Adjuncts at One Maryland College See Union as Way to Get Seat at the Table

Adjunct faculty members at the Maryland Institute College of Art are preparing for a union election in which they will decide whether to join Local 500 of the Service Employees International Union. Organizers among the institute’s adjuncts, who say they earn about $4,000 a course, hope to join 2,400 other part-time professors at colleges in Maryland and the District of Columbia who are represented by the union. The SEIU is making a push to help adjuncts gain power through regional organizing efforts. Three of the faculty organizers—Joshua Wade Smith, Katherine Kavanaugh, and John Barry—discuss how they came to that decision and some of the gains they hope to achieve.

Video by Julia Schmalz