Adjunct and other non-tenured faculty at New York University have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in hopes of obtaining union representation. Their actions are spurred on by the disproportionately low compensation and benefits they receive for their work when compared to others in academia, such as professors and graduate student instructors.

In large institutions of higher learning, many people contribute to undergraduate education in addition to tenured faculty and professors. These adjunct positions include associate professors, lecturers and GSIs.

Unfortunately, the most undervalued among these are the lecturers, who frequently teach heavier course loads than their tenured counterparts but do not receive the same benefits and compensation.

A majority of lecturers possess the highest degree possible in their field and many have already obtained renown for their professional accomplishments. Their teaching load, equal to professors, if not heavier, means that lecturers also have a high degree of interaction with students.

At present, however, the compensation they receive does not reflect the contribution they make to undergraduate education. Lecturers are paid too little for the amount of work that they do. The inequity of their status is exacerbated as they rarely receive the benefits, such as health insurance and pensions, that are the standard rewards of most faculty. Lecturers deserve the respect and compensation that are now an integral part of the new contract that the Graduate Employees Organization has brokered with the University.

While some have attacked the institution of the lecturer as an under-qualified and inexperienced shadow of professorship, these concerns are unwarranted. The lecturer provides the vital link in the process to tenure and an appointment as a full professor.

If the University continues to treat its lecturers as second-class academics, the inevitable result is an environment that will not attract top-notch lecturers. Exceptional lecturers will not be inclined to remain at the University when they apply for positions as professors.

Using lecturers as cheap, temporary labor disrespects the important role they have in the educational environment.

Just as GEO argued successfully that they are valuable employees that deserve adequate compensation, so too are lecturers. They provide the critical labor that enables large research institutions to function.

It is imperative that lecturers should receive the level of compensation, benefits and respect that is justified by the contribution that they make to undergraduate education.