COURTNEE CESTA
Managing Editor
On Oct. 8th, the president’s cabinet approved a raise in minimum pay for Fredonia adjuncts, a move made
possible only after administration cut over 50 contingent faculty positions last Spring.
“This money is coming from the savings we’re reinvesting in our adjuncts,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Terry Brown. “So we reduced the number of sections taught by adjuncts, and we’re reinvesting that in another portion of our adjuncts.”
Whereas there was no consistent minimum pay prior to the approval, adjuncts will be compensated $900 per credit hour, or $2,700 for a three-credit course or equivalent starting Spring 2015. Those that are currently making more than the $900 minimum, however, will not see an adjustment.
Also before the approval, the lowest paid adjunct on campus was making $2,000 for a three credit class — a figure that Dr. Brown said was an outlier in the system. Most were making an average of $750 per credit hour, or $2,250 for a three credit class.
Next semester, Fredonia will fall at the median in terms of adjunct pay. While configuring numbers, Dr. Brown says she consulted other Provosts in the SUNY system and found that one college, which she prefered not to name for confidentiality reasons, just moved from $2,100 for a three credit course or equivalent to $2,400. Two more are also at $2,400 while another is at $3,000 — the latter of which Dr. Brown says is a goal for Fredonia.
But as the trend continues, it all depends on enrollment. Because, as enrollment is shrinking, so is demand for classes, and therefore demand for contingent faculty. Fredonia currently employes 182 contingent faculty members, down 52 from last Spring.
“It’s not just about cutting, though,” Dr. Brown said. “The equation for us to be financially stable is for us to wisely reduce our expenditures in alignment with our enrollment and reinvest in our faculty so that we have better retention of our students, which is a way of increasing revenue.”
Investing in faculty is what Dr. Brown believes goes hand-in-hand with providing the best learning experience for students. With that, she says students best succeed, stay enrolled and come back to Fredonia, as well as have the greatest potential to graduate with a good job.
“So, depending on our ability to do both of those things — it’s two levers that we are pulling — I want to keep reinvesting in those adjuncts who are really making a huge contribution to teaching on this campus,” she said.
Prior to this semester, 50 percent of all credits on campus were being taught by tenure track faculty and the other 50 percent by non-tenure track faculty. The decision to cut adjuncts was a move to increase the number of credit hours taught by tenure track faculty. To do so, credit hours were shifted from those adjuncts that were cut to tenure track faculty in exchange for classes that were cut do to low enrollment. Therefore, the amount Fredonia is investing in faculty remains the same, but at the cost of reducing adjuncts.
“I think that we can’t simply be in cut mode,” Dr. Brown said. “We have to reinvest.
“The goal has always been to improve the conditions of the adjuncts who work for us. That’s always been the strategy.”
Many adjuncts across universities are forced to do work outside teaching in order to make a living, as they are hit with low wages and minimal to no benefits. School of Music adjunct professor Casey Gray teaches two sections of diction for singers per semester, but does outside work as a vocalist and pianist to compensate the low wages.
“I have to do so much because what I’m paid to teach wouldn’t pay my bills — it wouldn’t even pay my rent,” Gray said. “But I enjoy it, and I feel like even what I do is essential to the college.”
Dr. Brown recognizes that there are great instructors who are not full time faculty and are fundamental in the education of Fredonia’s students. However, she is apprehensive about their ability to invest themselves fully in students.
“I believe that it is difficult for anyone — no matter how good you are — who has to teach at two or three universities to make a living wage, for them to provide the kind of focus and commitment to the students, no matter how great they are as an instructor. My goal is to work to improve the working conditions of our adjuncts in order to improve the learning conditions of our students,” Dr. Brown reiterated. “And I also felt that because we had done that difficult work [in cutting adjuncts], we needed to reinvest. We needed to do the right thing — to compensate our adjuncts for the important work they do in the classroom.”