FAIR TREATMENT FOR BENTLEY UNIVERSITY ADJUNCT FACULTY
Bentley University President, Provost, and Trustees
Bentley University (Waltham, Massachusetts) is a leading American business school dedicated to ethical values and social responsibility in the careers of its graduates. But the most important way to instill these values in students---and, for Bentley to protect and increase its reputation for real leadership---is for the University to directly practice what it teaches in regard to 40% of its faculty: namely, its Adjunct Assistant Professors, Lecturers and other "contingent" or "permanent part-time" teachers. Because Bentley's Adjuncts are paid a virtual minimum wage, can earn no health care contribution, have no contract rights and no real bargaining power, they are kept in perennial poverty; and this keeps almost half of Bentley's faculty from being fully available to students. Thus, they are asking all students (including alumnae, their families etc.) who benefit from their teaching to take real action this semester and show their support for change by signing this petition to Bentley's administrators.
Petition by
To:
Bentley University President, Provost, and Trustees
From:
[Your Name]
A PETITION from Bentley University Students & Affiliated Citizens TO:
President Gloria Larson, Provost Michael Page, and
The Bentley Board of Trustees
“...True responsibility has to emerge from within the company…from the tone at the top[,] an organization-wide commitment to ethics...[and] a broad commitment to the larger social good....When corporate leaders talk about the firm’s success because of its ethical standards…when employees see the firm ‘walk the talk,’ it can happen.” --President Larson, 2013 Global Business Ethics Symposium
We, the undersigned, as undergraduate and graduate students of Bentley University, adult members of their families, alumni, and affiliated members of the public, in sincere concern for Bentley’s practices and reputation in American business education, urge you to ethical action in matters that concern 40% of this school’s teaching faculty---namely, our Adjunct Professors, who have long made central and unique contributions acknowledged by Bentley itself.
1) We strongly disapprove of the fact that adjuncts, who teach 30 percent of Bentley’s courses as “part-time” or “contingent” workers, receive a virtual minimum wage grossly out of balance with course-tuition revenue and with the net value they generate for Bentley; that adjuncts can earn no health care contribution, have no contract rights, can be dismissed at will; and, that because of these conditions, too many of our professors are too often unavailable as they struggle to survive, even as our families pay a full tuition that has doubled in the last 10 years.
2) We consider it ethically damaging and plainly wrong that Bentley, endorsing “ethics and social responsibility” in business practices, limits adjuncts to two courses per semester to avoid contributions to their health care, with the further consequence of their perennial poverty. These conditions damage adjuncts’ lives, our education, and Bentley’s reputation---while we find classes crowded, compare administrators’ salaries and benefits, and see the local, global, and PR investment priorities that appear to outweigh a just response to adjuncts’ indefensible inequality.
3) Therefore, with these ethical concerns, we will act visibly for change through 2014. We urge you A) to realize that Bentley, as a school with a growing $201 million endowment and over $200 million in annual tuition, can certainly afford fair treatment for adjuncts without harm to our school or increasing tuition and fees; and, B) to act on this with integrity and leadership, because treating adjuncts “better than some others do” is far from good enough. Act, and make Bentley the genuine national leader as the business school that applies its own values, first and best, at home.
Sincerely,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
PRINT & SIGN Name/Date relation to Bentley (student, family...) Contact (NOT PUBLIC)