the enactment of Project 2025 proposals, meaning a rollback of Title IX, DEI policies, and a dissolution of the Department of education.
Recently, AFT Randi Weingarten, acting upon resolution passed unanimously at 2022 AFT Convention in Boston, wrote a letter date June 17th to the US Department of Education calling for a study and publication of a study on adjunct/contingent faculty pay and benefit inequity. It has apparently been well-received. A Harris administration is far more likely to act upon it than one lead by Trump.
Yet that said, higher ed advocates need to do more than simply get Harris elected in that just 14% of higher ed funding comes from federal revenues. Academic freedom, while to a degree protected by the Federal Courts, is generally enforced at the institutional level. This necessarily compels local educational unions and their state or system-wide affiliates to act.
It was on the final day of the convention, post-Harris speaking euphoria, that two important high ed resolutions, one specifically in support of the “Real Solutions for Higher Ed Campaign,” and the other, calling for higher ed control of “Dual Enrollment” (College curriculum taught in secondary school settings were passed with somewhat limited discussion in spite of Weingarten informing the body of the need to fully understand why such resolutions need to be passed.
While the people who wrote and advocated for these resolutions appreciate their importance, it’s not clear how well that carried over to the other convention attendees who may be the only one in their local and affiliates who hear of them. Further, while it is understandable that many folks, think about making to airports for flights home were distracted, this does not diminish the need for higher ed locals to truly work towards and build within their own locals and affiliates campaigns working in the spirit of Real Solutions.
Often it is put upon national staff to help lead the charge, but their resources are limited, and therefore it is incumbent for locals and affiliates to make the Real Solutions campaign more that well-meaning sloganeering. Part of this can be achieved by drawing form the efforts made by AFT locals and affiliates from state-to-state, and AFT has published a document detailing such efforts.
In my state of California, 2/3rds of community college students suffer from various basic needs insecurity, and at the same time 2/3rds of those students can only attend part-time, and are thus unable to benefit from the tuition relief provided by the California Community College Grant. Similarly, roughly 2/3rd of California community college work off the tenure track, subject to lower wages and limited benefits. AFT itself has established in previous surveys that up 25% of these faculty are receiving some form of government assistance. One need only look at concerns expressed this past Spring at UCLA to see fears regarding academic freedom are real.
The Real Solutions campaign needs to be substantive, and it needs to be sustained past 2024 and beyond. Higher ed and those who both serve it and are served by it deserve nothing less.
Geoff Johnson, President
American Federation of Teachers Adjunct/Contingent Caucus
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