By Steve Brier

It is important for us to remember, as members of a university community, that this is also a workplace, a place where people labor in “traditional” jobs like building maintenance, skilled trades like engineering and carpentry, food service, and, of course, as intellectual workers who teach and do research. Most of the workers in the former group are covered by union contracts and enjoy a modicum of protection in terms of their wages and working conditions. The most exploited members of the latter group — contingent or adjunct teachers — are the low wage worker base upon which much of the teaching responsibility in the contemporary university (especially in large, public institutions like CUNY) rests. Continue reading National Adjunct Walkout Day →