We write this letter on behalf of DePaul’s student body to demand better treatment and livable wages for adjunct professors.

It is inevitable that adjuncts’ wages affect us as students in our academics. As young scholars, we hold a high expectation as to how our assignments should be approached.  However, if professors cannot fully invest their time in our education due to having a second or third job required to make ends meet, our university’s values are clearly not being met. By adjunct professors enduring low wages, it is clear that our tuition funds are not being used to provide us with the appropriate educational services it should. Furthermore, we as students have a say in who educates us and whether or not our needs as students are being fulfilled. Institutions of higher education are supposed to be created for the students, not to work against the students.

There are rights being denied when our adjunct professors cannot enjoy what they have invested their own education in. They, too, are scholars; they are individuals that are guiding the next generation at DePaul. It is simply unacceptable and immoral to have individuals teach upon Vincentian morals and not be financially stable.

Professors can’t provide students with access to the space of their offices due to numerous other adjunct professors being assigned to that space as well. Yet, the university still has the proper funding and availability for a stadium. As the student body here at DePaul, we are expressing that there is no need for a stadium, but rather the most cost effective strategy should be used to provide a thorough learning experience for students and a richer teaching experience for adjunct professors.

As a private, Catholic Institution, DePaul University educates us as students based on Vincentian Values. Where are they? Where are our community goals of treating everyone justly and making sure human needs are met? Higher wages are a human need, and it is a need that DePaul University cannot deny.

In solidarity,

M.E.Ch.A de DePaul

Feminist Front

Students for Justice in Palestine

DePaul Alliance for Latino Empowerment