Rocky Mountain News
Profs at Metro plan protest
Part-time instructors out to shine spotlight on pay, benefit issues
By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News
July 29, 2005
Students at Metropolitan State College of Denver may notice some of their professors wearing armbands or stickers when classes resume Aug. 22.
A movement is under way to try to organize the more than 710 part-time instructors at Metro around issues of pay, lack of health benefits and other working conditions.
The group is currently voting on what their slogan should be. Among the choices being considered: “Equal Pay for Equal Work” and “I may not be here next semester. Ask me why.”
Adjunct, or part-time, instructors taught slightly more than half of Metro’s traditional classroom courses last spring, according to a recent survey conducted by one of the instructors.
So far this summer, about 70 adjunct teachers have met twice to discuss banding together. They have also talked with the American Federation of Teachers about joining the union, as some of their full-time Metro colleagues did last year.
“That’s what we’re probably going to do,” said Howard Flomberg, a computer science instructor who has taught at Metro on a part-time basis since 1978.
Flomberg is ambivalent, however, about forming a union, describing himself as listening to what others have to say before making up his mind.
“I don’t want it to be destructive,” he said. “We need to educate the administration as to who we are and what we are and that we’d like to be treated a little better.”
Metro President Stephen Jordan said he is aware of the adjuncts’ concerns and sees it as a symptom of a larger budget problem.
When Jordan was a candidate for the Metro presidency earlier this year, he stated several times that he wanted to see more full-time faculty positions created.
Currently, Metro has 411 full-time professors, while the hours put in by adjuncts add up to the equivalent of 307 full-time jobs.
The school has come to rely increasingly on its part-time faculty as a way to balance cuts in state funding with growing enrollment.
On Thursday, Jordan outlined a three-year plan that he hopes will address the imbalance between full- and part-time instructors.
Beginning this year, Metro plans to convert 20 full-time equivalent adjunct positions into 20 temporary full-time teaching jobs at a cost of $450,000 more than if they were part time.
Jordan hopes to do the same thing in 2006 and 2007. But the last two years of the plan will depend upon whether Colorado voters this fall approve Referendums C and D, he said.
Referendums C and D would loosen constraints imposed on state spending by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Referendum C would allow state government to keep surplus tax revenue that would otherwise have had to be refunded to taxpayers under TABOR. Referendum D spells out how the money would be spent on highways, roads, education and health care.
Meanwhile, the adjunct faculty are conducting a survey of their backgrounds and working conditions. They have also set up a Web site, www.denveradjuncts.org.
Many adjuncts know all about the commuting life. Some jokingly call themselves “Road Scholars,” referring to time spent driving between various campuses.
Norman R. Schultz, a part-time philosophy instructor at Metro, has also taught classes at three different community colleges.
This year, he taught five courses in the spring, three in summer and plans to teach six in the fall. All that adds up to about $27,000, out of which he pays his own medical benefits.
Schultz said he understands why administrators, faced with tight budgets, have relied on part-timers to help carry the load. The situation at Metro is no different than in other states.
But he noted that adjuncts in other states have also begun to organize.
“Having adjuncts is the least expensive way to do it,” he said. “The problem is, in a society that values public education, it’s hypocritical to not allow these teachers who are doing the actual work to make a livable wage. It makes no sense.”
Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
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