The union’s Adjunct-Continuing Education Teacher Professional Development Fund is old enough to be in college, according to PSC Treasurer Felicia Wharton.
PSC Treasurer Felicia Wharton (right) interviews fund recipients Kim Allen (left) and Melissa Eder (Photo: Paul Frangipane).
The fund, won in a contract campaign 20 years ago, is meant to provide adjunct faculty and CETs with grant money for professional development and career advancement that is at many universities and colleges a benefit only available to full-time faculty. During an informational meeting at the union hall on October 7, Wharton, who chairs the fund, led a panel about this important benefit.
Part of the meeting focused on the application process –union staff members Kim Lashley, special assistant to the president, and Ambar Cordero, accounting assistant, walked attendees through the application procedure, which can be found on the union’s website. The Adjunct-CET Fund can be used for a variety of professional development activities. These include conferences, workshops, trainings, and research events, as well as certificate programs. The fund supports schooling at an accredited college or university (CUNY or non-CUNY), and covers tuition, fees, and books listed on the relevant syllabi. It may be used for research projects and field studies (not requiring travel) and upcoming membership dues for a professional organization.
But much of the meeting was devoted to how the fund can advance the professional lives of contingent faculty. Melissa Eder, an adjunct lecturer in academic literacy and linguistics at Borough of Manhattan Community College and a visual artist, said that the fund allowed her to attend artist residencies in places like Brazil and New Orleans to work on projects she later brought back to the classroom. She called it “an opportunity to work on what it means to be a teacher.”
Kim Allen, an adjunct assistant professor of biology at Medgar Evers College, lamented that in the science world, no matter how good your research skills are, an adjunct is still excluded from most research grant opportunities. “You might as well be an Uber driver,” she said. That’s why the union fund is so important to people like her. Allen’s grant helped cover her Alzheimer’s disease research. She said of her work, “The aim was to identify genes that might serve as early markers of disease and candidates for gene therapy or other forms of therapeutic intervention.”
Stephon Boatwright, an adjunct assistant professor of political science at Lehman College, said the fund’s resources allowed him to attend a conference in Switzerland that led to an academic paper on political theory.
Other PSC members who have benefited from the fund praised it in great detail.
Andréa DeFelice, an adjunct associate professor of media studies at Queens College and a four-time recipient of the award, indicated that the fund was crucial to her professional development as an artist. “It connected me to extraordinary people and places. It influenced and strengthened my practice as an artist and professor. I recommend all eligible part-time faculty to apply for the ADJ-CET fund and always be on the lookout for opportunities. Professional development activities provide us with hands-on experience in our field of expertise. From my experience, students respond enthusiastically to assignments and problems derived from real-world scenarios and contexts.”
DeFelice was deeply honored to receive the maximum allowance of the award, supporting her residency in Crete.
Christopher Trogan, an adjunct associate professor of philosophy at John Jay College and Baruch College, also spoke highly of the fund.
“This summer, the PSC-CUNY Adjunct-CET Professional Development Fund, took me to Lisbon, where I presented at the 24th International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, held July 1-3 at NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities. The grant covered my registration, airfare, lodging, and a per diem. Without it, the trip would have been out of reach,” he said.
Trogan brought his scholarship into the CUNY classroom. “In PHI 315, Philosophy of the Rule of Law, we’re examining what becomes of evidence, testimony, and authorship when the technologies that carry them change; the question at the heart of my paper now sits at the heart of the course. In PHI 317, Philosophy of Law in Global Perspective, my exchanges with colleagues working across legal systems and intellectual traditions have given students new cases and a more exact sense of how legal norms travel across borders. Even the discussion forums in my online section are designed around that slower time, giving students room to think before they respond.”
Again, this is why adjunct faculty like Trogan believe the fund is important.
“Adjuncts produce serious scholarship with little institutional support,” Trogan said. “This fund is one of the rare places where that support exists. If you’ve set aside a conference, a workshop, or a research trip because you couldn’t pay for it, apply. It’s among the most valuable things our union offers.”
The Adjunct-Continuing Education Teacher Professional Development Fund is an investment in our adjunct faculty, Wharton emphasized, noting that the union recognized the need and fought to secure it.
“When you apply, you are not asking for a favor,” she said. “You are using the fund your colleagues built, and it was built for you.”
Upcoming application deadlines are November 1 for December, January, and February activities, and January 1 for February, March, and April activities.
