Part-time instructor dissatisfied with work conditions
By: Jyllian Roach, Editor-In-Chief
A recent part-time faculty survey appeared to show quite a bit of discontent from part-time instructors.
The survey was given to the 727 part-time faculty members to help the CNM Employees Union gain a better understanding of issues faced by part-time instructors, Monie Arfai, part-time CHSS instructor and vice president of part-time faculty for the union, said.
“We are going to have a contract negotiation to raise the standards of the contract and we just wanted to know what they want,” Arfai said.
A total of 302 part-time instructors responded to the survey, roughly 42 percent of part-time faculty, many of whom had negative things to say about the way part-time faculty is treated by those in power on campus.
About 54 percent of respondents said that teaching was their main source of income, but only 23 percent of respondents felt that they had job security.
Further, 46 percent said that CNM did not offer competitive pay to part-time faculty, while 29 percent felt that it was competitive.
“I am making what I made in 1990- 94 elsewhere,” one respondent wrote.
Eighty-three percent of survey respondents also said that additional pay should be added for instructors who are involved on committees and in other campus activities like the graduation ceremonies.
“Since full timers are paid more than twice our rate, I think we should see some compensation for extra work,” one respondent commented.
About 44 percent of respondents felt that quality performance was not valued or rewarded on campus. Fifty-two percent of respondents have worked here for six or more years.
“Hard to answer; I suspect that it is valued, but not rewarded,” one respondent said.
Part-time faculty office space was another point of contention. About 36 percent of those surveyed believed the workspace to be good, but exactly 50 percent felt that it was not adequate.
Even those who liked their office space agreed that Main campus part-time faculty offices were below standard.
“We call the Main campus offices for PT Faculty the ‘North Korean Barracks,’” one respondent said.
Another commented that the city kennels would be more suitable than the portable offices on Main campus.
In hiring practices, respondents said that years of being employed and quality of work or type of degrees did not seem to matter when a full-time position became available.
“I have applied every time there is an opening, but I never get an interview. I feel there is some bias against moving part timers to full time at CNM. I have talked to other part timers and the same thing happens to them,” one respondent wrote.
Another respondent said that hiring practices in their school seemed to border on illegal, but did not specify as to how.
Arfai said that the survey was still being reviewed by the union and that no determination would be made yet about which of these issues would be raised during the contract negotiations in September, 2013.
Only 28 percent of respondents were union members.
