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[psychprof]

I can see why it seems awkward to you.

I've never heard of paying a colleague for teaching a class for someone. Of course, people don't usually ask people that they aren't friends with, so there is both a sense of "favor" and a sense of "some day I'll repay the favor."

Of course, as others have pointed out, the $175 is quite excessive.

I like the suggestion that you just tell your colleague that you appreciate her offer, but that you can't afford it. Simple and quick. No explanation necessary.

As to notifying your chair, make sure that you are not required to do so when you are absent (look in your contract or your faculty manual). Our place requires you to notify the chair when you are missing class.

Hope this helps! Keep us posted.

[boiler]

I do agree that the $175 was a high request, but I don't think you should be surprised that she asked for money. After all, you suggested it yourself in your initial request. A lot of academics are pretty short on money in the summers, and you can't blame them if they jump on a chance to make some extra.

Personally, I have never considered paying someone to cover a class for me, nor would I accept payment for doing it. But I'm tenured, and the amount of teaching I do doesn't have any direct effect on my salary. For a contract person who's being paid by the course, I can imagine it would look very different.

[mystictechgal]

I know it's not the equivalent, and I probably wouldn't even chime in if you hadn't mentioned that all you wanted was for her to show a movie.  But, my husband substitute taught K-12 before he died last year (specializing in math, but he taught whatever was needed).  $175 is close to what he would have made for teaching 5 days--full days.  And, he taught course content, he didn't just show movies or proctor tests, and, if on the schedule, he covered as lunch room &/or recess monitor.  Forgive me, but I think your colleague has an inflated self-worth given what you were asking.  My flabber is gasted.

[tolerantly]

I dunno.  I don't generally work for less than $40/hr, and I wouldn't break up my day like that for $50.  $175 sounds steep, but if there's travel and prep time involved, maybe not unreasonable.  Or maybe that's just what she's decided her time off is worth to her.  I know several people who won't touch jobs till they hit the $100/hr mark.

Anyway.  Either teach it yourself or find someone willing to give it away.

[curly]

Adjuncts must always be paid since the institutions we work for usually pay us for extra work.

In this case, the offer of exchange was valid, but since rejected, the obligation to pay remains and the rate should always be agreed beforehand.

The rate requested is crazy, of course, and if all that is required is to push "play", I am puzzled why a professor is needed at all.  Couldn't the media people push the button for $20?

To be the devil's advocated, if all it takes is $20 to push play, should the institution itself pay a prof's salary for that day?  Yikes - there's a Pandora's box.

[palla]

Maybe the other instructor felt obligated to say yes (or uncomfortable saying no), but really didn't want to do it, had another committment, or something along those lines.  Maybe by asking $175, the other instructor was hoping you would find alternate plans.

Just another thought.

[neniaf]

I'm amazed at how many people seem to assume that it is outrageous of your coworker to ask for pay.  I've paid a number of people over the years to cover classes (usually exams) for me.  With tenure-track faculty working together over a period of years, it is often assumed that the favor can be returned, even if indirectly.  However, I have occasionally had to ask an adjunct faculty member, a staff member, or a graduate student to cover for me while I was away at a conference, and I have always paid them. 

I have learned, however, to offer a particular amount, not to leave it up to them to ask.  Generally I will take the rate paid to adjuncts and divide it appropriately (1/16 if it is a once-a-week class, for example).  This was a result of an admin asking for $300 to proctor a two-hour exam for me!

Unless it is expected by both parties to be a reciprocal exchange, it seems unfair to me to ask someone to perform part of my job, for which I am paid, without fair compensation. 

[rowan1]

At my old CC two of my colleagues and I covered for each other periodically and completly under the table.  We had an agreement - we would either do even swaps or we would pay each other - based on our pay rate minus prep time per class it came out to about $75 for a 2 hour class. We all worked it out and agreed on this scale.

If we went through "official" channels we would lose a days pay (more then the $75 dollars) and the other person would get about $50 from the CC. Plus the paperwork was ridiculous.

Since we were all either job searching and had interviews or as working actors and directors there were times we had to cover and usually it was just a straight trade.

[drannmaria]

I guess it depends on what you get paid. Are you talking a three-hour class? I get well more than $175 for three hours so paying a colleague the money I would get for the class I am not doing sounds perfectly fair.

Okay, so shoot me but I keep reading these articles on how badly nontenure faculty are paid. I have been offered teaching positions at 1/4 or less the rate I currently get paid. I said, "No."

I read a lot of posts in here and in the Chronicle on how badly people are treated, how low the pay is. Then why not do something else? Admitting here I do not know anything about the job market outside of academe for people with Ph.D.'s in English, etc.

Years ago, my firm hired someone with a Ph.D. in Archaeology to be an analyst. Back then, the salary was probably $35K which was  a lot less than I was making as an engineer. He was telling me about his previous job excavating a site in Peru. I said it sounded amazing and asked why he quit. He said because he made $7,000 that year and at some point in life he would like to have a family and he sure couldn't support one on $7,000 a year.

I really don't mean to be rude here, but it seems as if you are all collaborating in your own exploitation.

Yes, I loved my TT job and I left it because I made three times as much outside of the university.

Sorry if this is off-track but I have wondered this lots of times reading this forum. There are so many obviously brilliant people here working full-time that you ought to be able to afford steak instead of mac and cheese.

[kedves]

I really don't mean to be rude here, but it seems as if you are all collaborating in your own exploitation.

There have been several threads on your topic, found by paging through the back pages of this forum or doing a search.  You wouldn't want me to be exploited by doing it for you.

[grasshopper]

Years ago, my firm hired someone with a Ph.D. in Archaeology to be an analyst. Back then, the salary was probably $35K which was  a lot less than I was making as an engineer.

And there's the reason why you get paid more than people with PhDs in the humanities and social sciences.

I was reading your post wondering how someone who has worked as an adjunct could possibly say something as clueless as "well, why don't you just find another adjunct position that pays more?"

That's why. It's a whole other beastie for us humanities/social sciences folks.