Dive Brief:

• Columbia College Chicago’s adjunct faculty union members are breaking away from a statewide union that also represents full-time college staff members, who the adjuncts believe are poaching their classes.
• The Part-Time Faculty Association voted 232-50 to split off from the Illinois Education Association, which the adjuncts believe has failed to protect their course assignments from college staff members who belong to another affiliate of the statewide union, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
• The Illinois union says it will investigate the election due to potential improprieties in conducting the vote, including actions taken against union members who tried to speak out against the split.

Dive Insight:

Full-time college staff members who take on additional paid teaching assignments are already receiving full-time pay and benefits, and adjuncts voting to split believe that Columbia College Chicago was violating its contract with the part-timers by assigning classes to the full-timers. Diana Vallera, the Part-Time Faculty Association’s president, said the statewide union didn’t do enough at the bargaining table, or otherwise, to protect the adjuncts from class poaching.