Part-time vs. Full-time: The debate around who can join a faculty union
Kyle Land | April 18Why is full-time and part-time faculty organizing together such a controversy? This debate has dominated nearly all conversation around faculty unions in the U.S., which have grown in frequency the past few years. Around 35 percent of all public colleges and universities have some sort of faculty union. The University of New Mexico is experiencing the same controversy now. Their response to a petition from the proposed union — United Academics of UNM (UA-UNM) — recommended rejecting the possibility of a union. This is partly because UNM considers adjunct and other part-time faculty to not be “regular, non-probationary employees,” a category they say the Public Employees Labor Relations Act forbids part-time faculty from unionizing.




















