njit adjunct rally

By Adam Clark, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Eight months after forming a union, adjunct professors at New Jersey Institute of Technology have negotiated higher pay and an internal path to potentially becoming full-time professors.

The new contract, approved this week by union membership, includes raising the current $1,300 per credit minimum pay to $1,500. Compensation will rise to a minimum of $1,550 per credit in the fall, a nearly 20 percent raise and $750 increase for teaching a three-credit course.

The raises comes as adjuncts, also known as part-time professors or lectures, nationwide are fighting to improve low pay, meager benefits and little job security at major universities.

“This is historic,” said Jeff Reaves, an adjunct professor of engineering at NJIT in Newark. “For the first time NJIT adjunct faculty have the same protections as many of the rest of our NJIT fellow workers.”

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