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johnniewelker t1_ixemnaw wrote

Reply to comment by pigeonsmasher in New School makes “final offer” to striking part-time faculty in New York City by DrogDrill

I’m not sure I’m following the maths. So is it $300/week for one course taught or per credit? How much would someone teaching 2 classes worth 3 credits each make per semester.

How much do full time faculty make per week and what’s the difference in workload?

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___pa___ t1_ixh96tu wrote

Currently adjunct pay for a typical 3 credit class for a semester is around $5000 gross. Divide by 15 weeks and that is $300 a week. That is for 2-3 hours class time plus time for prep, grading, etc. Averaged it would probably be let's say 5 hours a week. Adjuncts are not required to perform university service not scholarship (publish or perish), only teaching. They can max at 9 credits per semester, so $30k per year. It is NOT a full time job, and any adjunct that thinks that needs to do the math. They do get benefits however after a number of semesters.

Full time faculty teach what is essentially an adjunct full load, plus are required to perform college service (office hours, student advisement, administrative tasks, committees, this kind of thing) as well as scholarship (research, lab work, grants, publish, etc). Each of those other two items take about an equal time as teaching, perhaps slightly less. Full pay has a range but typically falls within the $80k-$120k range per year. Not really high living but manageable with the benefits. Many consult on the side and CUNY allows for 8 hours per week outside work. PhD plus experience is required to be a full-time professor.

Source - CUNY professor and this is all publicly available if you look it up.

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kiklion t1_ixhme5e wrote

So it sounds like the main issue is that adjuncts are capped at 9 credits a semester. Do you know why?

It’s generally a lot easier to get more hours at one job than to pick up a second job where scheduling may clash or an extra commute from a to b.

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___pa___ t1_ixhp1dz wrote

Well, I don't have a good reason why they would be capped at 9 hours but it might be a combination of a few things. First it would look odd to teach more than a full time person. Second, adjuncts often teach to an expertise and there might not be enough classes in that area to offer more. Third, three classes is sometimes a healthy portion of classes in one subject and students should have some variety in professors. There are probably other administrative reasons but those are the ones from the teaching side I can imagine. But I don't think allowing them to teach more will help the problem. 9 credits implies about 20 hours a week including grading and answering emails and prep. So even 18 credits per semester twice a years is $60k and one would be hard pressed to live well on that especially if one had the qualifications to be a professor. Except in some fields, you can often find a job making twice adjunct pay easily. I just do not see being an adjunct exclusively as any way to try to live in NYC, unless you have money already and do it for other reasons.

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kiklion t1_ixhq88y wrote

Thanks for your insight.

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___pa___ t1_ixqe1lg wrote

Of course. It takes some time in the system to understand how it works, and different universities are different, so it might vary. Teachers in general should be paid more, all the way down to Pre-K, but that's how thing are. We as a society are willing to pay 100x more to people who manipulate financial numbers for a living than teach our kids... It's unfortunate.

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