Ninety-Five Adjuncts met on November 17 at the Rutgers Labor Education Center to hold a Solidarity Conference, sponsored by United Adjunct Faculty of New Jersey (UAFNJ), a state-wide federated local representing 3,600 adjuncts at 10 New Jersey community colleges. In addition to UAFNJ members, adjuncts from Rutgers, College Council state college and university four-year schools and some unaffiliated colleges attended.
The conference focused on building skills and working on plans to improve the position of adjunct faculty. Workshop subjects included ones devoted to the Post Election World, Marketing Oneself for a Full-time Faculty Position, Teaching Online, Technology in the Classroom, Negotiations, Community Outreach and the Media, and Classroom Management. The presenters were all experts in their field. The response to the workshops was overwhelmingly positive. Pete Guzzo and Seth Oberman, who led the Post-Election Workshop, found the participants to be enthusiastic. Pete Guzzo commented, “One thing that jumped out at me was the ‘thirst’ of the participants to participate as much as they can (given time constraints teaching) in developing a legislative agenda that benefits adjuncts.” He suggested that the adjuncts follow up with a “Lobby Day at the State Legislature in Trenton.
The highlights of the afternoon program included speeches by leaders from New Jersey United Students (NJUS) and the keynote speech by Josh Boldt, an adjunct writing instructor from the University of Georgia. Boldt spoke about the new face of contingent faculty and the role of adjunct and non-tenure track faculty.