As adjuncts unionize for better wages and benefits, some college costs could rise - RYAN DEROUSSEAU, Hechinger Report

Even as tuition has increased 90 percent at four-year nonprofit private institutions since 2000, the proportion of faculty who are full-time and tenured or tenure-track has dropped from nearly 80 percent in 1969 to about 30 percent today, according to the University of Southern California’s Delphi Project, which tracks this. Half of faculty are part-time, reports the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, the national faculty union—up from about 30 percent in 1975. These part-time adjuncts earn a median of $2,700 per course and most receive no medical or retirement benefits, according to a survey by the advocacy group the Coalition on the Academic Workforce. That’s less than $22,000 a year if they teach a full schedule of four courses a semester. http://hechingerreport.org/as-adjuncts-unionize-for-better-wages-and-benefits-some-college-costs-could-rise/