It’s a shame.
But when it’s about money, there are always losers.
We ran an article before the winter break examining the relationship between full and part-time professors.
With all the attention that got directed at some other things we were working on, the issue was sort of ignored. But it’s too important to ignore for long.
So, at the bottom of this page you’ll find a guest column from a part-time professor reacting to our piece. That column is the beginning of a three-part series in which the president of the full-time faculty union will respond to this week’s column and the provost will then respond to both on the third week.
The situation is this: There are almost as many part-time professors teaching at USM as full-timers. Personally, I’ve had twice as many part-time professors teach my classes.
The part-timers are comparable in almost every way with the full-timers. They have comparable qualifications. They usually teach as many classes each semester. They usually have similar outside research or published works. And from my experience, they are as good at teaching and engaging a class as the full-time professors I’ve had.
Indeed, in most areas, they are equal.
Except pay.
A part-time professor who teaches four classes a semester for two semesters will earn about $16,000 a year with no benefits.
A full-time professor who teaches the same or fewer classes will earn an average of $68,000 with health and retirement benefits.
So I don’t think it’s the students who are losing. We’re getting quality professors one way or the other. To be honest, I had no idea most of the professors I had in my first couple of years here were part-timers. I didn’t detect any sort of inadequacy or apathy on their part.
But something’s not right when two people are doing almost the same job with the same qualifications and there’s a pay gap of over $50,000.
But I am not as idealistic as I may sound.
I understand the financial reality of our institution. I know that personnel is one of its highest costs. Without part-time faculty, we’d all be packed into auditoriums taking classes with 200 other students. There’s no way we’d be able to have small classes with accessible teachers. There would also be no variety of classes to choose from.
We need part-time professors from a business standpoint.
But there’s got to be a way to deal with the situation a bit more fairly.
In his guest column, Dennis Gilbert writes about part-time faculty members not having equal representation on the Faculty Senate, even though their numbers are almost equal.
If the school can’t pay them, at least give them a voice.
These people get the shaft in more ways than I can mention. I think it’s time to give them what they deserve.
I don’t pretend to know all the issues or exactly what should be done. But I know a lot of people are unhappy about the situation as it currently stands.