Part-Time Teachers Protest Pay They’re Paid A Third Of What A New Full-Time Teacher Makes At Ssc

Like most college teachers, Terry Boyden isn’t in it for the money. But being able to buy groceries is part of job satisfaction, she says.

For most of the last eight years she’s been an adjunct English instructor at Spokane Community College, Boyden could qualify for food stamps and her daughter could get free school lunches.

She teaches up to three classes at a time, for which she receives $700 a month. That’s a third of what a new full-time teacher would make for the same teaching load.

“I have two master’s degrees, I’m grading 30 to 90 essays a week, and I’m not even making minimum wage,” said Boyden.

She and 40 other part-time community college faculty protested their plight Friday at the Riverfront Park Clock Tower.

In the frosty afternoon air, speakers chastised the community colleges for “economic injustice” for keeping too many instructors on part-time status. Some held signs reading, “Equal pay for equal work!”

The state is ethically bankrupt, they said, for allowing colleges to increase their reliance on part-timers who get no benefits or job security and are paid a fraction of what full-timers receive.

Part-time teachers can teach up to seven classes a year - 80 percent of a full-time load.

“We work in academic sweatshops,” said Willene Goodwin, part-time faculty representative for the community college faculty union.

The colleges use the part-timers because they have to, said Terry Brown, chief executive officer of the Community Colleges of Spokane. The Legislature doesn’t pay the full cost of educating each student, forcing budget-pinching, he said.

“I have a lot of concern about part-timers,” said Brown, who makes $107,000 a year. “We use them a lot, we rely on them a lot. I’m not happy about their salaries.”

He supports the faculty union’s demands for better pay. The union, the state Association for Higher Education, has requested money to pay part-time faculty at least 75 percent of the amount a full-time teacher would receive for each course they teach.

Some part-timers say the union ignores their woes, focusing instead on the needs of the full-time faculty.

Terry Fitzpatrick, president of AHE and an SCC electronics teacher, admits the union has been remiss. “We have been more focused on full-timers,” he said. But he said the union now understands the part-timers’ plight.

“It’s come to the point where we have to do something,” said Fitzpatrick.

The state Board of Community and Technical Colleges, at the request of last year’s Legislature, requested $15.8 million to raise salaries of part-time faculty statewide.

Gov. Gary Locke carved $4.5 million for them out of his budget, which would average out to an annual raise of $613 per teacher. The Legislature’s own budget proposals are due later this month.

“We are not optimistic,” said Bruce Botka, spokesman for the state community college board.

Neither was Friday’s crowd. Parttimers have watched their ranks swell from 44 percent of the state’s total community college faculty in 1993 to 48 percent last fall. About 45 percent of community college teachers in Spokane are part-time.

Instructors are paid $21 an hour for classroom time, but nothing for office hours, preparation or grading time. By the time Boyden completes out-of-class duties, she says she makes about $4.30 an hour. She pays $250 a month on loans she took out while earning her master’s degrees in creative writing and teaching.

Last fall, when she was already teaching three classes at SCC, she pumped up her paycheck by teaching courses at Gonzaga University and Whitworth College. She says she was working 80 hours a week, including an hour a day commuting between campuses.

More than half of the English Department at Spokane Community College is part-time, said department chairman Mike Burns.

“Every time there’s an opening, we get 15 applications, and we’re talking about qualified people,” said Burns, who attended Friday’s rally.

Most stay, in spite of low wages, out of hope: “There’s this grand illusion that we will all get picked full time,” said Boyden.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo