From the issue dated May 3, 2002
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Part-Time Instructors Deserve Equal Pay for Equal WorkBy JACK LONGMATE and FRANK COSCOAccording to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 60 percent of all faculty members at community colleges work part time, compared with less than 20 percent in 1970. To some observers, this hiring practice is "good business." It offers institutions more flexibility, as part-time faculty members can be let go whenever they are not needed. Moreover, part-time instructors are far less expensive than those who work full time. Not only do most part-timers receive no health or retirement benefits, but their rate of pay is not in equal proportion to that of full-time faculty members. For instance, in the case of Washington State community colleges, while a full-time faculty member earns roughly $40,000 annually, a comparable part-time instructor with half of a full-time load does not automatically receive $20,000. Rather, he or she may earn only about $10,000 because the rate of pay is discounted. In fact, however, such pronounced differences in pay and benefits are indefensible. Students pay the same fees, and the credits earned from classes taught have the same value, regardless of the status of the instructors. Indeed, the practice is in plain violation of the principle of equal pay for equal work. Moreover, most adjuncts are only marginally involved in the governance of their institutions, have no job security or seniority, and receive little or no opportunity for continuing professional development. The National Education Association advocated pro rata pay and benefits for part-time faculty as long ago as 1976. More than two decades later, in 1997, 10 academic associations collaborated in a formal statement on the growing use of part-time and adjunct faculty and called for "equitable provision of salary ... indexed to full-time faculty salaries ... rather than per-course-hour rates." But, thus far, few higher-education institutions or faculty unions have been willing to put the pro rata remedy into practice. An exception worth examining are two-year and four-year colleges in British Columbia, 14 of which operate with both local contracts, called "collective agreements," and an unusual province-wide collective agreement, called the "Common Agreement." At these institutions, the combination of agreements establishes a pro rata framework for both wages and faculty rights. The wage system and faculty rights at the largest college, Vancouver Community College -- which employs more than 700 instructors and serves more than 10,000 students each year -- is the most exemplary. At Vancouver, where one of us has served as head of the Faculty Association, faculty members are classified as "regular" or "term," but those classifications do not equate to full time or part time. Regular status primarily refers to a faculty member's nonprobationary continuing employment. Term status is the probationary period, usually at least two years in duration, during which new hires are subject to summative evaluation. Once that process is complete, an instructor is on track to automatic conversion to regular status. Quite unlike the American system, both regular and term instructors may be either full time or part time. But their time status is inconsequential for salary purposes; all faculty are paid on a pro rata basis. Instructors who teach half of a full-time load receive half of full-time wages. More precisely, they receive 50 percent of the wages that a full-time professor who is on the same rung of the salary scale receives. Whereas faculty contracts in the United States typically divide instructional functions according to full-time and part-time status, the Vancouver Community College Faculty Association Collective Agreement identifies primary and secondary teaching functions -- curriculum development, student advising, campus governance -- but stipulates assignment of those functions as the responsibility of the department. Seniority is normally used to allocate assignments. Part-time term instructors accrue seniority on a prorated basis -- those who teach 50 percent of a full-time load accrue 50 percent of the seniority. Part-time regular instructors, by contrast, are awarded the same seniority as full-time instructors, ensuring that their seniority will not be overtaken by full-time faculty. As a result, many part-time instructors are senior to their full-time colleagues. The college also administers benefits that are equal to or proportional to those of full-time faculty. The range of benefits -- unfamiliar on American campuses -- includes the accrual of vacation "at the same rate as full-time regular instructors," professional development prorated according to the instructor's scheduled workload, and a full range of medical and dental benefits, including sick leave. Perhaps the most astounding aspect of the college's system, however, is the process by which term faculty, after proving their teaching competence over a specified period of time, automatically become regular faculty. That differs distinctly from the American system, where part-timers may work for years with dismal hopes of ever being offered full-time status. In short, at Vancouver Community College, part-time faculty have the same stature as full-time faculty -- they simply happen to be employed less than full time. Their work experience is far from what Keith Hoeller, cofounder of the Washington Part-Time Faculty Association, has termed the "academic apartheid" of the American system. What brought about such extraordinary working conditions? Vancouver Community College began hiring part-time instructors more frequently during the 1970s. From the outset, part-time faculty were paid on a pro rata basis; if one had a half-time job, one got half the full-time pay. However, noncompensation issues for part-timers -- workload, ancillary duties, prorated and equal seniority accrual, and professional development -- were more controversial with administrators. Faculty solidarity was key to gaining ground for part-time as well as full-time faculty. In the college's six rounds of collective bargaining since 1988, strike votes were held in five, with the last major strike in 1990. The great majority of full-time faculty members helped win rights for their part-time colleagues with their strike votes. The union ensured that the benefits gained for part-time faculty were not at the expense of gains made for the full-time regular faculty. Pro rata pay and benefits for part-time faculty is the proper way of bringing our rhetoric of "Equal Pay for Equal Work" in line with our practices. Moreover, the Vancouver model helps full time faculty, as well as their part time colleagues. While most part-time faculty must often scramble between jobs with unpaid preparation time, full-time faculty are disproportionally burdened with myriad tasks related to campus governance, student advising, and other extra responsibilities. Part-time faculty, when treated equitably, can share those jobs. Most important, the Vancouver approach disputes the all too common notion that a part-time faculty member is a lesser faculty member. In truth, there can be nothing "lesser" or "partial" about teaching, which requires the instructor's full effort to enhance, encourage, and facilitate the learning process -- whether that instructor teaches full time or part time. Vancouver's example demonstrates that students as well as both full-time and part-time faculty members can be enriched by integrating part-time faculty into the core activities of the institution. It's time for many more colleges and universities to follow its lead. Jack Longmate is an adjunct instructor of English at Olympic College in Bremerton, Wash. Frank Cosco is the former president of Vancouver Community College's Faculty Association and an instructor of English as a second language there. http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Page: B14
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Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education