What's Happening?

Attention, "honorarium" instructors! Does this label suit your position? We will discuss this and other possible titles at the next UCDHA meeting on February 18, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm in the conference room, NC 3115. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend, if only for a portion of the meeting.

Other topics on the agenda include the various matters highlighted in this newsletter: the upcoming survey to assess our roles and needs throughout the University, the part-time technological training proposal and opportunities here at UCD, activities at various levels of University governance, the AAUP's symposium on part-time issues in Boulder February 21, and news regarding our issues at the national level.

Survey Coming

University Personnel Committee

The University's Personnel Committee is currently tackling issues of concern to part-time faculty. Among the topics of discussion are the part-time contract, including the limit of two classes per term, and the current draft of the "Instructors' Bill of Rights" being proposed by the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA). The draft contains the following language: "A pay scale could be established per course or per credit hour. The BFA Task Force suggests that one way to link salary to inflation and other market factors would be to calculate Lecturers' pay as at least 70% of the average of the starting salary in the unit, divided by 6 (3 classes a semester being the standard fulltime load). In a unit where the average starting salary is $35,000, for instance, that works out to $4080 a class. To reward longevity, we are also suggesting a set incremental pay raise after 3 years (six semesters) or more of teaching, e.g., a move from $4000 a course to $4400 if the increment is set at $400."

This committee has been increasingly supportive of part-time faculty issues. The University's survey will provide them much needed information.
Do you have adequate office space? Are you teaching on more than one campus? Do you keep current in your field? Do you have access to electronic communications through the University? This is a sampling of the questions on the University's non-tenure trace faculty survey that you will be receiving within the next month from the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, David Groth. The purpose of the survey will be to clarify the current status of "part-time," "temporary," and "honorarium" instructors with an eye to updating the structure and compensation for these positions. There will be ample space in the surveys for your additional comments. We ask everyone to fill out and return the survey as promptly as possible. This is one of the most important projects for this year: the University needs to know who we are, what we are contributing to our students' education, and what we need to do a better job of that. The results will affect negotiations for future contracts, raises, and working conditions.

Full participation in the survey will help the UCDHA present your case to faculty committees (see the next column) and administrators.
1
The National & Local Scenes

AAUP Focuses on Part-Time Faculty Issues

The American Association of University Professors devoted the major part of its current Academe to concerns relating to part-time and nontenure track (NTT) faculty. The AAUP, which now encourages part-time faculty to join and receive its information and protections, is now online with information regarding its legislative activities plus programs and membership at <http://www.aaup.org>; or call 800/424-2973. Annual dues for part-time faculty are $30.00 and can be sent to AAUP, 1012 14th St., NW, Washington, DC 20005; besides your name and mailing address, be sure to indicate your school, that you teach part-time, and that you are not tenured.

"Leaders of Scholarly Groups Criticize Growth in Use of Part-Time Faculty"

Adapted from The Chronicle of Higher Education (December 1, 1997)

Leaders of ten faculty groups and learned societies issued a statement recently calling on academic institutions to counter the pervasive use of adjunct professors in college classrooms. The statement came out of a conference in Washington D.C. this past September. It predicts dire consequences if academia fails to take on the issue of part-timers: "We believe that those concerned about the quality of education must act together now to ensure that the use of part-time appointments (most often utilized to achieve monetary savings and other short-term goals) does not risk imposing far more serious costs on students and their families." The declaration "represents this rather extraordinary effort at consensus building," rooted in "what works best for students," said Sandria B. Freitag, executive director of the American Historical Association, which had led the effort to organize the conference.

The proportion of adjuncts has doubled over the past 25 years, to more than 40% of all faculty members nationwide, the document says. Part-timers, who are more stretched for time and least familiar with the campus culture, are more likely to teach freshmen, the very students who most need extra time and advice from faculty members. Furthermore, "The glowing general terms in which administrators praise the educational contributions made by part-time faculty members contrast sharply" with how adjuncts are treated in personnel policies and their daily experiences. The official statement does not blame administrators alone for the overuse of adjuncts. It also faults professors more interested in teaching advanced courses than introductory ones and warns graduate programs that they can no longer prepare Ph.D.'s only for careers at research universities.

Locally

The AAUP, CU Boulder chapter, is sponsoring a symposium on "Part-time and NTT Faculty: Use or Abuse." Pam Laird, cochair of the UCDHA, will be a panelist, along with Cathy Comstock, Vice Chair of the BFA and author of the "Instructors' Bill of Rights" (see p. 1), Mike Martin, Chair of the Faculty Council, and R.L. Widner, an EPUS committee member who attended the DC conference, will also be there. Join us in the UMC (Boulder campus student union), rooms 235 A&B, Saturday, February 21, from noon to 1:30 to assess and plan on a University-wide scale.

UCDHA Meeting

February 18, Wednesday, 1:00 - 2:00 NC Room 3115

Bring your lunch and your ideas.

If you can come for any part of this gathering, don't hesitate to drop in . If you cannot come, contact one of us with your ideas and suggestions.

Lynn Holland, Campus Box 190; 744-9134

Pam Laird, Campus Box 182; 722-7951

There's no time like the present for using your voice!

Technological Training Opportunities

furnished through the University. Call OTE at 556-4915 or e-mail Ed at <enuhfer@carbon.cudenver.edu> for more information, including a copy of the newsletter. (OTE is aware of the difficulties of reaching part-time faculty; let them know if you do not receive the newsletter.)

If you are interested in setting up or using a Web for teaching purposes—for posting syllabi, assignments, and the like—OTE is sponsoring a workshop February 10 in the Media Center, room 004 (use the east entrance to Auraria Library). It includes a pizza lunch, noon - 1:00, then a two-hour teleconference from the National Technological University entitled "Hands-on World Wide Web." To register, call Carl Pletsch at 556-6158 or e-mail <cpletsch@carbon.cudenver.edu>.
Because nearly 40% of UCD's FTE are taught by part-time instructors, the Office of Teaching Effectiveness (OTE) has submitted a proposal to President Buechner's Total Learning Environment grant project for technological training for these members of the faculty. The proposal includes both advanced training at the level of the discipline and, in light of the tight teaching schedules kept by many part-time faculty, aids for maintaining teacher-student communication.

Ed Nuhfer and Carl Pletsch of the OTE have been working on other projects to facilitate faculty use of electronic communications.