Try this. Ask them: “What is your plan to fix the adjunct equity gap?”
After you explain that adjuncts get paid half as much for the same work, they’ll probably be out of time and have somewhere they have to be, but occasionally you might get an answer like “Ask Sacramento for more money.” This response can be found from the shining AFT 2121 in San Francisco, to our own Jim Mahler, whose creative math spinning recently bragged about getting a 70% increase in adjunct office hour funding from the new State budget (another way to look at it is that the State devoted less than 1% of the community college budget to the major problem affecting the majority of faculty, and the impact on adjunct equity will be negligible). When we ask Mahler to lobby Sacramento to actually make good on their categorical line items in the state budget that will close the equity gap, suddenly our union has run out of money.
But Scott Everingham, a creative genius from Australia, has come up with a better plan:
About this project
The moment I finished watching Diane Sawyer’s report (click on above video to watch) on US adjunct professor salaries, I researched how I could help alleviate the pain and isolating feeling of not having money for the basics.
My plan has 3 stages:
1) Raise $1.7 million to hold a livestreaming Cher movie marathon on Sunday August 20 across the US where I hire adjuncts as event co-ordinators at a rate of US$30 per hour. You can subscribe at www.screenathon.com to get updates on when tickets will be sold.
The $1.7 million is needed to hire the adjuncts, pay for the auditoriums and buy food from local vendors to feed the audience.
2) Sell $10 million worth of Cher movie marathon tickets.
3) Take the profits and build an app that highlights and sells tickets to more events where I can hire adjuncts at $30 per hour.
Adjuncts can subscribe at www.profitsforadjuncts.com to work for $30 an hour on event day.
Risks and challenges
The risks and challenges with this project include a delayed launch of the app or problems associated with developing the app.