B4 eZ re THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAy, MARCH 19 , 2020
colleges in florida where adjunct
instructors in the past year filed
to join the Service Employees
International Union to improve
working conditions.
Part-time faculty throughout
higher education have made
headway in securing paid leave
and health insurance through
collective bargaining, although
experts say they still have a long
road ahead. Sick-leave provisions
have become more common in
adjunct contracts at public col-
leges than private universities,
according to the National Center
for the Study of Collective Bar-
gaining in Higher Education and
the Professions at Hunter Col-
lege.
“Some schools have been
forced to provide more security
for their adjuncts because of the
pushback from students and oth-
er faculty,” said mark Gaston
Pearce, executive director of the
Workers right Institute at
Georgetown University Law.
“You’re going to see more of that.”
Pearce, a former chairman of
the National Labor relations
Board, compared the plight of
adjuncts to graduate student
workers who also fight for fair
compensation and benefits. Con-
tingent faculty — a classification
that includes part-time adjuncts,
full-time instructors who aren’t
on a tenure track and graduate
student workers — account for
nearly three-quarters of instruc-
tional staff in higher education
but are largely invisible and eco-
nomically vulnerable in times of
crisis.
“What the virus is showing...
are the holes in the safety net and
the social fabric of our country,”
said randi Weingarten, president
of the American federation of
Te achers. “A djuncts are basically
highly educated people who are
just making it paycheck to pay-
check.”
[email protected]sources that are available to the
full-time people, whether it’s fac-
ulty and staff, and you’re reflect-
ing on your own position. You’re
saying to yourself, they have all of
this and I don’t,” Kim said. “This
is a moment that is really ampli-
fying that full-time versus part-
time status.”
La Salle University spokesman
Christopher A. Vito said the
school is “taking measures amid
these extraordinary circumstanc-
es to remain as nimble as possible
and ensure we are caring for our
community.” The university, he
said, will review all cases on an
individual basis.
Te resa Greene, 73, who has
taught psychology since 2006 at
Valencia College in orlando, said
there has been no discussion
about the parameters of the leave
policy for part-time instructors at
her school.
“The one message we got from
the provost of the college was all
about how we can accommodate
our students... which is rightly
our concern, but not one word
about faculty,” Greene said. “Not
one word about what will happen
if they have to miss class.”
Adjuncts earn a half-hour of
emergency leave for every hour in
the classroom at Valencia, but
only once a term. Someone who
teaches a three-hour course, for
instance, would be entitled to 1.5
hours of paid leave for the entire
semester. The time off is not
cumulative and does not roll over
to the following term, said
Greene, who would like some
flexibility in the policy.
Valencia spokeswoman Carol
Traynor said: “Should a part-time
faculty member become ill and
need to self-isolate, we would
work directly with that faculty
member and the dean to deter-
mine how best to support the
individual through the illness or
isolation period.”
Valencia is one of seven statemaryland. “We didn’t want to see
employees feel like they would
end up in a bad economic situa-
tion if they didn’t come to work.”
Adjuncts at some universities
say that while they are sympa-
thetic to the pressure administra-
tors are under, they are disap-
pointed in the lack of communi-
cation with part-time faculty in
the midst of this health crisis.
At La Salle University in Phila-
delphia, theology instructor Dan-
iel reginald S. Kim said the
roman Catholic school has dis-
cussed only the benefits afforded
to full-time faculty during the
outbreak. La Salle provides part-
time employees who work a mini-
mum of 15 hours a week some
paid sick leave, but adjuncts are
often shut out of the benefit
because they don’t meet the
threshold.
“You’re seeing all of these re-Hope H. Davis, a spokeswom-
an for the Community College of
Baltimore County, s aid the school
will allow adjunct faculty to “bor-
row” against future sick leave if
they fall ill or need to be quaran-
tined because of the coronavirus.
As policies addressing the dis-
ruption caused by the coronavi-
rus evolve daily, some colleges
and universities are granting all
faculty more liberal leave. on
friday, the University System of
maryland, which oversees 12
state schools, said adjuncts and
graduate assistants who are un-
able to work as classes transition
online can receive an excused
absence without loss of pay.
“our goal is to urge all of the
institutions to be as flexible as
they can possibly be,” said Caro-
lyn Skolnik, associate vice chan-
cellor for finance and administra-
tion at the University System ofmultiple colleges. And that model
can even complicate their access
to s tate-mandated time off.
“many adjuncts may be teach-
ing four or five classes at a time,
but not more than one or two at
any specific university, so they
don’t necessarily hit the thresh-
old for earned sick leave,” said
rebecca Kolins Givan, an associ-
ate professor of labor studies at
rutgers. As a result, “their em-
ployer may not be obligated to
provide any of the benefits that
other workers receive.”
maryland is one of a dozen
states and the District that re-
quire companies to provide all
workers paid sick leave. Employ-
ers must grant one hour of leave
for every 30 hours worked in
maryland. But accruing time off
can be a Sisyphean task for ad-
juncts who are in class just a few
hours a week.
“I accumulate like an hour a
month,” Pappas-Brown said. The
time she spends preparing for
class, grading papers or meeting
with students does not factor into
her work hours, which is the case
for most adjuncts.
After losing her job as a medi-
cal researcher two years ago,
Pappas-Brown struggled to find
full-time employment and
wound up teaching for a fraction
of her old salary. There are no
health-care benefits for part-time
instructors at t he community col-
lege, so the trained infectious-dis-
ease researcher is on medicaid.
The roughly $7,100 she will
earn this semester teaching three
courses is barely enough to cover
her bills, let alone her daughter’s
college tuition. Pappas-Brown
has dipped into her 401(k) retire-
ment fund more times than she
cares to count. There is no finan-
cial cushion, no contingency plan
if she falls ill.
“I’d just have to work through
it,” Pappas-Brown said. “Some-
times, there is just no plan.”rowed the leave provision to ap-
ply only to employers with 500 or
fewer workers. That effectively
carves out many private colleges
and universities — most have
more than 500 employees — and
leaves part-time instructors out
in the cold.
As colleges try to mitigate the
impact of covid-19, adjuncts are
imploring schools to consider in-
structors’ vulnerability.
In New Jersey, the adjunct
faculty union at rutgers Univer-
sity wrote the school’s president,
robert L. Barchi, last week ask-
ing him to extend health care to
part-time lecturers or at least
provide free access to campus
clinics. Without this access, in-
structors say, adjuncts who lack
health insurance are unlikely to
get tested for the coronavirus,
even if they are showing symp-
toms.
rutgers officials said in re-
sponse to questions from The
Washington Post that there will
be no changes to the existing
health-care plan, offering no fur-
ther explanation.
“Not only would denying us
access to basic health-care servic-
es amount to a grave failure of
leadership, it would also be the
clearest expression from the rut-
gers administration that our lives
are truly unimportant to them,”
said Bryan Sacks, treasurer of the
union for part-time faculty work-
ers at rutgers. It is part of the
larger American Association of
University Professors and Ameri-
can federation of Te achers.
Part-time adjunct instructors
represent two-fifths of all faculty
at the nation’s colleges and uni-
ve rsities. Some hold full-time
jobs in their field and teach a
course on the side. But for others,
their primary source of income
comes from cobbling together
multiple classes, sometimes at
Adjuncts from B1
Adjunct professors fret over spotty leave and communication
SerVICe emPlOYeeS INTerNATIONAl UNION
Valeria Pappas-Brown, a 48-year-old adjunct instructor at the
community college of Baltimore county, is worried about not
having sufficient paid leave if she contracts the novel coronavirus.BY FENIT NIRAPPILformer D.C. Council member
Jack Evans said he will not run in
the special election to fill the
vacancy he created by resigning
before he could be expelled for
ethics violations.
Evans is still running in the
June 2 Democratic primary to
reclaim the Ward 2 seat for a
permanent four-year term that
starts in January.
“I have decided it is best to not
seek to run for the position which
I resigned from in January and
instead focus on a new start for
the next four years,” Evans told
The Washington Post o n Wednes-
day. “ Not running i n the special is
also a way of showing my sincere
regret for the mistakes I made.”
Evans left office in a cloud of
scandal after multiple investiga-
tions found he acted unethically
by using his office to assist his
private consulting clients. Before
he stepped down, all 12 of his
colleagues on the council were
prepared to make him the first
District lawmaker to be removed
from office.
Evans filed to run for office
again 10 days after his resigna-
tion, drawing widespread criti-
cism.
He collected signatures to
compete in the June 16 special
election but decided against
turning them in by Wednesday’s
deadline. The winner of the spe-
cial election will serve out the
remainder of Evans’s term,
through January.
If Evans does prevail in the
primary — which is tantamount
to the general election in a deep-
blue city — the D.C. Council will
be in an awkward position of
having a new member serve for
just six months.
other c andidates in the special
election are advisory neighbor-
hood commissioners Patrick
Kennedy, Kishan Putta and John
fanning; former federal and city
worker Jordan Grossman;
Brooke Pinto, a former staffer in
the office of Attorney General
Karl A. racine (D); political new-
comer Yilin Zhang; and republi-
can Katherine Venice. Democrat-
ic primary candidate Daniel Her-
nandez is not competing in the
special election.
racine said Wednesday he is
formally endorsing Pinto.
Evans is asking his constitu-
ents for forgiveness for his trans-
gressions and to return him to
office because of his record of
delivering for the western ward,
which includes Georgetown, Du-
pont Circle, foggy Bottom and
downtown.
His opponents have said it is
time for the ward to have new
leadership.
Evans, 66, held office for near-
ly three decades and developed a
reputation as a champion for
business, downtown develop-
ment and fiscal prudence.
In addition to investigations
by metro, for which he served as
board chairman, and the D.C.
Council, Evans was the target o f a
federal investigation. A federal
grand jury issued subpoenas for
documents related to Evans and
his businesses, while the fBI
searched his home in June. He
has not been charged with a
crime.
The D.C. Board of Ethics and
Government Accountability has
also reopened a probe of Evans
that may wrap up before the
primary.
[email protected]THE DISTRICT
Evans won’t run for old
seat in special election
He still plans to vie in
primary for council spot
he vacated amid scandal“Before I knew it, I was a de
facto preschool teacher,” she
said.
make that a de facto preschool
teacher with another full-time
job. She also works for a gun
violence prevention organization
and said her team has been
empathetic and considerate of
her situation.
“I don’t have the option of not
being present for my son, but I
am equally as passionate about
my career and the work that I
produce, so it’s all a balancing
act,” she said. “The juggle is real.”
Each family’s situation is, of
course, different. Some
employers aren’t understanding.
Some parents don’t get to work
from home, or if they do, they
don’t have electronic tablets they
can spare for math lessons or
shelves filled with books they
can dust off for an at-home
reading class.
To help families in need of
books, the Alexandria-based
organization Alice’s Kids decided
this week to make an exception
to how it normally receives
requests for help. It is now
allowing parents to make direct
requests for books they need,
and the organization will then
mail that reading material to
them.
In my home, we are fortunate.
my husband and I both have jobs
that allow us to work mostly
from home, and we have agreed
to split the teaching so that we
each have time to get work done
during the day (and then again
after our children’s bedtime).
So far, we have managed each
day to get through all the main
subjects and keep our two sons
engaged. on monday, they
giggled as they made edible
slime for “science class.” on
Tuesday, they took a “field trip”
to a nearby pond and then
enthusiastically worked on
research projects about what
they saw.
And on Wednesday, I woke up
exhausted, thinking a lot about
their teachers.
I pondered if my 5-year-old’s
kindergarten teacher would
prefer I spell out words for him
when he asks for help or instruct
him to spell them the way they
sound to him.
I questioned whether my 7-
year-old’s second-grade teacher
would approve of the math
problems we were giving him
each day (and that he seemed to
be enjoying) because our way of
instructing him to solve them is
different than what he has spent
years learning.
mostly, though, I wondered
when those incredibly patient,
hard-working teachers might
finally take my children back.
[email protected]prevent covid-19 from spreading.
That means his days are long
and he is often gone. When she
learned that Prince William
County was closing its schools,she said, she knew she had to
prepare because “my resources
would be limited and no one was
going to help me.”
She researched home
schooling activities for
preschoolers, ordered a
curriculum book and created a
workspace away from her son’s
toys to minimize distractions.not look like that.
“meanwhile, it’s only day 1
and I cant even get mine to sit
still for 5 minutes,” one person
wrote.“meanwhile my almost 3-year-
old is in here running circles
around me,” another person
wrote, “and his word of the week
is ‘no’ (I thought i knew what i
was doing).”
Kia Woods, whose son Gabriel
is the boy in that photo, said her
husband is a first responder who
is on the front lines of trying toschools to open is this: a new
appreciation of educators.
I’m not talking about the kind
of appreciation that comes from
remembering a favorite teacher.
The acknowledgment that some
extraordinary, standout people
work in that profession has
always existed.
The appreciation that is
spreading right now faster than
the coronavirus that caused
schools to close — and will
hopefully remain once that virus
is no longer a threat — is the
kind that comes from peeling
glue off your fingers. It’s the kind
that comes from feeling your
heart jump at finding stashed-
away Popsicle sticks in a drawer
because you now have a lesson
plan.
It is the kind that took us all
experiencing firsthand how
much patience, multitasking and
energy it takes to teach at all.
(And most of us are only
handling our own kids, not 20-
plus).
“I am completely in awe of
what they do,” Julia Young, a
mother of three in Arlington,
said of her children’s elementary
school teachers at the end of her
first day of home schooling.
one of her children is eligible
to receive special education, but
Young doesn’t have any training
in that area. She, like many
parents-suddenly-turned-
educators, doesn’t have any early
education training at all.
The first day of home school,
Young said, started with the
family sorting through school
supplies, trying to get on a
website the teachers at her
children’s school recommended
and searching “through a
tremendous and overwhelming
number of websites” for home
schooling resources.
It ended, she said, with her
family “mostly giving up, taking
a walk in the woods, and then
succumbing to screens.”
Her family was not alone in
that surrender. far from it.
other parents I spoke to
confessed frustration,
exhaustion and a thankfulness
that “frozen 2” is now on Disney
Plus.
A picture that appeared this
week on the Instagram page of
District motherHued, a D.C.-area
organization that brings
together moms of color, showed
a 3-year-old boy sitting at a toy
work station. In the comments,
some people asked where they
could buy that setup.
others looked at that boy,
focusing on a workbook, holding
a crayon in his hand, and
thought about how their own
home schooling experience didVArgAs from B1THERESA VARGASWorking from home meets up with home schooling
KIA WOODS
gabriel Woods, 3, gets acquainted with the new learning space his
mother, Kia Woods, put in place when she realized the schools in
Prince William county were going to close earlier this month.“I thought that my respect for our Nation’s teachers
couldn’t get any higher ... but after this past week
it’s definitely at peak level!”
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