I've just been at a statewide meeting of my union, the California Faculty Assn, which represents the faculty, librarians, counselors, and coaches of the California State University. Our adjuncts are called lecturers, and we have worked hard to improve their working conditions and pay-- CFA represents them along with our tenure track faculty-- and I can honestly say that CSU lecturers probably have the best contract protections and terms and conditions of employment of any adjunct faculty in the nation.
That said, we need to do much, much more. Mainly, we want to provide a path to secure employment for our long time lecturers, and we want to decrease the proportion of the faculty work force that is contingent. It is shameful that our universities exploit adjunct faculty so badly.
Students don't know the difference between lecturers and tenured full profs, generally, so they are usually shocked to learn what the lecturers teaching them make and that their employment is so insecure. Even in the CSU, lecturers with less than a 0.4 time base (typically that means less than two full classes per semester) don't receive any benefits at all, and are often classified in the lowest wage pay scales. Again, it is absolutely shameful, and adjunct faculty in most states don't have half the protections that CSU lecturers have. I would never recommend an academic career for my kids if it means being adjunct.
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