Cochise College Part-Time Faculty — What’s New
During the 2000-2001 academic year, four part-time faculty representing various campuses
of Cochise College volunteered to meet regularly with two representatives of Cochise
College Administration to discuss various issues affecting part-time faculty district-wide.
Issues discussed covered a wide range—including salary, benefits, working conditions,
hiring practices, and many other concerns, but the primary work of the committee
during the year focused on more equitable compensation for part-time faculty.
The stated concerns of the part-time faculty committee members were:
- Quality of education at Cochise College
- Comparable pay for comparable work
- Recruitment and retention of the best-qualified instructors
Much research was done both internally, assessing the number of courses taught by
part-timer faculty and the types of certification held by them, and externally, considering
statewide and nationwide factors affecting salaries of professional educators. Part-time
faculty committee members maintained their belief that the only way to achieve parity
is to base the compensation of part-time faculty on a percentage of the compensation
earned by their full-time colleagues. The administration of the college consistently
supported a market-based system of compensation. Administration saw the market as
being other community colleges in Arizona, while part-time faculty believed that
compensation rates at local universities should be included in market considerations
for this area, where the pool of qualified educators is limited.
After many months of work, and many compromises on the part of part-time faculty,
a 4x4 compensation matrix, based on degrees ranging from B.A. to Ph.D, and service
to the institution ranging from less than 30 units taught to 121+ units taught, was
proposed to the Governing Board. The Administration made its own market-based proposal.
Governing Board members requested that the committee resume meetings and make a united
proposal at a later board meeting.
After further compromise on the part of part-time faculty, another compensation model
was proposed to the Board at its June, 2001 meeting, as follows, for compensation
to part-time faculty, per unit taught:
After this proposal was presented, the Board went into a lengthy Executive Session.
Upon reconvening the general meeting, the Board announced the following:
- Part-time faculty with a B.A or lower, with four or fewer semesters at Cochise College
are to be compensated at a rate of $500 per unit taught.
- Part-time faculty with a B.A. or lower with five or more semesters at Cochise College
are to be compensated at a rate of $525 per unit taught.
- Part-time faculty with an M.A. or higher with four or fewer semesters at Cochise
College are to be compensated at a rate of $525 per unit taught.
- Part-time faculty with an M.A. or higher with five or more semesters at Cochise College
are to be compensated at a rate of $550 per unit taught.
In addition, the Board announced as part of its decision that, beginning in the fall
semester of 2001, part-time faculty were to be limited to teaching 9 equated units
per semester, a reduction from the previous 11 unit limit. This abrupt reduction
in units was never brought up as a possibility in the year-long part-time faculty
committee meetings and did not seem to be well considered. In subsequent discussions
of the new 9-unit limit, the Administration and the Board have not thus far considered
the impacts of the decision on quality of education at Cochise College, some of which
are:
- Classes have been taken from more experienced part-time faculty and assigned to less
experienced individuals.
- Full-time faculty are being asked to teach more overload, creating further stress
and inevitably impacting quality of instruction.
- Classes have been cancelled as a result of lack of instructors qualified to take
over for part-time faculty who have reached their 9-unit cap.
Some limited progress has been made for part-time faculty at Cochise College, with
the acknowledgment that instructors with graduate degrees and teaching experience
deserve to be compensated for them. Much remains to be done to address many other
stated concerns of part-time faculty. One intention of Cochise College part-time
faculty is to move forward with discussions about creating some ½ - ¾ teaching positions
with benefits. Our Campus Equity Week activities at Cochise College will focus on
this and other efforts toward parity for part-time instructors.