Santa Fe College adjunct faculty are one step closer to forming their union. Just in time to kick off the new semester, the long awaited union election begins today and will run through September 19. Adjuncts at Santa Fe College have been engaged in a high-profile public campaign to get to their election after filing back in December of last year. Adjuncts, along with community partners and allies, held rallies and disrupted Board of Trustees meetings, contributed opinion articles in the Gainesville Sun, and pressured the administration to agree to a vote after the administration hired an anti-union law firm to block the vote through the legal system.
“We are doing this because it is what we love,” said Kate Murray, an adjunct professor who has taught art at Santa Fe College for more than 10 years. “Being here without the prospect of tenure is kind of a hopeless feeling.”
Even though the administration continues to oppose the organizing effort, adjunct professors are excited to get the election rolling. “We’re not trying to fight (the administration),” said Glynn Hayes, an adjunct professor of natural sciences. “I think Santa Fe is one of the best schools in the country, and we’re in this to make it an even better school, not to make it worse.”
Ahead of the election, several Santa Fe College adjunct professors were recently featured in an in-depth piece on the nearly 10,000 adjunct professors in Florida that have formed, or are in the process of forming, their union over the past three years. Santa Fe College adjuncts are looking to become the seventh group of adjunct professors to form their union in the sunshine state with SEIU’s Florida Public Services Union (FPSU). Adjunct professors at St. Petersburg College are next in line as they kick off their union election in September.
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