College pay equity: At whose expense?
Re: Profs want more input into teaching in dispute over ‘academic control,’ Oct. 25.
Jacquie Miller’s article on the college strike is interesting and informative.
A few teachers are knowledgeable enough about their subject area to be asked for their input. Good managers expect and respect that input. Most managers are fair and reasonable but, as with teachers, a minority are not.
Those seem to be the focus of any dispute and often inform the public’s view of that group.
Managers and administrators want what is best for their staff and their students, while keeping within a budget.
The money pit is not bottomless; they must be budgetconscious to survive — indeed to provide any jobs they must use their monies judiciously.
Faculty are well paid and have 14 weeks off every year (that is not a typo; they have nine weeks’ vacation, at least two weeks at Christmas, one week in February, and usually at least one week between semesters depending on whether they are monitoring exams). Yes, some of that time is spent (according to faculty) prepping for an upcoming semester but their contract allows for only 12 hours of teaching a week (in most cases, that’s the maximum allowed).
Their prepping time is included in their standard workload formula (SWF) which is issued each semester.
Full-time faculty are well paid and this new contract allows for a maximum of $115,000.
That’s a good salary for at most nine months of work a year.
If the pot is limited, as public monies should be, simple math would inform union members that part-timers’ salaries can be increased if full-time faculty are prepared to give up some of their monies.
Are they really keen for their part-time colleagues’ equity or only if it’s done on the backs of the Ontario taxpayers?
I worked as faculty in the college system for more than 25 years. I hope this helps shed some light on another angle of this labour action.
The issues are complex. Denise Blay, B.A., M.A., Professor Emeritus, Fanshawe College, London, Ont.