[P]art-time professors at Champlain College ratified their first contract Friday with the school after joining a union two years ago.
While the final contract falls short of their hope of matching their pay to part-time faculty at the University of Vermont, they are more than satisfied with their agreement, according to veteran Champlain College adjunct professor Genevieve Jacobs.
“It’s been a long haul, but we are satisfied that we’ve finally achieved a solid basic foundation with the administration of our college, and feel confident that our new contract will help restore integrity to Champlain College as a whole,” Jacobs said.
Champlain College Provost Laurie Quinn said the three-year contract with a tiered-pay scale, based on course credits taught instead of semesters taught, is a “win-win.”
“This tiered-pay scale approach ensures that those adjunct faculty who successfully teach more of our students will receive increased levels of pay,” Quinn stated.
The new contract, which garnered support from more than 95 percent of union members who voted, also includes a $1,000 payment for a canceled class, money toward professional development, as well as union membership for all campus-based adjuncts. At the same time, the college will be stepping up the evaluation process for the part-time teachers.
New adjuncts and those with up to 60 credit hours under their belts will start at $3,825 for each course they teach. This will jump to $3,921 next September and to $4,000 in September 2018.
Senior adjuncts, or part-time faculty with 61 to 121 credits, will start making $4,100 a course this fall, $4,203 next September, and $4,287 in September 2018. And adjuncts with more than 121 credits will start making $4,200 this term, $4,305 next year and $4,391 in 2018.
Jacobs said that it takes about five years for a part-time instructor to accumulate 60 credit hours and a decade to reach 121 credit hours.
In a previous story, Rob Williams, an adjunct at Champlain since 2002, said that he makes roughly $6,600 a course at UVM as opposed to $3,300 at Champlain. Jacobs said that she and her colleagues worked for flat pay for the last 20 years that was equivalent to about $20 an hour.
Union members originally asked for a UVM type wage structure and, although they didn’t get as big an increase as they wanted, they did get a tiered system based on experience and they were successful raising the college’s proposals for each tier by hundreds of dollars. The rates increase by 2.5 percent next year and 2 percent in 2018.
“The college is pleased with this three-year agreement that significantly increases part-time faculty pay, creates a new professional development fund, and strengthens evaluation of teaching performance to keep the collective focus on a great experience for our students,” Quinn said in a press release.
For the first time, adjuncts will be able to take advantage of professional development funds of up to $10,000 this fiscal year, $15,000 next year and $20,000 in FY19. Each member can apply for up to $750 in such funds and they will be released on a first-come-first-served basis.
This is in addition to being able to to audit a free course each calendar year, a long held benefit that will continue. Part-time faculty don’t have access to health care, vacation time or retirement benefits, but can continue to invest pre-tax dollars into a 403(b) retirement account.
Williams said this contract is a big step toward fair wages for all of the college’s employees.
“Our new union will continue to work hard over the next several years to improve wages and working conditions for our adjuncts, which in turn can only improve our collective work with our students, and the college community as a whole,” he said.
