As seven long-time, non-tenure-track — also referred to as RTPC, or research, teaching, practitioner and clinical-track — faculty at USC, we have over two decades of service on the Academic Senate. Each of us joined this body with a shared conviction: Faculty should have a strong voice in shaping the future of our institution and our working conditions. 

However, our experience has revealed a sobering reality: Because nearly every recommendation requires approval from the provost or president, the Senate’s “voice” is often no more than a suggestion.

This is why we are voting “yes” at the end of this month to form the United Faculty-UAW, a non-tenure-track faculty union at USC. We support unionization to enhance shared governance by strengthening our voice as non-tenured full- and part-time faculty at USC.

Throughout our terms, we have sought to address the steady erosion of our working conditions, including increased teaching loads, stagnant research support, salary compression, freezes of pay and retirement contributions, and reduced Tuition Assistance Benefits — which provide financial support for employees and their families to pursue degrees and certificates at the University. 

Unfortunately, such changes instituted by the University leadership are rarely temporary. For example, faculty have not been made whole after two years of merit-pay freezes, in 2020 and 2025, and the pandemic-era holds on retirement contributions.

We have pushed back, but, despite our best efforts, the administration does not have to consider our appeals.

In 2022, over 900 faculty signed an open letter, and the Senate passed a resolution, urging the USC administration to implement cost-of-living adjustments to faculty salaries. The proposal was summarily rejected. Further, adjunct faculty continue to work under increasingly precarious conditions; and, perhaps most distressing, several full-time, part-time and even tenured faculty colleagues have been laid off over the past eight months.

The administration has argued that all USC faculty are “managers” and therefore ineligible to unionize. They have spent substantial funds on this legal argument. However, in a decision released on March 20, the regional National Labor Relations Board rejected their claim. The judgment confirmed what we already know: Non-tenure-track faculty have no meaningful managerial power. We are workers with the right to form unions and bargain for fair contracts that address all of our needs.

Counter to the administration’s messaging, a union does not preclude faculty governance at USC. Across the country, at both public and private universities, unions and senates coexist and thrive. 

While the Senate focuses on academic policy, a union enables faculty to bargain as equals on compensation, benefits and job security in a legally binding contract. We’ve seen this at NYU, where non-tenure-track faculty, who unionized with UAW in 2024, successfully ratified their first agreement, dramatically improving their pay and working conditions while preserving their right to continue membership in the academic senate, serve on promotion committees and contribute to curriculum decisions.

We have an historic opportunity to establish the same at USC — a more meaningful faculty voice to better address our employment conditions. All non-tenure-track faculty — whether part-time or full-time, research, teaching, practitioner, clinical, or librarian — who care about making our working lives better, while also strengthening shared governance, should vote “yes.” It is the only way to win back what we have lost and to secure the protections we deserve.

The authors have served in varying capacities on USC’s Academic Senate as Executive Board members, senators, committee chairs or co-chairs; University-wide task forces and committees; and on their school Faculty Councils.

Michael Bodie is an associate professor of practice in the School of Cinematic Arts and has taught at USC for 16 years.

Patrick Corbin is an associate professor of practice in the Kaufman School of Dance and has taught at USC for 10 years.

Lodovico Pizzati is an assistant professor (teaching) of economics in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and has taught at USC for 12 years.

Renée Smith-Maddox is a teaching professor in the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and has taught at USC for 15 years.

Alison Trope is a clinical professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where she has taught for 25 years. 

Elisa Warford is an associate professor of practice in the Viterbi School of Engineering and has taught at USC for 16 years.

Emily Zeamer is an associate professor (teaching) of Anthropology in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and has taught at USC for 10 years.