Campus Equity Week Toolkit
Ideas and tools for campus education and activism

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Dignity and Respect for Part-Timers

OCTOBER 24-28, 2022

Campus Equity Week is a time of education and activism that draws attention to the working conditions of faculty working on temporary, low-paid contracts, who now constitute the majority of college instructors. In general, the time to plan actions is during the last two weeks of October. 

Officially, the date for Campus Equity Week is October 24-28, but what’s more important is that campus communities (faculty, students, staff, and administrators) to get the word out this fall before the budget and legislative process begin.

This toolkit compiled by the CFT Part-Time Faculty Committee contains materials to plan activities in your local union. Make it happen at your campus!

SIGNS & FLYERS

The following resources have been provided by the AFT for Campus Equity Week and other campus actions.

RALLY SIGNS

These rally signs are 17 inches x 11 inches. There are four message signs and one blank sign. The message signs also have a blank back for local messaging if you desire.

FLYERS

This series of flyers is based on the AFT’s 2019 nationwide survey of contingent faculty — the Contingent Faculty Quality of Life Survey. The 52-question survey was completed by 3,076 contingent faculty — part-time faculty, full-time non-tenure track faculty, and graduate employees. AFT was able to draw some robust conclusions about the conditions faced by this new majority of college faculty in the United States. Read our story about the survey results. 

FOR FACULTY

Letters

Call for volunteers, generic
Campus Equity Week, generic

Articles

Crossing the divide: The conversation that adjunct and full-time faculty need to have

FOR STUDENTS

Resources to Circulate to Students

Myths about college degrees and the jobs economy  | Changing Universities
The $15 minimum wage is a moral imperative | 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers East
The effects of contingency on student success and the professoriate| Peer Review
The danger of telling poor kids that college is the key to social mobility | The Atlantic
Underpaid and restless | The Chronicles of Higher Education
Why don't American students strike?  | The Nation
Why it's so hard for the poor to get ahead today | The Atlantic
CSU hurts students by hiring too many part-time lecturers | The Sacramento Bee

Resources for Working with Student Groups

Sample Poster

Adjunct Faculty Working Conditions Poster

Sample Button
Campus Equity Week (button art)

Ten Action Items

NEWSROOM

News articles about the issues of part-time faculty.

Adjuncts and Poverty

Adjuncts and the affordable healthcare act| American Association of Community Colleges
The professor charity case | Pacific Standard
The highly educated working poor adjunct professors| jimhightower.com
Vermont students, workers object to tuition dollars being used to fund poverty wages|truthout.org
Your college professor could be on public assistance| NBCNews.com

Corporatization

Instead of a war on teachers, how about one on poverty| Salon.com
Unethical Academia | Huffington-Post.com
Who are these unsung heroes of academe?| Current Issues in Education
Who is Professor Staff And How Can this Person teach So Many Classes | Center for the Future of Higher Education
Who Needs Faculty?| Campaign for the Future of Higher Education

Denial of Rights and Respect

How to screw an adjunct, Part I
Part-time school, college staff may lose state health benefits | The Seattle Times
University adjuncts are often denied a share of shared governance, study finds | The Chronicle of High Education

Plotting a Course

The way forward: It gets complicated

Women and Adjunctification

Why women leave academia and why universities should be worried | Guardian Professional

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Fighting Labor Contingency: Getting Teacher Unions to Work with the Larger Labor Community