Growing number of part-time professors join unions

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/article/Growing-number-of-part-time-professors-join-unions-4946594.php 

2. Category of Problem/Issue identified in article: Education/Jobs

3. Level of problem/issue: National

4.State whether the article is concerning one of the following: A problem/issue that individuals/families face
 

5.Why this is important to individuals/families? This is important to individuals and families because many professors are underpaid for their hard work, but also the quality of teaching differs from tenured faculty and adjunct faculty.

6. What are your views on the issue/policy? 

I have two different opinions on this issue. I do think that part-time and adjunct professors should have more of a voice and joining a union would help decrease the lack of support for these individuals but I also think that universities should cut back on the number of adjuncts they hire annually. In my experience, I've had a better learning environment in my classes that have tenured professors because of their ability to do what they want with their lesson plans and curriculum and the fact that they’ve often taught the class for a long time. I think that when universities hire professors on as adjuncts they are often using other professor’s notes, power points, quizzes and tests and I think that is difficult to use someone else’s material and teach it well. This is similar to a situation I’m in right now in a class. The previous professor took on more responsibility and was unable to teach her normal class this semester, leaving us with an adjunct who has never taught before. The adjunct is using all of the other professor’s material to teach the class and to test us but there is always confusion since she didn’t create the notes or slides. I just feel like the quality of teaching/learning isn’t the same as it would be with a professor who has taught the same class for several years. Although I do wish universities would increase the number of tenured faculty, and cut back on the high number of adjuncts they hire for flexibility purposes, I do think that if they are going to hire on these adjuncts they should give them better pay because I think with pay increase the quality of teaching would only increase as well.