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Part-time instructors seek better pay, benefits

By David Shobe
dshobe@mscd.edu

Adjunct instructors at Metro are banding together in an effort to attain better pay and benefits.

Some of them will wear armbands in class this semester to gain support for their campaign. A group of adjunct instructors at Metro met over the summer to discuss their strategy for obtaining better conditions and have also created a Website (www.denveradjuncts.org) with information on their campaign.

"Americans and Coloradans cannot say they value higher education and then set the system up to where teachers can't make a living," said Norman Schultz, an adjunct philosophy instructor at Metro who's been heading up the campaign.

The adjunct instructors are working toward getting sick leave, paid breaks and holidays, health care, unemployment benefits, paid office hours and other conditions afforded to full-time professors, but not to adjuncts.

Part-time instructors are only allowed to teach three courses per semester. For each three credit hour course taught, the instructor receives $2,360 with no benefits.

The group will be leaning on the American Federation of Teachers and the college's AFT chapter, Metro State Faculty Federation, for support in meeting their goals.

One solution being discussed by the adjuncts is to have a normal part-time position created so that part-time instructors could count on a consistent workload and receive discounted benefits.

Studies have shown no difference in the quality of teaching when comparing part-time and full-time instructor's courses, but the adjuncts have no say in departmental matters," Schultz said.

"This is a problem because the adjuncts have more classroom contact with students than most full-time instructors, especially in the lower level courses." Schultz said.

Like most part-time jobs, there is no guarantee of consistent employment. If a full-time instructor offers a course, but receives low enrollment, that class may be cancelled and then a part-time instructor may be bumped from teaching a course so the full-time instructor will have a larger class to teach.

Metro spokesperson Cathy Lucas said 20 former part-time faculty positions have been converted into 20 full-time faculty positions this school year. She said this is part of new Metro President Stephen Jordan's three-year plan to convert 60 part-time positions to full-time. Converting the remaining 40 positions depends upon Colorado voters passing referendums C and D, she said. According to Lucas, during the 2002-2003 academic year, there were a total of 647 instructors, 374 of whom were full-time and 273 part-time.

Schultz said that according to Metro's faculty phone list there are 710 part-time instructors listed.

Numbers from the U.S. Department of Education show that for the fall 2003 semester, 620 part-time instructors and 482 full-time instructors were employed at Metro.

A study by C.M. Hay, Ph. D., a part-time instructor at Metro in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, states that 49.51 percent of all listed classes at Metro were taught by adjunct, or part-time instructors.

The largest disparity of part-time and full-time instructors resides in the philosophy department where 20 instructors are part-time and four instructors are full-time. About 75 percent of all philosophy courses were taught by part-time instructors.

Schultz said Metro's faculty senate has been supportive and that President Stephen Jordan also seems supportive.

"At this stage, we're getting good cooperation," Schultz said.

Tim Gould, president of Metro's AFT chapter and a full-time philosophy instructor, said economically speaking, referendums C and D must pass for Metro to reach its projected budget to support more full-time professors.