Alejandro Covarrubias was told by his department chair in 2013 that he would soon be let go from his lecturer position in the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies. He initially accepted the news without protest.
“I thought that this was the way things went and that there was nothing I could do about it,” he said.
After talking with a representative from the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents lecturers and other contingent faculty working for the University of California, Covarrubias said he thinks he was being let go because of a process the union calls “churning.” Churning is when a department tries to stop hiring lecturers who are near an 18-quarter threshold, after which they are eligible for a continual contract following an evaluation. A continual contract means that a lecturer does not need to renew their contract term by term.
National Adjunct Walkout Day, an event held on college campuses across the nation Wednesday to inform people about the struggles of adjunct faculty, is meant to highlight stories like that of Covarrubias.
Adjunct faculty are mainly lecturers, who are hired term by term. They focus on teaching and are not typically involved in university research or academic work, unlike tenure-track faculty. The 18-quarter threshold is part of an agreement between the union and the UC.
In 2013, the union filed a grievance for Covarrubias under the grounds that the department attempted to preclude access to a continuing appointment, which would be a violation of the contract between lecturers and the UC, said Holly Craig-Wehrle, the UCLA field representative for University Council-AFT.
After several rounds of back and forth between the union and the department, Covarrubias was not let go, and he was allowed to teach. The department could not be reached for comment on this story.
“It was a tough situation, and I needed my UCLA position to make ends meet,” he said.
Shelly Meron, a UC spokeswoman, said according to the contract between lecturers and the UC, the University will not engage in activities or establish practices and programs that preclude pre-six-year lecturers’ access to continuing appointments. The University gave salary increases to lecturers and a higher pay scale to employees on a continuing contract for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years, Meron said.
UCLA spokespeople referred to UC media relations for all claims made by the union.
Bill Quirk, an associate director of University Council-AFT, said that the idea for the walkout day started when a lecturer from San Jose State University suggested it on Facebook. Various groups, such as union and advocacy groups, eventually picked it up, Quirk said.
Quirk said while lecturers at other universities may do an actual walkout, no lecturers canceled their classes at the UC. He said the collective bargaining agreement between the lecturers and the UC prohibits lecturers from staging a walkout or holding a strike.
Instead, he said University Council-AFT held events on each of the UC campuses to inform students about some of the issues that adjunct faculty face.
At UCLA, a group of about 20 students, teaching assistants and lecturers formed a circle in front of Powell Library as part of a “teach-in” to educate students about the issues that lecturers face. Speeches were made by lecturers and graduate students, many of whom become lecturers.
Thea Sircar, a graduate student in political science, said at the event that she thinks the current system burdens lecturers with heavy workloads and low wages.
Goetz Wolff, the president of the UCLA chapter of University Council-AFT and a lecturer in urban planning, said he thinks lecturers have less job security and are paid an unfairly low salary.
The average annualized salary for lecturers in University Council-AFT is $69,000 for the entire UC and $75,000 for UCLA, Meron said. The minimum salary for a tenured professor in the UC is $81,800. Meron also said many lecturers do not have 100 percent appointment time, and this reduces their pay.
Craig-Wehrle said at the event that the union is working to get Social Security benefits for more adjunct faculty.
Wolff said 58 percent of the lecturers who are members of University Council-AFT at UCLA do not get any Social Security or health benefits because they work less than 50 percent of the total instruction time set by their department.
Tobias Higbie, an associate professor of history, said he thinks the issues of lecturers are part of a national trend. The number of lecturers in University Council-AFT in the UC increased from about 2,510 in 2005 to about 3,120 now. At UCLA, the number of lecturers in University Council-AFT increased from about 550 in 2005 to about 610 now.
“Lecturers or non-tenured faculty have been an increasingly large proportion of teaching faculty at universities across the nation, and this is because departments are facing pressure from the top to cut costs,” Higbie said.
UCLA officials have said the university has hired more part-time lecturers instead of full-time faculty in recent years because of the recession and cuts in state funds.
Contributing reports by Edward Pedroza, Bruin contributor.