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Three years ago a group of VCU adjuncts began lobbying for cost-of-living related pay increases, trying to raise base pay for adjunct to $2000/credit. Their request was acknowledged, studied, compromised upon to $1600/credit. We are still at a base pay of $1100/credit at VCU. (1)
VCU has justified cuts university-wide throughout 2020 and into 2021 on the grounds that we need to be austere in times of crisis to stay afloat. We recently learned that VCU has an endowment of $1 billion. (2)
We know that adjuncts don't get health insurance and that we sometimes die of if it. We're now in a global pandemic. In the fall, I was told that if I didn't teach in person in one of my departments, I wouldn't work. (3) https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/04/adjunct-professors-higher-education-thea-hunter/586168/
When, exactly, is it time to break into the endowment? Would we rather be a school that has a smaller endowment, or a school that continues to pay its uninsured faculty so poorly that they (it's me, I'm they) struggle to afford even the cheapest ACA plans? (4)
Please consider signing our letter demanding that base pay be raised to $3,000/credit (which, if we teach full-time, would bring us aaaaaaalmost to what VCU typically pays a new full-time hire) and that we be allowed to use the VCU clinics. http://bit.ly/vcu-aofp (5)
If you say to yourself, reading these demands, "but *I* am at VCU and don't get these things"--you should get these things! I will fight for you to get them! None of us should be below this very reasonable minimum. In a crisis, we should protect those who need it most. (6)
DM me if you want to know more about how you can help. We'll need people all semester. In conclusion:
Postscript: follow the org @VCUadjuncts !
