By My Yen La
Daily Bruin Contributor
Many humanities and social science professors not working toward
tenure earn about the same salary as baggage porters, according to
a Coalition on the Academic Workforce report.
The survey results highlight the trend of treatment and reward
toward part-time non-tenure-track faculty.
“Up until this point, we have talked about it
anecdotally,” said Robert Townsend, assistant director for
research at the American Historical Association, one of the 25
academic societies making up the CAW.
“The most important thing about it is that it gives hard
data at all levels in terms of how the part-time faculty is being
used,” he added.
To earn more than $15,000 annually, part-time non-tenure
professors generally have to teach more than four courses per term,
according to the report.
More than 63 percent of part-time non-tenure faculty in
humanities and social-science disciplines were found to receive no
benefits from their schools.
Less than 20 percent of part-time nontenure faculty surveyed
received health benefits.
A reason for hiring full-time and part-time non-tenure-track
teachers is to adjust to the demands of enrollment, according to
Vice Chancellor of Academic Personnel Norman Abrams.
“It’s to fulfill an especially large need,”
Abrams said.
At UCLA this class of employees are lecturers who teach classes
but are not engaged in research nor are they on the road to
receiving tenure.
Temporary faculty is also good to use when UCLA wants to develop
and evaluate new or short-lived programs, he said.
The financial findings, however, do not reflect conditions at
UCLA, according to English lecturer Karen Keely.
“I don’t think part-time non-tenure track faculty
are being exploited at UCLA,” Keely said.
Her salary is higher than the median reported by the survey, she
noted.
At UCLA, part-time lecturers receive the same benefits as
professors if they teach more than half a full-time load, Abrams
said.
The report also showed colleges increasingly relying on
non-tenure faculty to teach humanities and social-science
courses.
Findings showed actual professors teaching only 59 percent of
such courses and less than half of introductory courses in those
disciplines.
Part-time non-tenure-track instructors account for 21.5 percent
of the overall faculty in humanities and social-science
disciplines.
Criticism for heavily relying on part-time instructors include
students not being able to meet with them as needed.
“People working in other places can’t be here when
students come to see them,” said Miki Goral, the UCLA
president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Some part-time teachers may not have offices or they usually
have to share offices and telephones with other teachers, she
added.
Additionally, students cannot obtain things such as letters of
recommendation when part-time nontenure-track teachers who may not
be at the university after their contracts end, Goral said.
But some part-time, and especially full-time, non-tenure-track
instructors renew their contracts and many have office hours and
necessary resources to accommodate their students, according to
Keely.
“I think undergraduates are well-taken care of by the
overall faculty,” Keely said.
The survey also found graduate students accounting for 23.3
percent of the overall staff. They teach up to 42.5 percent of some
introductory programs.
In UCLA’s Department of Germanic Languages, for example,
teaching assistants mainly teach lower-division language courses
and lecturers mainly teach upper-division language courses,
according to Jutta Landa, a lecturer in the department.
Landa said although language courses are taught by teaching
assistants and lecturers, the quality of education is not
compromised.
“The key issue is not that there is a lack of
quality,” Landa said. “The lecturers do an excellent
job.”
NON-TENURED FACULTY
Non-tenured faculty make up most of professors in humanities and
social science courses.
Original Graphic by VICTOR CHEN Web Adaptation by STEPHEN
WONG