We all make resolutions, especially at the start of a new year, but it takes concentrated effort and hard work to move from goals to plans to action.

I had a birthday in late November and I think my age qualifies me as someone liking dad jokes. I recently saw a meme that stated, “With everyone making resolutions for the New Year, I resolve to simply write ‘2023’ on all checks and documents.” This gave me a chuckle.

Sometimes, it’s the simple things we need to resolve for any new year, but I am aiming for bigger resolutions. This year I resolve to try to provide solutions to the problems I complain about, those things about which we all voice our opinions and concerns but feel like we cannot deal with said problem.

I realized I did this in my November 2022 cover story about the systemic adjunctification of SCCC faculty. I had highlighted the fact that 73% of our membership are adjuncts and my hope, in getting off to a good 2023, is to attempt to tackle this concern for our students and the labor we perform.

A social justice issue

The adjunctification of our profession is a social justice issue. This has been researched for some time. Within our own state, for example, Inside Higher Ed reported just about a year ago that there are disparities among SUNY and CUNY four-year institutions in “the full-time faculty-to-student ratios on campuses where students tend to be white and where there are more underrepresented minorities.” Citing a report prepared by a professor at John Jay as well as members of the University Faculty Senate Budget Committee, the article explains that at our “publicly funded senior colleges, white students have substantially greater opportunities for full-time faculty instruction, compared to Black and Hispanic students” and shows why this is problematic.

We believe similar research is needed at the SUNY community colleges. As faculty at the largest community college, we all know the great diversity that exists in our offices, classrooms and other work areas. Suffolk County is one of the most diverse suburban counties in the country. While diverse, our population is also segregated by race and socioeconomic status. This has been no secret as evidenced in Newsday’s 2019 feature, Long Island Divided, about real estate agents intentionally directing families of color to less white zip codes on Long Island.

I am proud to work at an institution where those segregated borders are broken down. When students register, they do not know who they will be sitting next to in their classes. For faculty, this means we walk into our classrooms, libraries, tutoring spaces and counseling offices, etc., and see and interact with a diversity of students. The college’s Suffolk at a Glance page shows that nearly half of the student body identifies as non-white, a third of our students identify as Hispanic/Latina/Latino, nearly 8% of our student body identify as Black and almost 60% of our students identify as female. The SUNY Fast Facts website indicates that compared to other community colleges in the state, we have nearly double the number of Hispanic/Latina/Latino students.

Further, according to SUNY data, as of fall 2021, community colleges had 31% underrepresented minorities which fluctuated from 29 to 31% since 2016. The four-year state operated campuses had 25% underrepresented minority which fluctuated from 22 to 25% since 2016. SUNY’s data shows there is greater demographic diversity at our community colleges than in the four-year colleges.

There are no four-year SUNY schools that have an adjunct/part-time rate of 73%. But apparently SUNY believes it’s fine for this imbalance of faculty privilege to exist between the community colleges and four-year colleges. This, despite knowing that the academic needs of and required resources for community college students are greater than at the four-year SUNY institutions.

For instance, during the fall 2022 semester at SCCC, there were 1,609 students registered with Disability Services serving students with diagnosed learning disabilities, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder and anxiety as either a primary or secondary disability. Since 2000, there have been triple-percentage increases at each of our three campuses for students seeking disability services and resources.

We believe that college administration, SUNY and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education accrediting agency need to pay much more critical attention to this social justice issue.

SUNY and Middle States

As many of our members are aware, the three governance bodies and curriculum committees have been working incredibly hard on making sure our General Education curriculum is updated to reflect the diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice requirements as a result of the SUNY Board of Trustees passing Resolution 2021-48. In this resolution, one clause states, “Whereas the SUNY Board of Trustees has elevated the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in SUNY by creating a standing Board Committee, and the Chancellor has made it a top priority for all campuses, faculty, staff, and students by initiating the 25-point Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan that includes general education.”

We would argue that diverse student bodies, especially within our community colleges, need a greater percentage of full-time faculty to assist the most vulnerable students. Similarly, Middle States has recently modified their standards to measure the success and overall operation of the college. They have proposed embedding DEI language in all of their existing seven standards and their members are expected to vote and adopt this new initiative at their meeting later in January.

In looking at our last Middle States self-study, from 2017-18, we failed ourselves and our students by continuing the trend of over-reliance on adjunct faculty to serve students. Our next self-study and Middle States visit will be 2026-27. The FA will pay close attention to this process and will prepare our membership to ask poignant questions of Middle States. If diversity matters in higher education, then why do we deny students the kinds of resources and the assistance they need by staffing our diverse institution, with its diverse student body that has diverse needs, with such a disproportionately high ratio of part-time labor?

The college, SUNY and Middle States need to rethink how diversity and social justice should be implemented at our institutions. It’s beyond simply sprinkling diversity and social justice ideas across our curricula.

Resolved

Now, back to that New Year’s resolution. Discussing problems and airing grievances is one thing but we need action. We in the FA have done excellent work on issues around DEI and social justice through our JEDI Institute in collaboration with college administration, but this simply a start. I and the other FA officers are constantly engaging our elected officials about the imbalance of adjunct to full-time faculty. Our elected county legislators recognize this as a concern and have asked college leadership about this as well.

I raise this issue every time I speak to a legislator, I bring it up to members of the Board of Trustees and Courtney and I will be addressing it on February 7 when we go to advocate in Albany with our state elected officials from the Assembly and Senate for funding for the next academic year. This conversation will also continue when SUNY and Middle States officials come for campus visits. In order to continue our advocacy, we will be asking our membership to engage in our VOTE-COPE drive that we will hold during Professional Development Day on February 28.

Finally, my most important New Year’s resolution for 2023 is for our negotiating team to deliver a fair contract to the membership. Currently, we are still negotiating with administration and are working toward a fair contract. This process, as many of our members know, takes time because our goal is to be thoughtful in these discussions which affect so many members and, by extension, our students.

2023 is not just a new year but an opportunity to continue to build upon the great success we have had as a union. Have an excellent start to the spring semester.