Inisde Higher Ed
July 21st, 2014
Colleges and universities have outsourced lots of services in the past several decades, from food preparation and delivery to bookstores to sanitation. But to many academics it is taboo to even consider outsourcing the faculty.
Not in Michigan. In recent years, a handful of community colleges in that state have outsourced the recruitment and hiring of adjunct instructors – who make up the overwhelming majority of the community college teaching force – to an educational staffing company. Just last week, the faculty union at a sixth institution, Jackson College, signed a collective bargaining agreement allowing EDUStaff to take over adjunct hiring and payroll duties.
The union isn’t necessarily happy about the agreement, though. Alana Tuckey is associate professor of mathematics and statistics at Jackson College and president of its National Education Association-affiliated faculty association, which primarily represents full-time faculty member. She said both adjuncts -- who are not part of the union -- and full-time faculty members are “concerned” about what EDUStaff hiring means for the faculty and how it will affect “instruction, students and professional relationships.”