Greetings to our WCCFT Community!
We are in the homestretch of Fall 2023!
Since the last time I wrote, I organized two meetings for Adjuncts. On October 10, I hosted a 90-minute Coffee Hour in the WCCFT office, attended by quite a few Adjuncts. We introduced ourselves and spoke about WCCFT matters as well as broader issues in teaching and counseling. I also hosted a Zoom meeting on October 25. A greater number of Adjuncts were able to participate in this informational session. We were joined by Jim Werner and Deirdre Verne. After introductions, Jim walked us through the intricacies of section 3.9 of our faculty contract. Then, Deirdre introduced us to the issues of disciplinary actions and grievances. Both meetings were friendly and productive. I will host more in person and online meetings in the coming months.
My recent conversations with Adjuncts helped me to formulate the concept of this month’s contribution to WCCFT Connect.
Teaching as a Hobby
I have two hobbies: music and teaching.
Music is my avocational passion. My arsenal consists of a Fender jazz bass, a classical guitar, a 12-string guitar, two electric guitars, and a keyboard. While I have earned money from musical performances, overall, in the low thousands of dollars in the last 20 years, I am not a professional. I spend part of my income in order to play music; thus, music is a hobby.
Teaching history, art, and archaeology is also a great passion of mine. Ever since I was an undergraduate, my ambition was to become a college professor. With a considerable amount of time and effort, my dream came true. More specifically, I am a colleges professor, because I need to teach for 4 colleges to earn a living. I also have two summer jobs which allow me to pay the bills between June and August. It’s difficult to juggle so many positions in order to keep teaching. Don’t get me wrong. I love being in the classroom, giving students my 20+ years of experience in the libraries, archaeological sites, and museums of Italy, the Balkans, and the USA.
Recently, I have been enlightened, but not in the positive Buddhist sense: teaching in the realm of Higher Education has been reduced to the condition of a hobby. This illumination stems from personal experience as well as from conversations with adjunct colleagues. I cannot count the number of times colleagues have said something to the effect of “thank goodness I have a full-time job at Amazon, so I can keep teaching”. Or, “thank goodness my spouse is a banker, so I can teach.”
Something common to all Adjuncts is our dedication to the profession. We are stubborn and resilient. We struggle to hold on to multiple jobs to maintain our passion, teaching. Our “other jobs” allow us to teach, just like the jobs of folks outside of academia allow them to purchase golf equipment, take gourmet cooking classes, or go sailing.
Being a college professor, librarian, or academic counselor should be a highly regarded, noble, and stable occupation. But with the corporatization of colleges and universities in the USA, full-time academic positions have been systematically eliminated in favor of hiring armies of poorly paid Adjuncts. Adjuncts represent approximately 60% of all teaching staff in America. We hold terminal degrees (MBA, PhD, MFA, etc.); we teach at a high standard; and we work evenings and on weekends to prepare for class sessions or to grade assignments. Yet, our pay is half of what we deserve, and few Adjuncts are eligible for health or retirement benefits. This is a national problem and a national disgrace.
There have been many positive changes in Higher Education in the past decade, yet the decision across the USA to implement the gig-economy model in hiring is detrimental to students and staff. How are students expected to succeed when most of their professors are struggling to survive? We need change, and change has to begin somewhere. Therefore, I encourage WCC to take the lead on reversing the harmful trends caused by the adoption of the corporate model in Higher Education. A few ideas:
- Shift the ratio of full-time/part-time positions closer to 60:40.
- Increase pay significantly for Adjuncts, enabling us to teach fewer classes at fewer campuses and to focus more on student success. Equal pay for equal work!
- Follow the model of the University of California system, Columbia University, and a small number of other colleges in the USA by offering Adjuncts longer-term contracts of up to 3 years. Such contracts provide greater stability as well as health insurance and retirement options.
We all need hobbies, but teaching should not be a hobby.
In solidarity,
Eric C. De Sena
WCCFT Adjunct Representative
Member of the WCCFT Negotiation Team
Please reach out to Eric De Sena at ericdwccft@gmail.com for any union-related concerns and/or to send me news items for future issues of FTConnect.
