For part-timers, rewards don’t equal contributions

The growing use and abuse of low-paid, part-time faculty on campuses across the country hurts not only the exploited part-timers, but students and full-time faculty as well.

That was the consensus at a lively panel discussion on the topic of “Part Time Faculty: Substantial Contributions, Insubstantial Rewards,’’ sponsored by the UUP Albany chapter on Oct. 30 to mark the nationwide Campus Equity Week.

“Exploitation of some is exploitation of all groups on campus,” said UUP President William Scheuerman, one of the panelists. “We’re all losers if this situation continues. We’re relying on part-time faculty to carry the load that has traditionally been covered by full-timers. You’re asking part-timers to do what full-timers do without providing the resources or the support.”

At SUNY, the percentage of faculty considered part-time increased from 27.6 at the 29 state-operated campuses in 1991-92 to 37.1 in 2000-01, with a corresponding drop in the percentage of full-time faculty.

Part-time faculty, who sometimes must juggle jobs at several campuses to make a living, don’t have the time — and usually aren’t paid — to advise students, involve students in research or to participate on campus committees, noted UUP member Vincent Aceto, another panelist. Aceto, who is a SUNY Albany information science professor and past president of the statewide University Faculty Senate, said that means full-time faculty have to take on higher student advisement loads and serve on more committees.

“It’s a lose-lose situation for both sides,” he said.

Students and educational programs suffer as well. “We can’t continue to say we’re offering a quality education if we have high numbers of part-timers,” said Candace Merbler, UUP Albany chapter president. Several panelists said some programs are even at risk of losing their accreditation because the ratio of part-time to full-time faculty has gotten so high.

Jill Hanifan, co-chair of the Albany chapter’s Part-Time Concerns Committee and a member of the union’s statewide Part-Time Concerns Committee, said: “Part-timers are considered, on the one hand, indispensable and, on the other hand, treated as disposable.”

Hanifan, who had been a part-timer at Albany since 1986 and just recently was appointed as a full-time lecturer and director of the University Writing Center, added that part-timers’ chief concerns are job security and access to benefits and salary, in that order.

Carlos Santiago, SUNY Albany provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor of Latin American and Caribbean studies and economics, said the part-time crisis is largely the result of changes in the way higher education is funded. Tightened budgets and lower percentages of state funding have put the squeeze on campuses across the state and across the nation, he said.

Aceto added that campuses should hire part-time faculty as a way to bring in someone with a particular expertise or to fill a temporary teaching position, but often now “they are hired more because a department can’t afford a full-time faculty member.”

Hanifan said she doesn’t see the financial situation changing anytime soon but said, thanks to the efforts of UUP, things have been improving for part-timers at SUNY. “Both the union and administration at SUNY have been visionary in dealing with part-timers,” she said.

Guidelines recently worked out between the Albany chapter and SUNY Albany require that part-timers who teach six consecutive semesters get a term appointment with a multiyear contract; they must also be considered for full-time employment if an appropriate opening occurs.

“It’s not just a document,” Merbler said. “It’s got teeth in it. We hope that other UUP chapters will use this as a model.”

— Karen Nelis

(For more information on Campus Equity Week, visit the CEW Web site at http://www.cewAction.org.)