This story was originally published by Daily Montanan: URL: https://dailymontanan.com This story has not been altered or edited. (C) Daily Montanan. Licensed for re-distribution through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. ------------ Derailed: No protection, limited benefits. Adjunct faculty describe working conditions – Daily Montanan ['Carrie La Seur', 'More From Author', '- March'] Date: 2022-03-08 00:00:00 “You almost have to be convicted of a felony to be thrown out of a tenured job, but I can be fired at a moment’s notice over anything,” said an adjunct who teaches full-time in the sciences with a master’s degree, taking year-to-year contracts in the Montana University System with no job security but basic benefits. She spoke on the condition that she not be identified. “It’s a roller coaster. Letting people go, we’re the first ones laid off. There’s no value to longevity or seniority.” The sciences adjunct professor described a career of crushing insecurity: Contracts signed at the last minute, even after the term had started. Salary dictated, never negotiated. There’s a pecking order, she said, in which adjuncts aren’t respected. “You’re not as important,” she’s been told by tenure track faculty. Earning less than new graduates she taught, she knows that she needs to get out, but she loves teaching, her students, her college town community, and the flexibility of academic work. Even as she polishes her resume and networks in her field, where she’s highly employable, she mourns the university life she’ll have to leave. Derailed: Life off the tenure track Editor’s note: The Daily Montanan is presenting a five-part series to examine the roles and inequities of non-tenure track faculty in the public Montana University System and beyond. Traditionally, non-tenure track or “contingent” faculty – those whose jobs are not protected by the tenure system that requires significant process for dismissal – have consisted of independent professionals and academics in a community filling in as needed. But as higher education struggles with budget constraints, these positions make up an increasing portion of the faculty even at flagship universities – and the hourly pay works out to less than food service employees’. This series examines five aspects of the rise of contingent faculty, which some describe as a lesser caste in which those who prepared for secure academic careers scramble to eke out a living. Part One: Caste system Outside the tenure system, university teaching has slipped into the modern gig economy, with terms often worse than delivery driving. Part Two: Lower caste Work conditions for contingent faculty can be exhausting, demoralizing, and in the worst case, fatal. Part Three: Terms of Employment Earning as little as $3 an hour, contingent faculty have no job security and little hope of advancement. Part Four: Impact on Students Despite contingent faculty’s best efforts, their tenuous position within the university can reduce their value to students. Part Five: Pushing back Professional associations, unions, and universities are taking steps to improve the status of adjuncts, to protect the core mission of higher education. She’s not the only one looking for the exit. Glassdoor.com, a website that allows posters to reveal salary and work environment information anonymously, has dozens of reviews for adjuncting jobs at MSU-Bozeman. There’s no way to confirm their accuracy, but adjuncts interviewed about their work in the Montana University System made strikingly similar comments. The reviews reveal appreciation for students, setting, and bonuses like tuition waiver that matter to graduate students, along with consistent cons: “Low pay for the area, could’ve made more at Wendy’s.” “No health insurance.” “Salary was significantly lower than anywhere else.” “The per credit hour pay is low and an adjunct must take on at least 4 classes to make a living wage.” “MSU does not pay their employees enough for the rising housing costs. It is near impossible to get a raise and there is consistently drama from the tenured faculty towards the adjunct faculty. Staff are under-appreciated and under paid.” “Opportunities to teach, that’s about it.” “Non tenure track positions aren’t well cared for” “Extremely long hours and days. No set schedule. Poor communications from supervisors. Women doing the same work or more than men, should be compensated and treated in the same way as men.” “Adjuncts have poor pay and no job security.” “The university cap on the amount of hours one can work and still be considered part-time makes it virtually impossible to sustain a position.” “At some point they set the university up so that health insurance was required to be provided if adjuncts teach over half time. This has resulted in them simply never giving anyone (at least in my department) more than half time. The leadership outright lied about future course load to string me along for a longer time period. My advice to anyone who is working for this university is that if it isn’t in writing, then you can’t and shouldn’t trust it.” The last comment comes from “current adjunct faculty” of more than a year. In response, MSU points to its collective bargaining agreement with the Associated Faculty of MSU, which includes obligations to contingent faculty, such as paid leave for a union representative to participate in negotiations and enclosed, shared faculty workspace, with at minimum a lockable filing cabinet. The agreement makes multi-year contracts available, but allows the university to cancel contracts at any time due to insufficient enrollment or lack of funding. There are full-time equivalent salary floors, starting at $30,000 annually for an instructor without the relevant terminal degree, and eligibility for faculty development grants. For decades, the visiting professional adjunct has been less common than the struggling single mom teaching classes at whatever fee is offered, to make ends meet and maintain a grip on academic employment. The benefits may not come in the form of health insurance or a retirement fund, but they can be a siren song (if you understand that reference, thank a likely underpaid humanities professor). Adjunct status confers free access to university libraries, academic journals, and interlibrary loans needed for research, teaching experience that might lead to a permanent job, and ongoing ties to academia. For someone who’s invested years in this career, it’s hard to let the dream die. Many adjuncts report that their institutions see them as a resource to be exploited. Melissa Holmes, the computer science professor who has a doctorate in education, had a 10-month academic year contract with the University of Montana computer science department, earning $4,500 per course. When the business school offered her $7,500 to teach a summer class in its MBA program, Holmes said UM administration vetoed the higher fee, holding her to the less advantageous terms of her academic year contract — which might not be renewed — to avoid “setting a precedent” for higher wages. UM did not respond to a request for comment on how adjuncts are treated. Policies like this leave adjuncts struggling to survive. The American Federation of Teachers reports that 25 percent of adjuncts use public assistance, and 40 percent struggle to pay for basic needs. A 2012 survey by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce found that median adjunct pay in the U.S. was $2,700 per course. One-third made less than $25,000 per year. Less than a quarter of those jobs included health insurance. More than half of adjuncts have been teaching part-time for more than six years and consider this their career path, not an add-on to another career. Per semester compensation for teaching a three-credit class — three classroom hours per week — in the Montana University System during the last decade ranges from $1,500 to $7,500 (by far the high end, which Holmes ultimately did not receive), according to adjuncts’ self-reporting. That’s pre-tax gross for all hours, including class preparation that commonly requires several hours for every hour in the classroom, teaching, office hours, grading, and all administrative tasks. Pay differs among campuses and even among departments. The MFA adjunct calculated her hourly rate at around $3. By comparison, Montana University System tenure-track faculty salaries – which are public record – range from as low as $30,000 for an assistant professor of nursing at Montana State University-Northern in Havre, to more than $130,000 for full professors of engineering at Montana State University-Bozeman. According to Chronicle of Higher Education data on Montana’s 23 colleges, women are paid less than men on average across all faculty ranks. In recent years, the University of Montana has paid $3,000 a term to teach sections that might include 100 students. Employment isn’t guaranteed — if the class doesn’t fill, it isn’t taught. A full load for most professors is three or four classes per semester, depending on the field, often less for research professors. But some adjuncts report teaching as many as seven classes at once to make a living wage. Even if it’s possible to get hired for a full schedule, the work leaves little time for research or publishing — tasks necessary to clamber onto the tenure ladder — with no prospect of a sabbatical or professional development. In this way, an underclass develops. Classes taught by non-tenure-track faculty are full, so they provide a valuable service, and universities spend more than half their budgets on faculty, with a growing cadre of well-paid administrators, so it’s not that resources to pay adjuncts have dried up. Why then have adjuncts wound up powerless and (nearly) penniless? Is this the future of all academics if — as trends suggest — tenure is on its way out? [END] [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/03/08/derailed-no-protection-limited-benefits-any-future-adjunct-faculty-describe-higher-ed-treatment/ Content is licensed through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/