Daily Free Press - Part-time Profs Demand Equal Pay, Benefits

By Ana Traynin

Part-time university faculty members, both nationally and at Boston University, have been demanding equality in compensation and benefits, saying they feel exploited by the administrations at their institutions.

The adjunct professors are currently working with teachers unions to resolve the issue.

"Our argument is they're basically treating faculty like Wal-Mart employees," said Dawn Saunders, senior field representative for the bargaining union United Professions of Vermont and part-time economics professor at University of Vermont.

"The university argues that it hires part-timers to increase flexibility and to take advantage of expertise, and that's fine, but the administration should not actually use these people to teach on the cheap. Pay them what they're worth," she added.

Saunders said she feels the institution is not giving her and her colleagues the respect they deserve as members of the university community.

"We had a number of events on our campus to publicize the conditions of part-time faculty," Saunders said. "They've never had a contract to negotiate before. What we're trying to get is pay that is more equivalent to full-time faculty in the same category."

Vermont offers some professors unofficial full-time contracts, Saunders said, which clock them working the same amount of hours as full-time professors but are denied the same pay and benefits.

From Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, two teacher unions, the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, participated in Campus Equity Week, an annual national event designed to spur public attention to the allegedly unfair working conditions endured by part-time faculty nationwide.

Jaime Zapata, AFT spokesman, said compensation is not the main concern for part-time professors.

"It's not just about how much they make," Zapata said. "It's about giving good working conditions -- things like having an office so you have time to meet with students."

Zapata added part-time professors are a substantial fraction of many faculties and should be treated with more respect.

"There's a higher percentage of college professors who are part-timers today then there were 20 to 30 years ago," he said. "The numbers have changed dramatically. There are part-time faculty members who want to be full-time faculty members and not given that opportunity because, honestly, the university sees it as a cost-saving measure.

Roscoe Giles, a BU College of Engineering professor and Faculty Council Chairman, said BU is in the process of addressing the needs of adjunct professors.

"I would say that some part-time faculty have expressed concerns to the faculty council through our survey last year on equity and inclusion," Giles said in an e-mail. "I think that the administration is in the process of reviewing salary equity issues across the university and that we are all looking forward to the outcomes of this review."

According to Saunders, part-time professors are also seeking career security.

"In our view the university is exploiting them because they're less mobile," Saunders said. "This bargaining unit has been more concerned with the job security issue than the pay per se. You don't know if even if you've been teaching for 30 years if you're going to get a course for next semester.

"A department can choose to hire anybody new off the street because there are no contractual projections in place right now," she continued. "It would be in the best interests of the students to increase job security for these folks so that they gain more experience working with these students."

Gwen Bradley, associate secretary at the AAUP, added part-time professors want a more active role in deciding class curriculums.

"We're also concerned that they should have equal participation in setting in the curriculum," Bradley said. "The part-timers come in and cookie-cutter teach it. These faculty members should be discussing that curriculum and get feedback from their students."

See original article at the Daily Free Press.

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