The department chair introduced a measure and full time faculty voted to remove the right of part time faculty to attend all department meetings in October 2018, refusing to discuss the issue with part time faculty or the Union. 

In March 2019, the PTFA Union's Policy Board passed a resolution against this action by full time faculty in an ostensibly critically-oriented department of Media Studies; the resolution is below. 

The issue seems relevant to OurMedia/NuestrosMedios activists and scholars, particularly given the theme of the 12th OurMedia/Nuestros Medios conference, "Mediactivism-Scholactivism."  Critical scholars and activists need to reflect and apply critiques and solutions involving hegemony, privilege, and power to inequities within their own communities. 

You can help:  Write to the USF Media Studies chair and full time faculty, telling them they should rescind changes in the department's bylaws and allow part time faculty to again attend all department meetings.  At the least, privileged faculty with full time jobs and jobs for life should engage in a dialogue with marginalized part time faculty about the issues involved. 
Contact information is located at:
https://www.usfca.edu/arts-sciences/undergraduate-programs/media-studies/faculty

Certainly the issues and power dynamics involved are complex.  Not all adjuncts in the department agree with the PTFA's Policy Board on the issue.  Union members and officers regularly discuss and negotiate differences among part time faculty regarding seniority and class assignments, notably between long-time adjuncts and more recent hires.  Power relations are at play, particularly between full time faculty managers in a department and the adjuncts who depend on full time faculty for a job in the future.  Adjuncts, even those at USF with a part time faculty Union, fear retaliation by department managers and university administrators if they are less than merely compliant.  The current widespread academic economic model with an emphasis on "contingent" faculty leads administrators and full time faculty to often treat part time faculty as little more than easily replaceable, cheaper "commodities" for the classroom. 

There may be a reasonable rationale for USF Media Studies full time faculty to vote to disenfranchise their part time colleagues, limiting their inclusion to a single meeting each semester, to be determined by full timers.  Power struggles and conflict are elements of social life, particularly within academic institutions.  But Union officers and part timers aren't aware of any rationale, since Media Studies department management refuses to discuss the issue with them.

The decision by the USF Media Studies chair and full time faculty NOT to engage in a discussion of the issues with those most affected, vulnerable part time faculty, is unacceptable.  Write them today and let them know.
Contact information:
https://www.usfca.edu/arts-sciences/undergraduate-programs/media-studies/faculty

In solidarity,
John Higgins, Ph.D.

President, USF Part Time Faculty Association
AFT Local 6590
Adjunct Professor of Media Studies
University of San Francisco
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: usfptfa.org
Twitter: @usfptfa
Facebook: facebook.com/usfptfa

======================
Resolution for USF Media Studies to Reinstate Participation Rights of Part Time Faculty

WHEREAS, In October of 2018 full-time faculty in the University of San Francisco’s Media Studies department voted to strip part-time faculty of the right to attend most department meetings; and

WHEREAS, the disenfranchisement of adjunct faculty took place without notification of or discussion with adjuncts; and

WHEREAS, adjunct faculty had been previously permitted to attend all department meetings, but had not usually been notified of the meeting dates and times despite repeated requests by adjuncts; and

WHEREAS, the department of Media Studies has been identified in charges of “Unfair Labor Practices” against USF Administration with the National Labor Relations Board; and

WHEREAS, both the USF Administration and the full time faculty union, the USF Faculty Association (USFFA, AFT Local 4269) claim they have no jurisdiction regarding the Media Studies By-laws and assert that the full time faculty are free to strip part-time faculty colleagues of their right to attend department meetings without notification or discussion; and

WHEREAS, the approximately 650 adjunct faculty at USF are represented by the USF Part Time Faculty Association (USF PTFA), AFT Local 6590; and

WHEREAS, the lack of transparency and exclusion of marginalized part-time faulty from information-sharing and decision-making discussions is taking place by full time faculty in Media Studies, a so-called “critical studies” department; and

WHEREAS, “critical studies” ostensibly addresses power imbalances, social inequalities, marginalized social groups, and human rights; and

WHEREAS, the department of Media Studies sponsors a “Human Rights Film Festival” that purports “In keeping with the social justice mission of USF, the festival seeks to make the university a center for the promotion of human rights, as well as a platform to raise consciousness about abuses worldwide”; and

WHEREAS, USF is a Jesuit Catholic university, with a stated commitment to human rights and social justice; and

WHEREAS, as noted by Andrew Marzoni, "Academics may cast themselves as hardened opponents of dominant norms and constituted power, but their rituals of entitlement and fiendish loyalty to established networks of caste and privilege undermine that critical pose."**

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the USF Part Time Faculty Association calls on full time faculty in the department of Media Studies to recognize the privileges of their full time positions and, in some cases, a job for life (tenure); and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the PTFA calls on full time faculty in Media Studies to follow the ideals of human rights and social justice; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the PTFA urges full time faculty in Media Studies to reinstate the rights of part time faculty to attend all department faculty meetings.

 
Adopted on 19 March 2019 by the Policy Board of the USF Part Time Faculty Association

**Marzoni, Andrew.  1 Nov 2018.  “Academia is a Cult,” The Washington Post, online edition. Available at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/academia-is-a-cult/2018/10/31/eea787a0-bd08-11e8-b7d2-0773aa1e33da_story.html

*Archived OurMedia/NuestrosMedios conference papers 2001-2004 available at http://mediaprof.org/ourmedia/omwebsite/general/papers.html