Adjunct Can Collect Unemployment Benefits

Unemployment Benefits Are Available For College Adjuncts

The sole purpose of this blog is to let college adjuncts know that they can apply for and collect unemployment benefits between semesters.

It may be hard to believe, but apparently there are adjuncts who do not know they are eligible for unemployment benefits. There are college teachers who adjunct and do not know if they are laid off even if they have no class or classes to teach!

Of course, it is important to know what it means to be an unemployed college adjunct.

An unemployed college adjunct is a higher education teacher who does not have a guaranteed class to teach, and is almost impossible to guarantee an adjunct classes from one semester to another. For example, if an adjunct's classes end at the close of the regular spring semester, and the adjunct doesn't teach any classes during the summer, then that adjunct is unemployed and is eligible to receive unemployment benefits until the first day of the next class in the Fall.

How an Adjunct Can Collect Unemployment Benefits

An unemployed adjunct, which is any college teacher who does not have "reasonable assurance" of another class, can apply for unemployment benefits the moment after he or she gives the final exam of the semester.

Literally, that means a college adjunct can walk to the nearest computer the moment after the last final exam of a semester's class is given and apply online for unemployment benefits.

The definition of "reasonable assurance" is defined in the landmark Cervisi v. California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (1989) 256 Cal.Rptr.142 case. In 1989, the local American Federation of Teachers at San Francisco City College secured a legal ruling from the California Court of Appeals that defined lack of funding, low enrollment, or other factors (and there are many other factors, such as a full time faculty taking an adjunct's classes)as ample evidence of a lack of "reasonable assurance."

Adjunct Unemployment Benefits Are A Right

No adjunct should be reduced to eating his or her own shoes strings instead of collecting unemployment benefits. It is hard enough to make a decent living as a college adjunct without having suffer the loss of a weekly check just because the school decided to cut the funding for a section of classes.

Every college adjunct, either online or on-ground, has a right to unemployment benefits if he or she is laid off. Adjuncts may encounter resistance from the school or schools when asking about the possibility of collecting unemployment benefits.

Therefore, it is a very good idea for adjuncts to read Access to Unemployment Insurance Benefits for Contingent Faculty. The information contained in this document could very well help adjuncts avoid a cashless period between classes.