Adjunct Faculty - Anonymous employee Monroe Community College Employee Review

Adjunct faculty teach part-time and are paid by the course. Adjuncts now make up about half of all faculty in higher education and teach over 1/3 of the courses at MCC. The pay for adjunct faculty at MCC had been relatively high for the area, however it is falling behind. Adjunct faculty are paid about 60% of what full time faculty make to teach the same courses and the benefits are very limited. For example, health insurance is available entirely at the faculty member's expense. Faculty are often required to undergo training on their own time to keep up with the college's decisions to add or change procedures and technology. Like many such positions, course assignments are unpredictable. This is especially true now that the college administration is cancelling more and more courses that are not at or near full enrollment. As a result, average class sizes have increased, creating a larger burden for faculty. Some adjunct faculty have been surprised by having all of their classes cancelled at the last minute with no time to find other work. Since a new administration took over a few years ago, employee satisfaction has declined drastically. The relationship between employees and administrators has become adversarial rather than cooperative. Turnover of administrators has been high and newly hired administrators do not have the experience they need to do their jobs. Nearly all were hired from the outside. Faculty and staff have been given pay increases that are considerably lower than what administrators gave themselves. The administration has declared an impasse in two contract negotiations which required mediation. Faculty who have left have not been replaced, leaving a larger work burden for those remaining. More faculty will be leaving under a retirement incentive plan.