Adjunct faculty make case for equality
By Kathryn Reed
She wheels around what looks like an oversized briefcase. It’s heavy. People ask why she does it. Her answer – it’s her office.
This is Julie Ewing’s reality. For 12 years she has been an adjunct faculty member in Lake Tahoe Community College’s English Department. As such, she doesn’t have an office to store things. No adjunct faculty member does. That means taking everything with her every day she teaches. Taking it home. Taking it from room to room.
Adjunct faculty throughout the United States on Feb. 25 brought their issues to light in various ways. At some schools they walked out in protest. At LTCC there was an hourlong assembly where nearly 100 people – mostly students – heard the issues that face these part-time instructors.
Most of these instructors have the same education as full-time faculty. But being part time means they get paid less. On average they make $25,000 a year. They don’t have health benefits. They don’t have contracts and there is no job security. With no offices, they can’t have office hours for students.
At LTCC, the adjunct teaching non-credit ESL classes don’t get paid for holidays or snow days.
Nearly 100 people listen Feb. 25 at LTCC about the plight of adjunct faculty. Photo/LTn
These part-timers don’t get to take sabbaticals every seven years for enrichment opportunities like the LTCC full-timers do. They don’t get time to do research – at least not paid time. Ewing said she has never made $25,000 a year. She was close one year. But that was the year she spent on the road working at schools here, in Reno and Incline Village.
For Maxine Alper, who has been an adjunct faculty member at LTCC since 1997, she is wondering how her rent will be paid in the fall. On Friday a full-time faculty member bumped her. Full-timers have first rights to a class. The loss in pay is equivalent to two-thirds of Alper’s monthly rent.
It wasn’t a woe-is-me pity party, but instead an informative session about the disparity between those who work full time as instructors and those who work part time and how this may be impacting students and the community at large.
“It damages student learning, faculty governance, and academic freedom. Each of these is an educational cost that institutions incur when they choose not to invest adequately in their instructional missions,” Scott Lukas said. He teaches anthropology and sociology at LTCC – full time.
Lukas was one of four presenters Wednesday. Joining him were Albert Ponce – full time political science professor, Alper and Ewing. Alper said adjunct at LTCC make one-quarter to one-third what full-time faculty make.
Colleges use adjunct faculty because they can be paid less and benefits are not included.
At LTCC in fall 2014 and winter 2015 there were 158 contracts for adjunct faculty. Both quarters there were 39 full-time faculty members on the payroll.
Ponce called it a two-tiered system.
“We need to delink from this neo-liberal logic. We need to follow a model other than this one,” Ponce said.
It was acknowledged that much of the problem is at the state level where funding decisions are made and that people should be addressing lawmakers.
Jessica Sota, who is part of the LTCC student senate, said students need to be more involved and aware of who is teaching them.
LTCC students were in Sacramento on Feb. 25 voicing their concerns. They will be returning Monday for the annual March in March, at which time they will also be speaking with individual lawmakers about concerns at community colleges.
If they don’t like it, they should do something else. Nobody is entitled to a guaranteed high income. If they weren’t smart enough to understand that when in college and choosing their own careers, who are they to be instructing the next generation?
Dogula your comments show are real lack of understanding of the issue. Adjunct facility, are used by LTCC and most other community colleges to save money. Facility at our community college should be treated with respect and fairly compensated and they are not.
Our leaders at LTCC have made the choice not to do that for their adjunct facility, that is the real issue.
I am glad to see the students getting involved in this issue. Emloyees who are part-time are valuable. Many asjunct faculty have been at LTCC for many years, and should not be unilaterally “bumped” by junior full-timers. I hope that a solution will be found to meet the needs and values of LTCC, students, faculty and community. This type of collaborative problem-solving engages stakeholders to work toward real, workable and equitable change. Thanks to all who have this positive objectibe in sight!
@Coachp-comments that show a lack of understanding about issues seems to be her modus operandi. She’s been screeching a lot lately… I’m guessing she forgot to take her psych meds again. That or they don’t have healthcare out there in Bundyville, NV.
Dogula, ignorance is an ugly choice. Just because you chose to remain uneducated and you are in a career that pays poorly. You want to enforce those choices on others now?
The average faculty member has a masters degree and has years of experience in their field. If you just look at class time they get about $20 per hour. Most folks with those qualifications wont get out of bed for $20 per hour. Consider the time it takes to develop a course and their hourly rate goes to about $7 per hour.
Now add on to this; the college completely screws up the retirement planning for adjunct faculty. The college doesn’t pay Social Security and instead adjunct faculty get a knock-off PERS that is way worse than SSI for folks retirement. But because of the system the college chose, nobody can make deductible IRA contributions.
So not only does the college not pay, the college does intentionally select a retirement system that pays NOTHING but stops faculty from making IRA deposits.
So now who is getting the great deal Dogula?
Isn’t the issue here- part-time status for some educators- the same in private businesses? I don’t know of any one who works part-time that gets the same benefits or rates-of pay as full time workers. It doesn’t make sense for a person who teaches a few classes a quarter, to make the same as a full time teacher. Good luck with making the case on this one.
….meanwhile the administration just passed two fat raises for themselves in the past two months. $10,000 plus 2% ($2,100) plus $500 technology stipend on top of their in-district allowance and fat travel budgets. The lowest paid classified and part-timers got nothing. Easier to blame the state than to look where the money is actually being spent.
I remember being told one thing consistently while pursuing my degree- do not expect to make money as an educator. I went in with high hopes of teachers interested in putting students first, and instead was met with forced union membership, constant contract disputes and politicking. The majority of our educators have lost track of what it means to be a teacher. Keep working towards that tenured position, and figure out why you’re only being hired as a part-timer.
There are times when 70 percent of classes at LTCC are taught by adjuncts. It is mostly a money thing. Many adjuncts are happy with the part time aspect of the job, but they should be accorded a fair wage and a way to provide a retirement for themselves or get social security.
LTCC is on or near the bottom of wages for adjuncts and I have heard administrators brag about that.
The students also are short changed in many ways due to the way courses are randomly cancelled, including some courses that are pre requisites for following courses. This can add a year to a students graduation from the school, but the high paid administrators don’t care.
The bond issue is not going to make anything better, just higher taxes, because new and more buildings is not going to change the management.
The real problem with this school is enrollment, if the enrollment was even at 75% of capacity of the school(instead of less than %50) all of the adjunct Faculty who wanted full time would most likely get it. This school facilities could handle 4000 full time students.
It may be true that most teachers have masters degrees but not all do. Some teachers have significantly less than that. This should be considered as well.
This community is fortunate to have so many terrific adjunct instructors who teach because they enjoy teaching. They enjoy sharing their knowledge and encouraging students. Thank you, adjunct faculty!
I do some adjunct teaching to supplement my income earned in a fulltime teaching position. The college where I teach as an adjunct provides a lot of shared office space and computer facilities for adjuncts. There is even an administrative support staff for adjunct teaching faculty. The pay there per class is $400 to $600 more than other institutions in the same area.The college also limits the number of classes that can be taught by adjuncts. Therefore there are opportunities for adjuncts to transition into fulltime contract positions or tenure-track positions. I think that this indicates that there are good ways and bad ways of operating this system.
At the same time, those who do earn advanced degrees need to be fully aware that the job market is tough even in the best of times. It is incumbent upon people to do their best to make themselves marketable through research and publication. Someone who earns a Ph.D. and then doesn’t put any effort into publication is pretty much asking to be kept in a subordinate position in the hiring hierarchy. At least that’s how it works beyond the community college level.
Not even Burger King is hiring. In fact, it has closed up and left.
Some “educators” choose to be part time. My sister is one of them.
Isee and TahoeMom. You have it nailed. I agree completely.
We need to pay the LTCC administration more. They work really hard (more than the faculty do) and nobody appreciates them.