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the free press
University of Southern Maine Student Newspaper
Vol. 46, Issue No. 14 Jan. 26, 2015
usmfreepress.org
Number adjunct professors on the rise at USM Brian Gordon Free Press Staff The university has been firing tenured professors and replacing them with adjuncts or temporary workers as part of executing their vision of a “metropolitan university.” The administration has been carrying this out in the name of saving money. The national average of adjuncts teaching is 50 percent at 4-year public universities. USM uses more than 50 percent to teach their classes and is headed towards more as they let more full time professors go. The adjuncts are paid per class, per semester. On average they are paid $3,215 per class, for a three credit course for a four month semester. Most adjuncts have to work second and third jobs to make ends meet. Still the adjuncts were adamant about their love of teaching and realized they wouldn’t become rich from it. Michele Cheung has been teaching part time at USM for twenty years. She holds a master’s in Celtic languages and literatures and is also president of the Part Time Faculty Association union. To make teaching adjunct work, she freelances, does marketing writing and has a share in a local cleaning company. “It’s a stereotype that we’re not good enough to be full time faculty, this is a lurking attitude,” said Abigail Johnson-Ruscansky / Design Assistant Cheung “Most adjuncts don’t want
to be full time; we want a life that’s a bit of this and a bit of that. However we do feel that we should be paid on par as full time.” She used to teach four classes but now they’ve been done away with. This semester she’s only teaching one section of creative writing. The administration has been pushing to get tenured professors teaching a full load of four classes, rather than two or three. But at the same time, the administration is cutting classes leaving the tenured professors fighting over classes with the adjuncts. Cheung notes that adjuncts used to only teach introductory classes but now the tenured professors may need those courses to satisfy their own requirements set by the president and provost. While some adjuncts are being brought in to replace full-time faculty who have been retrenched, in other departments they have been given fewer sections. This situation creates its own problems. As Cheung notes, adjuncts with the most seniority are the only ones left standing. “The lesser temps can’t find work at USM. There’s no way for a person to make a living teaching one class; they’d have to pump gas or get government aid,” said Cheung. Elizabeth Peavey was an USM adjunct teacher of public speaking for 20 years before her class was neutralized last fall. “I knew I was going to dedicate
an enormous amount of my week to this one class so then I had to find something to offset that,” said Peavey. “I did advertising work for years.” “Anybody who goes into teaching, does it with their heart. It’s public service,” said Peavey. “You don’t aspire to teach for money or because it’s going to be easy.” Andrew Barron just finished his master’s degree at USM in statistics. He is in his fourth semester as an adjunct teaching at USM. Barron would like to get hired on full time but knows that might not happen due to a campus-wide freeze of hiring tenured track professors. For now he’s content teaching adjunct as much as he can at USM and SMCC but realizes if he does want to get a full time job he might have to move out of state. As for the pay, Barron isn’t complaining because he loves to teach but “you always pretty much have to do something else.” For Barron that something else was bartending and managing at local bar LFK. “I can make more bartending two nights than a semester of teaching 12 credits.” said Barron. “It’s not the most efficient way to make money. So you have to like it.” Susan Feiner professor of economics and women and gender studies thinks the use of adjuncts on campus is too prominent. She
See ADJUNCT on page 3
Michael Berube chairs the AAUP investigation Emma James News Editor
Last week, a team was sent to USM by the American Association of University Professors to investigate claims against USM’s execution of academic freedom and shared governance. Chairing the investigative committee was Michael Berube, director of the institute for arts and humanities at Pennsylvania State University. According to Berube, hundreds of requests for intervention come before the AAUP every year, regarding what he described as “shady practices in American higher education.” From those, only a handful are selected. “The investigative process is very labor intensive,” said Berube. “We try to take the ones that we think are the most important for the future of higher education.”
USM fell into that category. “What’s going on in Southern Maine, it seems, is pretty drastic,” said Berube. “It seems to have pretty far-reaching implications and that’s why it was authorized for investigation.” Berube explained that the process of investigation includes two main components. First, the committee must read every document relevant to the investigation. “I’ve read massive amounts of material, ranging from the faculty bylaws, to the constitution; I’ve gone through email exchanges, reports from the administration, various information about financial disaster,” said Berube. “We just try to get the lay of the land here.” Berube explained that, in an investigation, the team wants to hear as much from administration as it does from faculty. See AAUP on page 3
Alex Greenlee / Free Press Staff