UA Gender & Women's Studies associate professor Sandra Soto explains her views on why adjunct professors deserve better treatment outside of the Administration Building at UA on Wednesday, Feb. 25, in Tucson. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Noble/The Daily Wildcat)In conjunction with National Adjunct Walkout Day, professors from UA staged a public walkout on campus to protest low salaries and lack of job stability for non-tenure track faculty. Back in Tempe, the civil disobedience was less of a spectacle, but not to be overlooked.
An ASU non-tenure track full-time instructor of English, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said faculty in the English department have been voicing their displeasure through teaching students about the issue of salaries and workload, rather than through a public demonstration.
The dissent has increased in the English department after teachers were notified that they would be expected to teach five classes per semester instead of four, a change that so far has not come with an increase in pay for all affected, the instructor said.
“We were teaching four classes per semester and were then expected to spend 80 percent of our time teaching and 20 percent on professional development,” the instructor said. “We had the option to take on a fifth class per semester and then not have to participate in the service portion. Many people did that because they would make extra money. The new proposal initially said all were expected to teach five and did not address any change in compensation.”
Teachers in university classes are categorized in different ways. Tenure track faculty, who are reaching for a permanent job contract, are on the top rung, followed by lecturers and then instructors. An instructor's salary starts around $30,000 per year, the instructor said. Part-time faculty members are called adjuncts and are paid per class they teach.
The instructor said Ph. D. holders were then offered an extra $4,000 per year for the fifth class, compared with the $3,150 per class adjunct faculty was making prior to the change.
“Many people are not speaking out in a public way out of fear,” the instructor said. “This is a right-to-work state, and our administration is less sympathetic to the cause.”
At UA, adjunct English lecturer Joel Smith, one of the walkout organizers, said the issue is widespread through universities run by the Arizona Board of Regents.
“I can tell you that many ASU non-tenure track faculty are afraid to walk out or teach-in on National Adjunct Walkout Day, because of the ASU administration cracking down on them,” Smith said in an email. “I have personally met with ASU instructors in Tempe, and have to say that the ASU English Department’s switch to 5/5 teaching loads for no additional pay is one of the straws that broke the camel’s back, not only for them, but for us here at the UA.”
Smith said educating administration and students about the department’s contributions to the UA will help ensure job security and gain support from colleagues in other departments.
“We believe that when students learn how poorly we’re treated in comparison to the real, vital contributions we make to their learning every day, the administration will respond positively,” Smith said. “Since none of us have contracts yet for next year anyway, there isn’t much to lose from our point of view. We are loyal, hard-working instructors who earn high scores on student evaluations, and we deserve a living wage.”
John Washington, another adjunct English lecturer at UA, said budget cuts and lack of recognition from university administration will negatively affect students by lowering instructors’ morale.
“The UA spends only 24 percent of all funding on tuition, which is an 8 percent decline since 2003,” Washington said in an email. “Forty percent of teaching faculty are adjuncts, many of them underpaid and without any job security. Our goals are multi-year contracts, paths to promotion, reduced class sizes, and equitable salaries in line with our Arizona Board of Regents peer institutions. We want to improve classroom conditions and give students the education they deserve.”
The ASU instructor said instead of walking out in a public protest, many of the instructor’s colleagues are doing “teach-ins” by providing articles and examples about salaries for teachers compared to the department’s revenues.
“Students and parents should be aware of where their money is going,” the instructor said. “Tenure track professors are compensated pretty well, but the lower ranks are definitely being exploited by the University.”
Reach the reporter at cvanek@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @CorinaVanek.
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