Inside Higher Ed
January 12th, 2015
A regular complaint of many adjuncts is that they perform their jobs well year after year, only to lose them when positions are converted to the tenure track. When that happens, they report, colleges order national searches and typically reject the person who has been working hard on their behalf for years.
Last week, however, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the faculty union for the university system, released an arbitrator's decision ordering the University of Hawaii-West Oahu to rehire a longtime adjunct into a tenure-track position. University union leaders say the contract provision on which the arbitrator ruled (and the union's advocacy on behalf of the adjunct) show that there are concrete ways unions and colleges can provide more job security to long-term, successful non-tenure-track faculty members. A statement from the union called the arbitrator's ruling "historic," and said many other adjuncts could benefit over time.