Part-time policy fails college students
On a recent newscast, Liz Mathewson from Fleming College commented on the current strike by college professors. Her comments included a very crucial phrase, “stability for part-time staff.” That goal is one that needs to be seriously addressed.
Whilst a “Partial Load” staff member at Fleming, I enjoyed a quite stable environment; staff were ranked by educational/ experience background and by seniority. Each semester, the co-ordinator assigned courses and hours by that list. The person at the top of the list received a contract for 12 hours (partial load) if he/she wished, the next person was offered similar hours, and so on until the courses were filled. This gave some stability as everyone knew the order, even if some wished to be farther up the list, and staff had some choice in the courses taught which added great consistency from semester to semester.
These “Partial Load” staff had close to a living wage each semester. They had the stability of being part of a benefit package and pension scheme if they so chose. They also had a chance to get to know their students. Some I still am in contact with and meet on various occasions.
Then came a change in administration. The current president seems to want nothing to do with staffing or the quality of instruction. There is a “Dean System” that has so many levels of bureaucracy that hours, often six or less a week, are assigned in many departments by favouritism. Certainly not sufficient remuneration on which to live.
The staff in some departments are constantly changing so that continuity is lost. Part-time staff obviously have little chance to develop a camaraderie with full-time staff or students, who may once have had the same professor for more than one semester.
Continuity, when staff had the option to teach the same course from semester to semester, is also lost. This affects the quality of instruction severely. Students pay high tuition and the best part-time staff, who carry the major instructional load, are off to greener pastures or are struggling to survive, never knowing if they’ll be offered a contract the next semester. This unstable environment does not offer either the high quality of instruction students deserve or that administration touts.
More full-time staff would be great but not practical, financially. “Stability for part-time staff” in the form of some job security and a fair assignment of hours, as Ms. Mathewson points out, would be much less expensive and do much more to improve instruction at colleges. Wayne Greenley Ennismore