VCUarts adjunct workers' protests
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Long hours
- Low pay
- No health benefits
- No tenure track
- Increase in pay from $800 per credit hour to $2,000 per credit hour
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| Part of the 2018 teachers' strikes in the United States | |||
| Date | December 4, 2017 – May 10, 2018 | ||
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The VCUarts adjunct workers' protests were a series of protests in late 2017 into early 2018 by adjunct professors employed by Virginia Commonwealth University, VCU full-time, tenured professors, and VCU students protesting over low pay, lack of benefits, and long working hours.
The VCU School of the Arts is the art school for Virginia Commonwealth University, a public-research university located in Richmond, Virginia.[1] The School of the Arts, branded as VCUarts, is a nationally recognized art program,[2][3] which employs around 400 professors on its academic staff. Approximately 202 of these teachers in VCUarts are adjunct professors,[4] who are contractual professors who are paid by credit hour and do not receive employee benefits.[5]
Most adjunct professors at VCU, including the School of the Arts are paid about $800 per credit hour they teach, and are limited to two or three classes they can teach per semester. This ultimately leaves them earning a potential annual salary of approximately $15,000, which is just above the federal poverty line.[6] According to a report from Style Weekly, most VCUarts adjuncts make about $10,000 per year, which ranks last of the Top-10 art schools from U.S. News & World Report.[4] In the fall of 2017, adjunct professors began organizing and formed a coalition known as "VCU Adjuncts for Fair Pay".[7]
In December 2017 and again in February 2018 the group protested the lack of pay, and protested in the propose raise in adjunct pay from $800 to $1,000 per credit hour, demanding that it is raised to $2,000 per credit hour. Such a raise would allow a full-time adjunct professor to earn close to $36,000 per year.[8][9] The group further attacked Michael Rao and his administration for having nearly $1 billion in endowment and used monies to purchase a night club off the VCU Campus.
