Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decade, faculty at University of Southern California have become increasingly concerned at the direction the administration is taking the institution: addition or cancellation of teaching appointments at the last minute, lack of transparency in dealings with faculty and students and as the result lack of knowldege students might receive during lectures and more and more turn for the help of persuasive essays writers, reduction of tenured faculty and consolidation or elimination of departmental chairs, directors or heads are just a few of the conditions that USC faculty have been unable to effectively resist without representation. We have no real job security, and in many cases, no clear program for advancement, despite the fact that some of us have been teaching at USC for years or even decades.

USC depends on a large group of highly trained, committed, non-tenure track faculty like us. While our official job titles vary by school and department – Lecturer, Assistant, Associate or Full Professor (Teaching), Adjunct, Visiting Faculty, Professor (Teaching) – we are, all of us, contingent faculty. Therefore, our employment status remains tenuous, which results in our academic freedom being compromised.

For those of us teaching as full-time faculty with year or multi-year contracts, our contracts state that we are not eligible to be considered for tenure, and that non-tenure-track appointments are subject to early termination, while those of us who have semester-to-semester contracts can regularly expect to be unemployed every summer. Regardless of the number of years we’ve been employed by USC, we can never depend on the job security our tenured colleagues enjoy.

And it’s not just job security. As contingent faculty, we’re paid a fraction of what tenured and tenure-track faculty earn – even when teaching the same courses, have reduced access to professional activities, and are disenfranchised from full participation in faculty governance. It is hard to plan one’s life without a clear expectation, much less guarantee, of continued employment. As at-will employees, we lack the pay, benefits and privileges, access to campus resources, and professional growth opportunities our tenure-track colleagues have. Now, USC faculty are standing up for dignity and a voice in our working conditions.

As USC Rossier’s own Delphi Project report “Non-Tenure-Track Faculty in Our Department: A Guide for Departments and Academic Programs to Better Understand Faculty Working Conditions and Necessity of Change” states:

Changes in the composition of the American professoriate toward a mostly contingent workforce are raising important questions about poor working conditions for non-tenure-track faculty and connections between these conditions and student learning outcomes. Numerous studies have found the negative working conditions of these faculty to negatively impact student retention, transfer from two- to four-year institutions, and graduation or completion rates. Growing reliance on non-tenure-track faculty who receive little support and whose working conditions place limits on what they can do to support students is impacting student learning and success. The core of our educational missions is at risk if we do not make changes.

We have been impressed by the gains made by contingent faculty at other private universities through unionization, including American University, Georgetown University, Tufts University, and George Washington University. Forming a union has allowed them to achieve considerable pay increases, improved job security, better processes for teaching assignment, fair and transparent evaluations, access to benefits, routes to advancement, and a platform for their voices to be heard.

The USC Mission is “the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit.” But we the faculty have not seen this pledge borne out. On the contrary, we have witnessed a steady erosion of USC’s commitment to its students and to the Southern Californian community. We believe that unionization allows us to be visible models of our own mission statement for our students.

In addition to organizing at USC, contingent faculty at other California-based colleges – including California College of the Arts, Mills College, and Otis College – have all successfully organized. Faculty across California are coming together with the goal that the contingent academic labor force will cease to be a passive and vulnerable majority workforce for the institutions we serve.

This semester you may be approached by a colleague or by a union organizer. We encourage you to join us in our movement to gain a voice for contingent faculty here at USC and across the nation. For more information on our organizing effort here, visit our website http://facultyforwardla.org

Very Best,

Your Colleagues on the USC Organizing Committee

We, the undersigned, support the right of contingent faculty at the University of Southern California to form their union. We ask that administration remain neutral and not use student tuition funds or other college resources to oppose the unionization effort; and we pledge to speak out against any intimidation or retaliation that may be a result of contingent faculty invoking their right to organize.

Latest Signatures

145	Alex Zukas		Feb 04, 2016
144	Ixchell Reyes	USC	Jan 18, 2016
143	Herbert Meiselman	Medicine	Nov 24, 2015
142	Laura Taylor		Nov 24, 2015
141	Ian Besler	USC	Nov 05, 2015
140	Ann Morgan	Dornsife	Oct 28, 2015
139	Nathaniel Heneghan		Oct 27, 2015
138	John D Swain	Dornsife	Oct 26, 2015
137	Dina Jadallah	USC	Oct 20, 2015
136	Linzi Juliano		Oct 19, 2015
135	Oliver Rizk		Oct 16, 2015
134	Meridith Kruse	Dornsife	Oct 16, 2015
133	Emily Zeamer	Los Angeles	Oct 09, 2015
132	Tom Buderwitz	USC	Oct 01, 2015
131	Alexis clark		Sep 28, 2015
130	Jan Breidenbach	Price School of Public Policy	Sep 28, 2015
129	Dave OBrien	Cinematic Arts	Sep 22, 2015
128	Ava Rose	Social Work	Sep 19, 2015
127	Trond Sigurdsen	USC	Sep 15, 2015
126	Andrew Borba	USC	Sep 07, 2015
125	Maura Brewer		Sep 06, 2015
124	Vianey Cabrera	Dornsife	Sep 04, 2015
123	alex yufik		Aug 28, 2015
122	Nicole Maccalla	USC	Aug 13, 2015
121	Valery Augustin	USC	Aug 12, 2015
120	Barbara Osborn	Annenberg	Jul 29, 2015
119	Esther Margulies	Architecture	Jul 24, 2015
118	Rachel Ward		Jul 22, 2015
117	Luis Paulo Oliveira	Dornsife	Jul 20, 2015
116	Sean Mullin	SCA	Jul 17, 2015
115	Lauren Murphy		Jul 16, 2015
114	Satinder Hawkins		Jul 15, 2015
113	Nicole Niederdeppe	Rossier	Jul 14, 2015
112	JoAnn Turovsky		Jul 07, 2015
111	Maura Crowley	Dornsife	Jul 02, 2015
110	Carla Trinh		Jun 26, 2015
109	Chrisshonna Nieva		Jun 23, 2015
108	David Balkan	SCA	Jun 20, 2015
107	Kevin Arks die	USC	Jun 19, 2015
106	Mary Posatko	USC	Jun 12, 2015
105	David Brind	USC	Jun 05, 2015
104	Paul Babin	Cinema	May 18, 2015
103	John Murray	Dornsife	May 15, 2015
102	Erika Nanes		May 14, 2015
101	Mark Marino	Dornsife	May 14, 2015
100	Stephanie Bower		May 14, 2015
99	William Feuer	La Crescenta	May 14, 2015
98	Matthew Manson	Dornsife	May 14, 2015
97	Anne DeSalvo	USC	May 05, 2015
96	Jody Zellen		May 04, 2015
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