Catherwood LibraryILR School

Responding to the conditions described as "intellectual sweatshops" that the part-time professors who make up an increasing percentage of college and university faculties work under, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the American Association of University Professors, and other faculty and education groups plan to stage demonstrations at campuses across the country this week. A recent report by the Department of Education revealed that fifty-three percent of colleges and universities do not provide benefits to adjunct faculty---who between 1987 and 1998 have increased by ten percent as a proportion of faculty members nationwide. A study made public by the AFT this week found that eighty percent of part-time faculty members do not receive health or retirement benefits, and that seventy-two percent of them make less than $20,000 a year.