On August 25, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis was a guest on National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation.” In response to a question from a part-time faculty member who called in to the program, the secretary said that she “think[s] the continuance of involvement on the part of part-time faculty members . . . is a legitimate issue and should be looked at. Because as it stands, you also find that that faculty member is not as inclined to stay committed to those groups of students that they do teach because they’re off to different—other—what they call, freeway traveling or teaching because they’re going to find wherever they can get their salary paid. And it’s unfortunate that that’s what it’s kind of turned to.”

As innocuous as this may sound, Solis’s response nonetheless “worried some activists concerned about contingent faculty working conditions” enough to spur the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) into action. Within days, the AFT had sought and received clarification from the secretary: “I certainly was not implying that adjuncts are not committed to their students, or that they are anything other than excellent educators.” Read the rest of this entry »