August 24, 2004



Richard L. McCormick, President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
President's Office, Old Queens
83 Somerset Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Dear President McCormick,

Your administration has come to contract agreements with the most powerful bargaining units at Rutgers University; yet, the Part-time Lecturers represented by the American Association of University Professors are about to enter their second year of working without a contract. In addition to providing neither job security nor health benefits, your administration appears unwilling to respect the necessary services that these adjunct instructors provide to Rutgers University by paying PTLs a respectable, living wage. PTLs enable Rutgers to offer a full slate of courses at a fraction of the cost required to employ either full-time faculty or even teaching assistants for the same purposes. Rutgers thereby follows the exploitative practices of many universities across the United States by transferring a substantial portion of its teaching duties to contingent faculty, faculty who often have the qualifications to be full-time members of the faculty. This practice not only short-changes the students who are paying ever-increasing tuition to be taught by faculty worthy of appointment at a top research university, it also provides poor incentive to accept a post as a Part-time Lecturer and demonstrates the disdain that the Rutgers administration has for the advanced degrees it confers each year. The compensation that Rutgers currently offers Part-time Lecturers and that it offered in its most recent contract proposal fall far short of salaries at comparable research universities around the United States and far short of the value that Part-time Lecturers bring to the Rutgers community.

Rutgers cannot function without the PTLs who teach one third of the university’s courses. Do the right thing, President McCormick: settle the PTL contract and give Part-time Lecturers the respect and compensation they deserve. If mediation does not bring about a rapid and equitable resolution to the Part-time Lecturer contract talks, the Teaching and Graduate Assistants of the Rutgers American Association of University Professors chapter will wholeheartedly support any job actions taken by their fellow union members.

Sincerely,



TA/GA Steering Committee
American Association of University Professors.