Georgetown University Adjunct Faculty

This Facebook Group is open to all Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University. Be sure to click to join the group and look for more updates shortly.

All Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown can take this workplace survey from the University Professional Conduct Working Group. Share your issues below.

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

This article in the 4/26 Washington Post. How does it make you feel?

In a city full of adjunct faculty members, many struggle to get by Adjuncts across the region cobble together many jobs to make a living wage. Unions that represent them are gaining strength, and protests are becoming more frequent.

Georgetown's Gradate Student workers (GAGE) have reached their first agreement with the school. Hat's off to the group for achieving more pay, health care benefits and protections for workers. Adjunct faculty should expect nothing less.

Contract 2020 — GAGE On May 1, 2020, GAGE reached a tentative agreement on our first contract with Georgetown University. Read AFT’s Press Release.

Our colleagues in the Graduate Student Worker Group, GAGE have been in an epic struggle with university officials to get a decent wage agreement. The university uses the same tactic with adjuncts, "we have a limited amount of money, you prioritize how you use it". Meantime, those lawyers bill at $500-$1200 per hour. Georgetown University would always rather pay lawyers than workers.

Our colleagues at GAGE, Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees, have been in talks with Georgetown's leadership for a year+ . Still, not agreement on offering healthcare benefits to graduate workers. See below, that 70% of those workers have skipped, or delayed health benefits, due to lack of access. We as adjuncts are also experiencing the same circumstance. Demand that Georgetown offer access to health care benefits now!

Georgetown Adjunct Instructor Sara Colina wrote a compelling letter to the leadership of Georgetown University. It a thoughtful and accurate assessment of the current affairs of an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown. I would encourage you to read it here. This will also be distributed to as many adjunct faculty (and their supporters) as well. See below:

March 18, 2020

Dear President DeGioia,

I hope that you and your family are safe and comfortable during this difficult time.

As you know better than anyone, in the last two weeks, much of Hoya life has fallen away. There are no more lecture halls, dorms, sporting events, tulip-filled campus courtyards, or even research labs. What remains is the core mission: teaching. Here at Georgetown, much of that mission is being implemented by contract workers who are not paid a livable wage. If there was ever a time to revisit the notion of how one becomes a real part of the Georgetown community, this is it.

I am one of the many adjunct faculty here at Georgetown University. I am spending countless hours moving my classes online and attending to the needs of my justifiably panicked students. I am doing so lovingly and responsibly because my Hoya community needs me.

I just wish I was a real part of that community.

As you know, more than half of the classes at Georgetown are taught by adjunct faculty. That means when it comes to benefits, raises, job security and opportunities for future advancement, we are clearly not a part of the Georgetown community. Faculty meetings? I’m not invited. Teaching awards? I’m not eligible. Grants? Not for me.

The University defines us as contractors instead of employees because of our "limited" responsibilities. This claim has always strained credulity. Adjunct faculty serve as senior thesis advisors, help organize student groups, and attend and regularly contribute to campus events. We write countless letters of recommendation (I have proudly helped dozens of aspiring Hoyas attend top law schools). Most importantly, we devote many hundreds of hours supporting our students. I no longer keep track of my hours because when I did so, I realized I make less than minimum wage.

Adjuncts at Georgetown have been arguing for a long time that we are an essential part of the community (or, as labor law puts it, “a key aspect of the business”) and that we deserve to be treated as such. These are extraordinary times and Georgetown is appropriately asking us to take care of our students. But I own a small business and I work on an hourly basis, which means I must decide every day how many unpaid hours I can afford to donate to Georgetown. This is not fair to adjuncts, and more importantly, it is not fair to the students who depend on us.

Georgetown teachers were given about a week to create an online equivalent of our courses. To support us, the university has created dozens of hours of training-- in which we can partake, for no pay. Meanwhile, I understand the university is in great need of more online courses. Adjuncts are limited to teaching two classes because, legally, that is the most we can work before we must be treated as part-time salaried employees. I have been told the university is trying to come up with a “workaround” so we can be hired to teach more without being treated as employees.

I have another suggestion. Let us be part-time employees with a livable salary, prorated benefits, opportunities for merit and longevity raises, and some job security. Let us be a real part of the community.

I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to steer this ship during this storm, and I certainly understand why other issues have taken precedence. But
Georgetown students are now mostly in the hands of adjunct instructors, and for the foreseeable future, adjunct instructors' passions, talents, and commitment will be essential to making Georgetown the "uniquely caring, strong and resilient community" you envision. Teaching is a labor of love, but we also deserve to be compensated for our work.

Respectfully yours,

Sara Collina, JD (she/her)
Founder and Director, Blueberry Hill Strategies
Women's and Gender Studies Program
Georgetown University
202-841-4219

The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) and the University have been locked in negotiations over a contract for nearly one year. The university has "slow rolled" the process and has yet to make a substantial proposal on items such as healthcare benefits for GAGE members. This should not be acceptable and we can support our brothers and sisters in GAGE by holding to the principle in our upcoming negotiations.

Jesuits And The Church Support Workers — So Why Doesn’t Georgetown? - The Georgetown Voice March 4 marks a year of contract bargaining between Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) and the university, but the future of that contract still seems uncertain. Wages, healthcare, benefits, leave, and much more have been left undiscussed for months. The university says it hopes to sig...

Good day to all Georgetown University Adjunct Faculty.
Did you know that you may be eligible to receive up to $600 in Professional Developments funds?
Adjunct faculty members who have achieved good faith consideration, pursuant to Article 4--See below for GFC definition--- may request reimbursement from the Professional Development Fund for the reasonable costs associated with professional development activities related to teaching. The maximum reimbursement for an individual adjunct faculty member shall be $600 per fiscal year.

If you believe you are eligible, go to the Georgetown University website--see below--and follow the steps to complete the steps.

https://provost.georgetown.edu/faculty/adjunct-faculty/pro-dev-fund/

Good Faith Consideration Definition---
Adjunct faculty members who have previously taught a specific course for at least two (2) calendar years and a minimum of four (4) times within a period of four (4) calendar years at the University will receive good faith consideration for appointment to teach the same course if it is offered by the University within one (1) calendar year of the most recent appointment, provided that the University intends for the course to be taught by an adjunct faculty member covered by this Agreement

Professional Development Fund - Office of the Provost Policy Adjunct faculty members who have achieved good faith consideration, pursuant to Article 4 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, may request reimbursement from the Professional Development Fund for the reasonable costs associated with professional development activities related to teaching.....

The university’s graduate assistants, represented by their union, the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) are negotiating their first bargaining agreement with university officials. Please take a moment to read this from the Georgetown Voice and let's continue to support the GAGE members in their quest for just employment terms from the University.

Bargaining for the Future - The Georgetown Voice Something deeply important is unfolding on the Georgetown campus this fall: the university’s graduate assistants, represented by their union, the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) are negotiating their first bargaining agreement with university officials. Georgetown’s graduate ass...

Today, we are supporting a fellow organization on campus, fighting for a better conditions in the workplace. GAGE, the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees. See the link for more details.
https://www.facebook.com/WeAreGAGE/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARABUWVa4IpwTH9t5RWvPhRehRt-HKQKEmG9mgcaYOfPq5I2yu1VrSZDmJMd-MMJQhRv4Zm1jG0F3CM4

Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees - GAGE We are the labor union for PhD students and Masters students who work as teaching assistants, instru