An open letter addressed to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and incoming Howard University professor Nikole Hannah-Jones is bringing attention to deep-seated issues its author said are felt by a “devalued and disrespected faculty” at the historically Black institution in Washington. The letter’s author, who claims to be a faculty member, is unknown. But the individual’s pleas for higher pay and better working conditions have resonated with faculty without tenure — the job protection measure that brought Hannah-Jones to Howard after a contentious recruitment by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which initially hired her without the status. The letter, posted last week to Medium.com, outlined grievances that have been the focus of a fledgling union of more than 100 non-tenure-track faculty, including lecturers and master instructors. Specifically, it has reignited calls to raise salaries, as well as end policies that require lecturers to reapply for their jobs at the end of each school year and leave their teaching position after seven years.“Lecturers are basically going on faith that they’re going to be rehired the following year,” said Sean Pears, a lecturer in the school’s English department. “For me, [the letter] was an articulation of frustration, and it was frustration I could understand.”The concerns are the basis of ongoing negotiations between Howard and the union, but some instructors are disappointed in what they say has been a lack of progress. Now, amid heightened visibility at the school — spurred by recent high-profile hires and an influx of donations — employees hope the institution will change.“For 150 years Howard was systematically under-resourced, and I think it is finally getting the resources that it rightfully deserves,” Pears said. “So it is the appropriate time to address some of the structural inequality internal to the organization.”Howard employs more than 920 full-time faculty, about half of whom are not on the tenure track, said Frank Tramble, a spokesman for the school. As is the case at most universities, these instructors tend to teach many of the school’s entry-level and general education courses. They also write letters of recommendation, mentor students and hold office hours like their tenure-track colleagues.“You end up being treated as a professor regardless. You end up doing the same kind of work,” said one lecturer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. But, the employee added, the treatment from the university is unequal. The instructor has filled several positions since 2002, a solution he has found to outlive the seven-year term limit imposed on lecturers. He started his teaching career as an adjunct, then moved on to a full-time lecturer position. After seven years, he left the university and returned as an adjunct. The instructor is now in a different department and just completed the first year of a new lecturer position.
All data is taken from the source: http://washingtonpost.com
Article Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/18/howard-professors-working-conditions/
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