My concern for my campus is the increasing number of part-time associate lecturers. Instead of opening lines for tenure track and hiring more lecturers, the university is hiring the lowest level, called an associate lecturer.
They have no benefits. They have no just cause, nothing for three years. They are contract, semester by semester. You have to work for four semesters to get some sort of protection. The pay is, give or take, $5,200 for a semester course.
You would think, as a community, that the administration would want to have a great relationship with the faculty because we are the ones in the classroom. But they like to try to divide us by rank and they try to keep costs down.
Caroline Coscia, President of the FSU chapter at UMass Boston
Published: December 2024
For the first time, Education Support Professionals had their own day of solidarity building and collaboration at the MTA Summer Conference. Held on a Sunday, because so many ESPs are forced by low wages to work additional jobs, the day encouraged members to reflect on their strengths and challenges as union members.
A Diverse Union of Education Workers
The MTA represents 117,000 members in 400 local associations throughout Massachusetts. We are teachers, faculty, professional staff and Education Support Professionals working at public schools, colleges and universities across Massachusetts.