Campus Equity Week, an international campaign to raise awareness of financial inequality on college campuses, came to Syracuse University for the first time this week with bags of apples placed around the school.

The week is hosted by Adjuncts United, SU’s part-time workers union, to bring attention to the fiscal problems that face colleges around the country, including underpaid staff. Nationally, about 75 percent of teaching faculty is underpaid, said Laurel Morton, Adjuncts United president.

The organization placed baskets of apples around campus with signs attached, featuring messages such as “Campus equity now,” and advertised the apples as “food for thought.”

Some of the issues that are being brought to the attention of students include pay scales for part-time faculty members, the increase in the number of contingent contracts — as opposed to tenure track positions — and rising student loan debt, Morton added.

Morton, who is also a part-time professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, said the apples serve as a way for students to talk about inequity issues on college campuses.

Matthew Huber, an assistant professor of geography in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said students are encouraged to give the apples to their teachers as a sign of appreciation for their work.

Huber said many students simply are not aware of whether their teachers are on the tenure track or are “low paid, part-time instructors.”  He added that once students learn about these inequalities, they can push the administration to make changes.  He also suggested that students speak to their parents about campus inequity.

The movement began in 2001 on California community college campuses.  The program has since spread across the country, with schools such as Michigan State, Rutgers University, State University of New York schools and California State schools taking part.  The movement has also spread to Canada as well, according to the Campus Equity Week website.

Huber said inequity issues have recently garnered more attention on campus.

Huber is the leader of the Labor Studies Group, which brings together faculty and students to do research and call attention to labor issues, he said. Last spring, Huber said, the group held a symposium called the “Crisis of Academic Labor,” which generated interest in the hardships of underpaid faculty on campus.

“Most faculty are not paid adequately; nearly 75 percent are part-time or temporary in order to artificially depress all faculty salaries,” said Craig Flanery, Campus Equity Week national coordinator, in an email.  Huber added that these faculty members usually get paid by the course, often as little as $2,500 for each one.

Morton said the union has also been reaching out to graduate students who work for full-time professors to network with the university about the issues that they might face.

Said Morton: “I think that this is an important opportunity for campuses not to miss, because it’s such a big issue, a big, big topic, and not talking about issues that you feel you cannot solve does nothing but put them off.”

Published on October 30, 2013 at 12:41 am

Contact Zach: zdschwei@syr.edu