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So, SWC is talking about cutting all full-time overloads to free up hours to assign to adjunct instructors. Some of the full-timers are throwing a fit, saying essentially that part-timers shouldn't be considered because we have lots of jobs and are better off than them (!!!!!!). I wrote this big reply and then realized that I wasn't adding anything substantial to the conversation so much as saying "You're wrong." But, it helped me get some of my thoughts about the situation out, so I'm putting it here: Colleagues, I know many full-time instructors count on overload and other ways of making a little additional money, just enough to fix the car or pay for the orthodontist or some other essential thing that doesn't fit in the fixed salary budget, and losing that is both a shock and a hardship. However, for those who think that adjunct instructors routinely have a fall-back income or even a financial advantage over their full-time colleagues, and therefore do not face a severe economic crisis, I offer my own experience as an example of how false this assumption is. As a vested adjunct, I routinely get assigned a 46% load at Southwestern--just enough so that SWC doesn't have to offer me benefits. For years, I also taught at UCSD, which made for a combined income (teaching full-time) of about $15,000 less per year than a newly-hired full-time instructor makes in my discipline. This spring, I was laid off by UCSD for the same reason as we face here: (mismanaged) budget crisis. This fall, I found out that my other, preferred job, here at SWC, also faces the axe. Having saved aggressively with my partner for years, I was in the process of buying a condo. I now cannot risk the financial obligation of a mortgage when I face the likelihood of complete unemployment. I had benefits through UCSD. I now have 18 months of COBRA at more than four times what I was paying--and that's after a government subsidy. For years, I spent a lot of my life on the highway and at meetings designed to build a place for myself in the teaching communities I belonged to, but I had full-time work doing what I love. Now, I may have no job at all and all the hours of curriculum development and administrative work I did seem like so much unpaid overtime and wasted effort. I will definitely not have full-time work as a teacher, will not be able to make enough money to live on by working in my profession, unless one of the city's other colleges hires me on--which will not and cannot happen with everyone's budgets being cut, and those cuts being focused on instructors. This is my situation. I know I am not alone. Like many of you, I am one voice among so many feeling powerless and anxious. Like all of you, I want the best for everyone but worry most about myself. There are no good answers here, not the way this has been decreed. We are, all of us who teach here, in a bad spot. The grass only looks greener from a distance. Respectfully, R---- S-L---- English Adjunct Post a comment in response: |
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