By Melissa Nichols and Fritz Klug
Western Herald
The part time instructors at Western Michigan University could have a stronger voice at the bargaining table.
WMU part-time faculty is currently in the process of forming the Part-time Instructors Organization (PIO) as an officially recognized union with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC).
The PIO will demand voting rights within the University, benefits, pay raises, and job security.
While full-time tenured, tenured-tracked, and instructors have a union, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), part time instructors have had no collective representation in bargaining with the university.
Janet Heller began teaching in WMU’s Gender and Women Studies Program and English Department in 1998.
For many years, she said she has felt that WMU treats its part-time faculty unjustly, and that she needed to do something about it. About one year ago, she started calling on fellow part-time faculty in different departments to form a union and demand change.
“If you have one of us as an instructor, you don’t know that we don’t get the same pay and benefits and voting rights in the department as everyone else. ‘I’m Dr. Heller, just like the full-time faculty. I publish things. I win awards. I hold presentations and conferences.’ As an undergraduate or even a graduate student, you might have no idea that I’m not the same rank and I don’t get health insurance or the same pay as full-timers. The majority of us want to work full-time,” Heller said.
The number of part-time faculty teachers in the United States have increased 422 percent from 1970 to 2003, according to Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein’s 2006 book “The American Faculty: Restructuring Academic Work and Careers.”
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, 30.2 percent of college faculty were part-time in 1975, 56.8 percent were either tenured or on the tenure-track. In 1989, the number of part-time instructors rose to 36.4 percent and in 2005, 48 percent were part-time, while only 31.9 percent were full-time.
Susan Caulfield, Academic Collective Bargaining Director at WMU, said that there are different reasons part-time faculty are not hired as full-time faculty.
“Many part-time faculty members only teach one class, and many times it’s a specific course that is very specialized, so we don’t need a full-time faculty member. Or, they may not be hired full-time because they don’t have as many qualifications as our full-time faculty,” Caulfield said.
According to Richard Utz, Ph.D., chairperson of the English Department, part-time faculty are the last to be placed in teaching assignments and are hired as needed. First he fills teaching slots with full-time, Board-appointed faculty, then he chooses from the current pool of graduate students, and finally, part-time professors.
“They are hired at the last moment,” Utz said.
So a part-time professor teaching in the fall has no guarantee to work in the spring.
Both Caulfield and Utz said they know the important role part-time instructors play within the university.
Karl Schrock, University Organist and School of Music adjunct for 15 years, compares the university to a three legged stool: one leg is the full-time faculty, the other is graduate students, and the third leg is part-time instructors.
“Take one of those legs away and the university collapses,” Schrock said.
“The University might be selling itself short by not having some type of agreement with part-time instructors,” Utz said.
And then, there is the budget line.
While there is no written record of pay for part-time employees, full-time, tenured professors made an average $94,688 in 2008, associate and assistant professors made $70,664 and $55,676 respectively, and full time instructors $41,405, according to the AAUP, Annual Survey of Faculty Compensation.
“We are a gold mine for the university,” Tom Kostrzewa, a part-time instructor in the Department of political science said.
According to Caulfield, there is no record of the number of part-time faculty or their specific wages and benefits, but a “good window” is somewhere between $700 and $1,000 per credit hour taught, depending on what college and department the instructor is teaching in.
The Western Herald submitted a Freedom of Information Act request on Friday, June 19 requesting information on pay and benefits of part-time employees as far back as the records were available electronically (which is 7 years).
As part of the same FOIA request, the Herald requested information concerning the amount of money allocated to pay and the names of the lawyers hired for the negotiations.
On Friday, June 26, the FOIA office said they would be asking for a five-day extension on Monday, June 29, Rose Roberts, WMU Senior Paralegal, said.
“There is no written policy [on pay],” Caulfield said. “There are informal guidelines – not a formal policy that I know of.”
The Department of English recently raised the payment of part-time faculty from $700 a credit hour to $800, so a three-credit-hour class pays $2,400 instead of $2,100 and a four-hour class $3,200 instead of $2,800. The raise will go in effect Fall 2009.
“If we want to hire the best instructors, we have to pay,” Utz said.
The Gwen Frostic School of Art made a similar raise in Fall 2008.
Heller, Schrock, and Steve Cartwright, who have taught part-time in the History Department and worked full-time in Waldo Library since 2001, believe they are among the vast majority of part-timers who are qualified to be hired full-time.
“Many of us have been very faithful to this university, and go without any real recognition,” Heller said.
For a Ph.D. graduate to be tenured is a long process, often taking up to six years.
Utz said that it is a choice to become tenured – as it is also a choice to remain part-time.
That issue is as complicated and complex as the history of PIO.
On Thursday, March 12, 2009, the PIO held a phone conference with MERC and the WMU administration. Prior to the conference call, the PIO passed out coffee, doughnuts and 800 pamphlets on WMU’s campus and answered questions students may have had about the union.
During the conference call, the PIO learned that they were not yet a recognized union in the state of Michigan. In order for such a union to form in Michigan, a third of estimated 500 part-time instructors needed to sign “authorization cards,” showing that they have interest in unionizing.
Heller would not disclose the exact number of part-time faculty who signed membership cards, but said there were enough to ask for an election.
At the time, there was no definition on who could be considered as part of the PIO. PIO did not meet this requirement. The PIO, Susan Caufield, and WMU’s hired lawyers met for the first time on April 14 to work on a consent agreement on who could join the union.
The administration opted to hire an outside firm to handle the case, instead of using WMU’s default lawyer. Caulfield would not disclose who these lawyers are, besides that she hired the best people who “know labor laws.”
PIO and representatives from WMU’s administration met again on April 27 and May 6. On May 11 a compromise was made. An election was set for June.
“Non‑tenure‑track instructors holding an appointment(s) greater than or equal to 3.0 credit hours . . . at WMU,” the agreement reads. A member must also have “instructional duties,” including “1. Assigned teaching of students via appointment letter(s); and 2. Evaluation/grading of performance of same students.”
On June 3, ballots were sent out in the mail to everyone who filled out membership cards and was eligible under the guidelines.
All ballots had to be received at the Bureau of Employment Relations office in Detroit on Thursday, June 25. The ballots will then be hand-counted by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission on Monday, June 29, at 11 p.m. in Lansing.
“It’s always the responsibility of the workers to define their unit. We respect their right to organize, we just ask that they make their case,” said Caulfield.
Out of a list of 19 issues, the PIO has chosen to spend their time on three: salary increase, improved working conditions (offices), and job security.
“The administration is not going to change things unless they have to, which is what we hope forming this union will accomplish,” Schrock said. “Currently, there’s not much pressure for them to change anything because they can easily call people in to fill positions. As one person, or a small group, you have no power. As a union, we have to make the administration do something about our situation.”
Heller is confident that they will win the election.
“We are grateful for Sue Caufield for speeding up the process for coming to a workable compromise.” Heller said PIO is also thankful that the university did not send out any anti-union propaganda during the time of the election.
About awioskowski