Adjunct Unemployment Benefits History

Any adjunct in today’s academy needs to understand a little history about adjunct unemployment benefits. Unemployment benefits were created as part of the social security Act of 1935. However, farm workers, domestic workers and all public employees were deliberately excluded from collecting unemployment benefits. Public employees included teachers in public schools and both public and private institutions of higher learning.

During the 1970, teachers were allowed to collect unemployment benefits provided they could demonstrate there was no “reasonable assurance” of re-employment. According to Access to Unemployment Benefits for Contingent Faculty: A manual for applicants to gain full rights to benefits (published by Chicago COCAL, the Chicago Coalition on Contingent Academic Labor October 2007), only teachers were required to demonstrate this “reasonable assurance.” Auto workers, seasonal food processors, construction workers and garment and fashion industry workers were not under any burden to demonstrate “reasonable assurance.”

Any Adjunct Can Collect Unemployment Benefits

There is no reason an adjunct should be refused unemployment benefits. Still, there are adjuncts who actually deny themselves even the opportunity apply for unemployment benefits because they simply refuse to believe they are laborers.

The absurd notion that an adjunct today could believe that he or she isn’t a laborer is almost beyond belief. Why would an adjunct not apply for unemployment benefits he or she has a right to collect? For the most part, it is a failure of the education system itself. One observer of the academic scene articulated the failure as “unthinkingly intentional.”

If this is an accurate definition of the failure of the higher education system to teach an adjunct how to not take financial care of himself or herself, then the question of how much more is not taught in this unthinkingly intentional fashion should be asked by every adjunct who is without a paycheck.

Tell An Adjunct About Unemployment Benefits

It would be very helpful if those who understand that they are laborers would tell the next adjunct coming down the road that he or she is a laborer with the right to apply for and collect unemployment benefits. It is understood that it might be difficult for a car mechanic to inform a Ph.D. in American Literature that he or she is actually a laborer, but that is what it just might take to wake up the academic masses to their right to unemployment benefits, and it might help an academic feed his or her family over a long, hot summer.

Adjunct Unemployment Benefits Have A Reason

Adjunct unemployment benefits are available for a reason. However, most adjunct unemployment benefit applicants do not know the reason. In Cervisi v. California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (1989) 208 Cal.App.3ed 635 the court determined that if if an adjunct is required to sign a form stating that the adjunct has “reasonable assurance” of re-employment (such a form is known as a “yellow dog” contract) the form is worthless because there are simply too many possible circumstances that will prevent an adjunct being re-employed by the college or university.

Adjunct Unemployment Benefits Denial

It is entirely possible that an adjunct’s application for unemployment benefits could be denied by the by the governmental agency responsible for determining an adjunct eligibility for unemployment benefits. If an adjunct is denied unemployment benefits, he or she has the right to appeal the decision. However, do not delay appealing the denial because any delay could extend the time an adjunct does not receive unemployment benefits.

Help for Adjunct Unemployment Benefits

California Part-time Faculty Association member Margaret Quan has provided a boilerplate response for any adjunct denied unemployment benefits.

Any adjunct applying for unemployment benefits is well advised to visit The CPFA Forum’s page on Unemployment Entitlements.

A Personal Note from This Blog’s Adjunct Author

The information concerning adjunct unemployment benefits in this blog is strictly for educational purposes. There is no legal advice in this blog.

There are few things more irritating than an adjunct ignorant of the very economic tools available to help him or her survive the adjunctification of the academy. The first time the author of this blog, and adjunct, needed to apply for unemployment benefits he first asked the two senior faculty members in his department. Neither tenured professor had a clue. This author was left to his own devices, which, as it turned out, were quite enough to navigate the information of the Internet concerning adjunct unemployment benefits. The author of this blog sincerely hopes every adjunct takes his or her financial circumstance into his or her own hands; there is no point expecting assistance from the colleges and universities in this matter.

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.