The Case for Campus Equity

How Exploiting Part-Time Faculty Undermines Higher Education

About 43 percent of all faculty are considered "part-time," more than double the percentage that pertained twenty years ago.  The AAUP believes that excessive use of, and inadequate compensation and professional support for, part-time and non-tenure-track faculty exploits these colleagues and undermines academic freedom, academic quality and professional standards. 

What does the term "part-time faculty" mean? Operationally, part-time faculty are those who are simply classified as such by their institutions.  They are defined more accurately and universally by their contingent relationship to their institutions than by characteristics such as academic qualifications, experience, or workload.  Though it might be assumed that a part-time faculty member carries a lighter workload than a full-time faculty member, even that measure is not universally true.  There is general agreement, at least in statistical studies, that the term does not include graduate student teaching assistants. 

The relationship between part-time faculty members and their institutions is generally short term, based on teaching load only (usually by course), and described in individual semester-to-semester contracts.  The contract carries no long-term commitment by the institution, and seldom provides for health insurance, retirement plan contributions, or other benefits.  Part-time faculty members are typically hired by department chairs, sometimes with very little notice at either end of the contract period, and without a broad search process or review by faculty peers.

What do they teach?  Part-time and other temporary faculty are concentrated in certain disciplines, including English, history, modern languages and mathematics.  According to the Coalition on the Academic Work Force (CAW)* survey, which collected data on several disciplines in the humanities, about 20% of all undergraduate courses in these areas are taught by part-time faculty.  This median number includes a range from 16% of all undergraduate linguistics programs to 31% of all freestanding English composition programs.  About 26% of all introductory courses in these disciplines are taught by part-time faculty.

How are part-time faculty paid?  According to the CAW survey, most of the faculty are paid by the course, and most receive less than $3,000 per course.  Nearly one third receive $2,000 or less per course. About 17% of the institutions surveyed pay part-time faculty a proportionate share of the compensation and benefits that would be available to full time faculty, based on an assessment of the proportionate workload and other factors.

How do their institutions support their work?  Across the nine disciplines surveyed, almost all departments offer mailbox, photocopying and library privileges.  Only about 20% of the departments provide private office space and computer access and some don't even offer shared offices, shared computer access, or the use of a telephone.  Half of the departments responded that part-time faculty are included in department meetings; about a quarter pay for part-time faculty to attend workshops or professional meetings, and about 18% allow access to research grants.

"When I wanted to meet my students out of class, we had to find a table at the school cafeteria." Susan Lowry, addressing the Association of American Colleges and Universities 1999 Annual Meeting.

What's the Problem?  College and university faculty are practitioners of a demanding profession.  The work of this profession includes maintaining mastery in a field, researching and publishing new material, providing scholarly service to the community, helping to shape the curriculum offered in a discipline, and setting standards that measure achievement in an academic field.  Part-time faculty are not compensated for these out-of-classroom experiences.  If a majority of faculty in an academic department are not able to participate in these important aspects of faculty work, the quality of inquiry, teaching and service in that department atrophies. 

The tenuous relationship between the part-time faculty member and his or her department puts a chill on academic freedom.  "Their lack of job security limits freedom of thought because the controversy and disagreement inherent in the free exchange of ideas carries with it the risk of dismissal or retribution," according to Rich Moser, AAUP National Field Representative.  Therefore, he continues, "students are deprived of the robust debate essential to citizenship."

Also essential to citizenship is a lesson about fair employment conditions.  "The university can't help but be a teacher," Rich Moser said at a recent meeting on part-time faculty issues.  "If the university exploits workers and pays them poorly, then that is the hidden but true curriculum of the university," he added.  A commitment to scholarship is incompatible with some of the expedient values that are acceptable and workable in the corporate environment. 

Institutions turn to part-time faculty to save money.  The savings, however, are not reflected in lower costs for students, or in increases to full-time faculty salaries.  Instead, investments in faculty are diverted to some other sector of the institution.  Institution budgets show substantial growth in administration and capital costs.  A large portion of the increase in capital costs is attributable to investments in computer technology.  The trade off is short-sighted.  The university will never be able to offer, through administrators, buildings, or computers, what it can offer through a committed and well-supported faculty.

*In 1999, the Coalition on the Academic Workforce organized a survey sponsored by nine disciplinary societies.  The surveys went out to academic departments; in most of the disciplines there was a high (40 - 45%) response rate.  The disciplines included anthropology, art history, foreign languages, English, history, linguistics, philology, philosophy and freestanding English composition programs.  Political science data was collected separately, with a slightly different survey instrument. 

This article was written by Ruth Flower, National AAUP staff, and reprinted from http://www.aaup.org/Ptfacts.htm

· CSU-AAUP is currently negotiating to maintain the cap on part-time faculty.  For current status of negotiations, see www.wcsu.edu/aaup/Nego.htm. v

Campus Equity Week:  October 28-November 3

In conjunction with the nationwide Campus Equity Week, CSU-AAUP has sent a survey to all part-time faculty at the four CSU institutions.  Its purpose is to assess what the issues are that CSU-AAUP should focus on that most concern part-time faculty.  

Because these issues may vary from one campus to another, it is important that we hear from part-time faculty at Western. Please complete and return your survey promptly.  If you are a part-time faculty member and you did not receive the survey, contact Heather Finn at (203) 837-9235 or e-mail aaupw@wcsu.edu. 

To join the Part-time Advisory Committee, contact Michelle Malinowski at the CSU-AAUP office at (860) 832-3790 or e-mail malinowskim@ccsu.edu. v