The Adjunct and the Chancellor

by Lee Shainen SOUND LIKE THE scenario for an educational drama a la "The Odd Couple?" (Well, one of us can afford more expensive clothes.) Nope, it's just the two of us putting our heads together over dinner to come up with a more equitable system of paying faculty at community colleges. We figured that if we can find the spot where the view from the top and the view from the bottom converged, we might have something map-worthy. Let's start with the obvious: plenty of part-timers want full-time jobs, or at least more pay and benefits. Certainly, faculty unions have been arguing for the creation of more full-time positions. But, here's the deal: the pot isn't going to get significantly larger in the foreseeable future. So, how can we make the best out of the resources we currently have? For starters, let's get honest about what we're paying for. Starting with the classroom: students register for classes with the expectation of receiving quality instruction, regardless of who is teaching the class. They, and the taxpayers, are paying for competent and trained instructors, and access to them through office hours. There should be no difference between the full-timer and the part-timer in this regard. They each need the same amount of time to prepare for a class and should be just as available to the student out of class. So, on a pro rata basis, their instructional pay should be the same. Now, here's where it gets messy. The primary difference between full-timers and part-timers is that the full-timers are expected to participate in various college-wide and department functions. How many do, though, and to what extent? Often it seems that it is the same active minority of faculty doing a majority of this work. Is this equitable? Let's face it: not everybody wants to serve on screening committees or accreditation task forces. Fine. Don't do it. But, don't expect to get paid for not doing it. Perhaps you could teach more classes to keep up your standard of living. Remember, there is only so much money in the kitty, and dividing it up fairly is our objective here. We suspect that there would be faculty who would be relieved to hear they had an option regarding their out-of-classroom obligations.Many already say they would rather just teach. Perhaps there are also those who would like to teach less and participate more in governance, at least from time to time. Having such flexibility could be a win-win for everybody. But consider, especially, what it might mean for the adjunct. For numbers' sake, say that the average full-timer at a community college earns $40,000 per year and teaches fifteen credit hours each semester. That's fifteen hours in the classroom, five for office hours, and, say, another five for preparation. (The amounts would differ from discipline to discipline.) That's twenty-five hours a week of instructional pay. The remaining fifteen hours are what is owed to the college for various committee and governance processes. This is the part of the pie where, theoretically, greater accountability is possible. Don't forget, we're recommending that adjuncts be paid the same amount for instructional pay as full-timers, and that money has to come from somewhere. So, using this formula, we can say that roughly 60 percent of a full-timer's salary, or $24,000 per year, is for instructional pay. By this figuring, on a pro rata basis, adjuncts should be receiving $800 per credit hour, or $2,400 for a three-credit-hour class. That's a far cry better than the $500-$600 per credit hour tens of thousands of part-timers are currently earning! Of course, these numbers will vary from institution to institution, but the principle is sound. The truth is, we both wish that all faculty--full and part-time--could do what they most love to do and make a decent living doing it. In even a slightly more perfect world, education would be better funded and we wouldn't be here trying to figure out how to divvy up what we've got. "By the way, Bob, whose turn is it to pay for dinner?" "I believe it's yours, Lee." "Gee whiz! I'm only making more money in theory here." "Hey, fair is fair." "Oh, come on."