Just a little respect for adjuncts

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article from the trenches, a meeting of the Association of College and University Attorneys, where discussion turned to how to negotiate with adjunct faculty. 

Their suggested best practices mixed sympathy for the adjuncts' plight -- recommending less costly ways to give them more respect -- with suggestions for how to avert unionization and manage protests during contentious negotiations.

Alas, it's too late to avoid unionization around here, but perhaps that bit about respect may contain some good advice. Inside Higher Ed earlier covered a similar meeting of adjunct labor activists.

One issue discussed in both articles is disparity between tenured-track faculty and their second-class cousins in the NTT ranks.  I tend to think we at SIUC have managed that tension fairly well--but then I would, since I'm tenured. Our setup, where both TT and NTT are unionized by the NEA, providing some degree of coordination and communication between them, but each has a separate local that can bargain separately on its own issues, seems like a pretty good idea.