UCD Honoraria Association Newsletters

UCD Honoraria Association
April, 1996

Honoraria Association Newsletter
University of Colorado at Denver

April 1996

What's Happening?

The continuing efforts of the UCD Honoraria Association in combination with the concerns of many of our full-time colleagues have opened up opportunities for part-time faculty at UCD to act to improve their status at the University, and, in doing so, to help maintain the quality of teaching on this campus.

As campus officers and faculty have worked through the annual springtime budgetary process, UCDHA representatives have met with them, getting generally positive feedback. But further, real, progress cannot occur without additional support and input from you.

•Steve Thomas, chair of the Political Science Department, with the approval and backing of his department, has proposed a course of action that requires the support of our other full-time colleagues. See "5% from 1/2%?" for details.

•The UCDHA will meet on Monday, April 15, at 2:30 in The Mercantile for the purpose of setting our joint agendas, both short and long term. There are real possibilities for gains for next year, details of which are in this newsletter. But those and future potentials, such as a possible role for the American Federation of Teachers, call for your input and participation. If you can come for any part of the meeting, do so; we'd like your feedback. If you cannot attend the meeting, please contact one of us with your ideas and suggestions:

•Lynn Holland, Campus Box 190, x 2748

•Pam Laird, Campus Box 182, x 4830

•Karen Breslan, Campus Box 190, x 3556

Contexts for Our Concerns

time faculty remain in their teaching positions for many years.

As you all know, our teaching evaluations tend to compare very well with those of full-time faculty, despite larger courses and vastly less compensation for those courses. Clearly high professional standards and motivations mark our ranks.

With the exception of two small raises for survey level courses in 1992 and 1995, partly offset by new parking fees, not to mention the cost of living, there has been no increase for honorarium teachers in at least ten years. Part-time faculty earn about the same for teaching an introductory course as teaching assistants now make despite their far greater responsibilities and qualifications. These courses generally enroll from thirty to eighty students, bringing in a significant fraction of their departments' credit hours.

We don't believe that it is only in self-interest that we point out that the spreading two-tier system cannot help but diminish the quality of education here at UCD. The AAUP expressed its concern as early as 1980, and most academic associations have since pointed to poor compensation and lack of security as serious threats to higher education.
The original intent of the "honorarium" status in university teaching was to defer costs and to show appreciation to community professionals who taught for the experience rather than for a living. In the last two decades, however, the profile of the part-time faculty has changed significantly. At UCD, most part-time faculty view themselves primarily as career educators who in one way or another depend on their teaching salaries. Many hold doctorates or are doctoral candidates, attend professional conferences, publish in the same venues as full-time faculty, and give public lectures. One reason for our not reaching greater professional achievements is that making a minimal livelihood at our salaries requires teaching a disproportionate number of hours or non-academic jobs.

At UCD, part-time faculty now outnumber full-time faculty. This semester, there are approximately 365 full-time and 425 part-time faculty. Part-time faculty are more likely to teach the larger classes, increasing the extent to which our work underwrites the compensation packages of full-time faculty and administrators. Finally, although classified as "temporary" and receiving only semester-long contracts, many part-

5% from 1/2%? Opinions Please. . . .

Each of you has undoubtedly thought of any number of possibilities for improving our professional status as part-time faculty on the UCD campus. Compensation issues present the most immediate concerns for all of us, followed by the total absence of fringe benefits. Insecurities regarding our employment result from the lack of regularized appointment practices, reasonable notice, and access to the institution's regular grievance procedures. Many of you want to have the right to participate in academic governance, and others of you want to see a teaching track established to parallel research and clinical track positions.

When we meet, or through informal contacts in the meantime, the UCDHA can jointly assess the relative priorities of the above list, as well as other short-term and long-term goals.

This term, UCDHA representatives have conferred with University officials and full-time colleagues to learn how we can have some input to the campus governing processes and to learn the current budget constraints. At the top of those constraints is the total budget which is determined by tuition and is divided into portions for teaching, administration, facilities, etc. Changing significantly the allocation for any of those major categories on our campus, as well as proportions of University compensations allocated to various campuses, requires a long-term political process that is beyond our current reach, although we should keep it in mind. There is, for example, a tentative proposal before the Budget Priorities Committee for a three percent increase for part-time faculty which may be applied incrementally. We need to discuss the various aspects of this potential and to establish a position on it. This is part of the April 12 meeting agenda, as are the following issues.

In the meantime, our immediate goals and activities regarding compensation must operate within the budgeted allotments for faculty. This puts us in the unfortunate position of achieving progress in the short run at the expense of UCD's full-time faculty. We wish this were not the case, for many of them have fully accepted us as colleagues, and some departments have been as thoughtful as possible. Yet we, and they, must
keep in mind that the relatively low and unchanging compensations for our labors over many years have subsidized their salaries. It is therefore the faculty, as represented and governed by the Faculty Assembly, to which we must make our next appeal. UCD part-time faculty can receive an across the board raise of five percent to take effect for the academic year 1996-1997 if full-time faculty were willing to forego one-sixth of their expected three-percent raise for the next academic year.

While we recognize that a three-percent raise is not a satisfying increase for the full-timers to begin with, and two and one-half percent is even less so, we have gone for so long with nothing. In this context Steve Thomas, chair of the Political Science Department, with the approval and backing of his department, has offered to present our case to the Faculty Assembly when it meets, April 16. He will propose that the full-time faculty recognize our contributions to education on this campus and allocate the necessary proportion of their raise to the part-time faculty.

In order for this proposal to be viable, it is incumbent on each of us to talk to the colleagues in each of our departments to get their support. You might find helpful the data included in this newsletter in "Context for Our Concerns." Don't hesitate to remind them that this is not a request for charity but rather a request that they acknowledge what our teaching contributes to the campus and that the paucity of our compensation has long underwritten their salaries and benefits. We need and appreciate their support.

We also need to be prepared to address the administration with our concerns in a formal manner. UCDHA representatives have both written to and spoken with the interim chancellor, the interim vice-chancellor, and the Budget Priorities Committee in an attempt to keep alive the issue of a salary raise. Because our avenues of contact with administration are less frequent than with our departmental colleagues, we need to keep a high organizational profile. We need to remind administrators continuously that the primary function of this campus is to educate, that tuition pays their salaries too, and therefore our labors have subsidized their compensations as well.

Calendar

•UCDHA Meeting: April 15

Monday @ 2:30

The Mercantile

•Faculty Assembly: April 16

•American Federation of Teachers:

1st Friday of Each Month @ 3:00, The Mercantile
The continuing efforts of the UCD Honoraria Association in combination with the concerns of many of our full-time colleagues have opened up opportunities for part-time faculty at UCD to act to improve their status at the University, and, in doing so, to help maintain the quality of teaching on this campus.

•Steve Thomas, chair of the Political Science Department, with the approval and backing of his department, has proposed a course of action that requires the support of our full-time colleagues. See "5% from 1/2%?" for details.

•The UCDHA will meet on Friday, April 12, at 2:00 in The Mercantile for the purpose of setting our joint agendas, both short and long term. There are real possibilities for gains for next year, details of which are in this newsletter. But those and future potentials, such as a possible role for the American Federation of Teachers, call for your input and participation. If you cannot attend the meeting, please contact one of us with your ideas and suggestions:

•Lynn Holland, Campus Box 190, x 2748

•Pam Laird, Campus Box 182, x 4830

•Karen Breslan, Campus Box 190, x 3556

The original intent of the "honorarium" status in university teaching was to defer costs and show appreciation to community professionals who taught for the experience rather than for a living. In the last two decades, however, the profile of the part-time faculty has changed significantly. At UCD, most part-time faculty view themselves primarily as career educators who in one way or another depend on their teaching salaries. Many hold doctorates or are doctoral candidates, attend professional conferences, publish in the same venues as full-time faculty, and give public lectures. One reason for our not reaching greater professional achievements is that making a minimal livelihood at our salaries requires teaching a disproportionate number of hours or non-academic jobs.

With the exception of two small raises for survey level courses in 1992 and 1995, partly offset by new parking fees, there has not been any increase for honorarium teachers in at least ten years. Part-time faculty earn about the same for teaching an introductory course as teaching assistants now make despite their far greater responsibilities and qualifications. These courses generally enroll from thirty to eighty students, bringing in a significant fraction of their departments' credit hours.

5% from 1/2%? Opinions Please. . . .

When we meet, or through informal contacts in the meantime, the UCDHA can jointly assess the relative priorities of the above list, as well as other short-term and long-term goals.

In the meantime, our immediate goals and activities regarding compensation must operate within the budgeted allotments for faculty. This puts us in the unfortunate position of achieving progress in the short run at the expense of UCD's full-time faculty. We wish this were not the case, for many of them have fully accepted us as colleagues, and some departments have been as thoughtful as possible. Yet we, and they, must keep in mind that the relatively low and unchanging compensations for our labors over many years have subsidized their salaries. It is therefore the faculty, as represented and governed by the Faculty Assembly, to which we
must make our next appeal. UCD part-time faculty can receive an across the board raise of five percent to take effect for the academic year 1996-1997 if full-time faculty were willing to forego one-sixth of their expected three-percent raise for the next academic year.

While we recognize that a three-percent raise is not a satisfying increase for the full-timers to begin with, and two and one-half percent is even less so, our alternative to this request of them is no increase for ourselves at all, again. In this context Steve Thomas, chair of the Political Science Department, with the approval and backing of his department, has offered to present our case to the Faculty Assembly when it meets, April 16. He will propose that the full-time faculty recognize our contributions to education on this campus and allocate the necessary proportion of their raise to the part-time faculty.

We also need to be prepared to address the administration with our concerns in a formal manner. UCDHA representatives have both written to and spoken with the interim chancellor, the interim vice-chancellor, and the Budget Priorities Committee in an attempt to keep alive the issue of a salary raise. Because our avenues of contact with administration are less frequent than with our departmental colleagues, we need to keep a high organizational profile. We need to remind administrators continuously that the primary function of this campus is to educate, that tuition pays their salaries too, and therefore our labors have subsidized their compensations as well.