The following message was sent to Media Relations and Issues Management, External Affairs, at SMU. Last Friday Media Relations emailed CUPE 3912 member David Campbell (Dept. of History) to inquire about his availability for an interview with CBC. The interview was to be about the Khaki University of Canada, an organization that was designed to educate Canadian service personnel during the First World War. The following was David’s response to that email:
Thank you for contacting me on Friday. I very much regret being unavailable for CBC’s request for an interview, but I was engaged on CUPE 3912’s picket line all day on Friday. Needless to say, I wish I had been able to answer the request for an interview, but I had to stand in solidarity with my fellow part-time faculty members.
This is an unfortunate example of what I imagine are many missed opportunities for SMU to engage with the broader community through the collective experience and expertise of part-time faculty members. Some of us have research areas or specializations in certain subjects that are not fully covered by full-time faculty members in the departments where we work. We could be much greater assets to the university, but we face ongoing marginalization in terms of our employment.
I have been living in Halifax since 2000 and teaching courses at both SMU and Mount Saint Vincent since 2006. It has long been ironic to me that in a community with such a deep and pervasive military and naval heritage that there are no historians on full-time staff who specialize in Canadian military history at any of the universities in town. Over the past nineteen years I have had infrequent opportunities to teach this particular subject through a special topic course focusing primarily on Canada during the era of the two world wars.
The majority of my time is spent teaching courses that are either somewhat related or not at all related to my specialty. During a typical academic year the closest that I come to such specialization in the classroom is when I teach SMU’s courses on the World at War, 1914-1918 and the World at War, 1939-1945. These courses are two of my favorites in the regular rosters of courses that I cover at SMU and the Mount during each academic year. But the European and broader global focuses of these courses place sharp limits on the attention that I can devote to Canadian experiences.
In trying to cobble together something of “a living” from teaching as many courses as I can at more than one school throughout each year, it leaves me in more challenging circumstances when it comes to keeping up with the latest developments in what is supposed to be my own specialized field of study. Although over the years I have managed to present papers and to produce publications (including a scholarly monograph), trying to make a living through part-time teaching means that I have had to sacrifice a great deal of my own research and publication ambitions when it comes to Canada’s history during the First World War. There are many part-time colleagues in history and in other departments who could no doubt say the same thing.
This is what makes the university’s determination to continue underpaying and under-supporting contract faculty so disheartening. We have already given away more of our time, talent, and ambition than would be tolerated by any full-time academic, support, or administrative staff. And yet we are expected by the institution to remain satisfied by rates of pay that are among the lowest in the entire country, a complete absence of benefits, and no pathway to any kind of permanent or full-time employment.
I still routinely field questions from relatives and friends as to why I have not yet achieved status as a full-time faculty member after almost twenty years of steady teaching work (usually over twelve months of the year – year in, year out). Most members of the broader community have little to no inkling of how academic employment works or the systemic barriers that routinely impede contract faculty from achieving either permanent part-time status or, better yet for many of us, full-time status. My mystified relatives and friends point to other job environments in which employers are routinely required to consider (or even privilege) part-time or casual employees for any permanent or full-time positions that may arise in those organizations. But this is not the case in academia, where universities often find ways to discount part-timers from consideration for different types of permanent or full-time work. As such, my circles of relatives and friends tend to regard universities as disgraceful exploiters of part-time instructors. This is not a good look for the university among members of the public who are aware of what we face as part-time faculty. The current strike has the potential to inform many more members of the public about the situation.
Protests from university administration that improving our pay and working conditions are too costly and “not in the institution’s best interests” are met by stark economic realities. As CUPE 3912 understands the situation, part-time faculty teach approximately 30 percent of courses at SMU. Yet the stipends that we are paid collectively represent only around 10 percent of the university’s budget. This makes it difficult, if not impossible to believe the administration’s arguments that they cannot bring our pay up to national median standards for contract faculty. We’re not asking to be the best paid in the country; we simply don’t want to be among the worst paid. There is a difference.
Critics in the general population might comment that I and others like me should simply “move elsewhere” to find better employment. Such sentiments are met in my case by commitments to family that keep me tied to Halifax and, more broadly, to Nova Scotia and PEI. To be there for my family I had to give up the prospect of moving elsewhere in the country or the world in order to find full-time academic work. We are not all as free in our choices and options as many might imagine.
If there is no possibility of a tenure track position ever being offered in my area of specialization at SMU, then a lectureship or some form of permanent part-time status might afford me the possibility to add my special topic course on Canada at War to the History Department’s regular roster of courses. This also would give me greater latitude to focus on my own area of specialization so that I might be more ready to take opportunities such as CBC’s request for an interview about the Khaki University during the First World War. I would be better placed to be a “go-to source” for the broader community on questions regarding Canada’s wartime experiences and postwar memory. This would in turn further raise SMU’s profile as a source of expertise for the community.
I suggest that the university would be better served by offering greater supports for our work in teaching and research. An employee that feels more supported and satisfied with their work experience will be a much more effective ambassador for the university and its mission, whether their status is part-time or full-time in nature. Instructors with higher morale will perform even more effectively as teachers in the classroom and as experts available to the media and other members of the general public. Our desires to do the best we can for our students and our communities should not be used against us in efforts to minimize our pay and the quality of our working conditions.
Part-time instructors are a diverse group with varying interests and needs. Although my own experiences and sentiments may be echoed by any number of my colleagues, others will feel differently depending on their own circumstances. Some part-timers have active careers in settings outside of the university, while others are teaching courses following their retirement.
Despite our different backgrounds, agendas, and outlooks, part-time faculty have a shared determination to achieve better remuneration and working conditions. In that respect, being driven to take strike action has awoken among us a sense that perhaps many are really feeling for the first time – a sense of solidarity with each other.
Many thanks for taking the time to consider the broader issues raised by what otherwise would have been a straightforward opportunity to liaise with local media. Your time and understanding are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
David Campbell
Contract Faculty and Adjunct Professor, Department of History
P.S. For additional perspectives and reactions from other part-time faculty members, there are a number of excellent write-ups and responses to the current situation on CUPE 3912’s blog available at: https://cupe3912.ca/category/blog/