Adjunct Pay and Benefits at the University of Hartford

and Surrounding Schools
(revised 5/31/2006)

• Nationally, the use of part-time faculty has been growing steadily and is about 46%. Many details about this growth and some of the causes and consequences can be found at the following AAUP site: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issuesed/contingent/
• The University of Hartford has a similar pattern. A recent tally of adjunct teaching in the College of Arts and Sciences indicated about 47% of the courses were taught by adjuncts—with nearly 90% in RLC. Hillyer College is reported to have similar rates. The preliminary accreditation report gave an overall rate of about 48%. If you know the rates for your department or school, please contact Jay Stewart (x4331).
• Thanks to pressure from the Faculty Senate’s Adjunct pay committee (Chair: Don Jones and, previously, Cynthia Ritvo) the University formed a committee to study the topic of adjunct pay at our school and surrounding schools that compete with us for adjuncts. Their report could not be released to the public because some of the schools released the pay rates under “confidentiality”. The executive summary of this report is located: http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/facsenate/ADJ_COMP_PLAN_JAN_06.HTM Subsequently, President Harrison supported the recommendations.

Actions & Results:

• The pay rates seemed minimal compared to what we heard adjuncts saying they could earn at these other schools, so we decided to collect our own data. The report noted that we compete with five schools: UCONN, CCSU, Quinnipiac University (QU), and Manchester and Capital Communicty Colleges (CC). All of these schools have union-negotiated pay rates, even QU. The pay data are easily obtained on the web or by a phone call, as documented later. The only school unwilling to disclose adjunct pay data is the University of Hartford. The UHA rates shown below are those given in a few CAS departments until the 2005-6 year, which used an average of the CAS value and the new floor of $2600 for spring 2006. After that the UHA values are the new base pay rates and represent median pay rates (½ of adjuncts have less and ½ have more). We are quite certain that the UHA pay rates shown below are close approximations to the median adjunct pay for 3 credit courses over this time period AND must be correct for the 2005-2007 period, given the reported percents of adjuncts whose pay is improved in this period. Figure 1 provides a quick overview of our results. The different lines for the other schools are explained below.
• A MS-Word version of the charts and data on this webpage is available here (with pay at St. Joseph College).

Figure 1. Nominal Pay for 3-Credit Course over Time for Selected Schools*

Figure 2. Real Pay (in 2006$) for 3-Credit Course over Time for Selected Schools*

• But the situation is even worse.
  BENEFITS offered at these other schools are significantly better than those offered here.

  UHA:

  • Allowed to participate in health insurance at group rate, but must pay full cost.
  • Part-time faculty can take one course, tuition free—space permitting—during the semester they are teaching here or the following semester.
  • Although part-timers with G3 contracts are given some benefits after one year, the benefits listed here for the other schools do not require additional contracts—only extended periods of employment.

   

  UCONN: (http://www.uconnaaup.org/resources/contract.html ) UCONN AAUP office: 860-487-0450.

  • Those teaching 8 credits or less:
    >>Retirement plan participation with 5% of salary from the faculty and 8% from the university.
    >> Allowed to participate in health insurance at group rate, but must pay full cost.
  • IF teaching 2 courses now and for last four semesters, $~900 in professional development funds.
  • Those teaching 9 credits or more get full benefits.

  CCSU:  ( http://www.ccsu.edu/aaup/part-time.htm )  CSU AAUP office: 860-832-3790

  • Retirement plan participation with 5% of salary from the faculty and 8% from the university.
  • $~600 in travel and development funds for attending conferences or professional workshops.
  • Free access to all recreational facilities on campus.
  • Waived tuition fees for the part-time faculty members teaching 18 or more credits over the last year. Only on a space available basis.
  • Allowed to participate in health insurance at group rate, but must pay full cost.

   

  Community Colleges (MCC & CCC): (http://www.the4cs.org/docUploads/PTGuide%206.2005.pdf ) The 4C’s union office is at 296-5172.

  • Those teaching half-time (17.5 hours/week) or more get full benefits.
  • Those teaching less:
    >> Retirement plan participation with 5% of salary from the faculty and 8% from the university.
    >> Allowed to participate in health insurance at group rate, but must pay full cost.
    >> Travel and development funds for attending conferences or professional workshops.
    >> Some sick leave days after their third semester.
    >> Job security after 24 credits: guaranteed offer of a course in their discipline, if one is available.

    

  Quinnipiac: (Quinnipiac University Part-Time Faculty Handbook 2005-2006 (pages 25-26) and Oct. 21, 2005 letter from Sarah Steele, Associate Vice President for Faculty Relations to Part-Time Faculty.

  • Free participation in the Fitness and Recreational facilities.
  • IF teaching 6 or more credits now and over each of the last four semesters:
    >> the university will pay 40% of the amount given full-time faculty for health insurance.
    >> retirement plan participation with 5% of salary from the faculty and 5% from the university.
    >> After 5 years of continuous service, the university will contribute 10% of salary to retirement with no required contributions from the part-time faculty member.
  • Laptop computer loans for part-time faculty who need them for more effective teaching.
  • Reduced tuition fees for the part-time faculty or family members on a pro-rata basis for part-time faculty members teaching 3 or more credits now and over each of the last four semesters. Only on a space available basis.

   

• The University of Hartford prides itself on the quality of its teaching, which provides a major basis for recruiting students. It seems likely that we will have trouble recruiting and keeping the best adjunct teachers when they can get much better pay and benefits from our neighboring colleges. Thus, our teaching quality will suffer with possible long-term effects on student enrollments.
• It is simply unjust to pay these dedicated and educated teachers so poorly without a formal recognition of their differences in degrees and teaching experiences and to offer such limited benefits. A university of our stature should be setting a better example.
  

DATA SOURCES

Except for the UHA data, all salary data are based upon union contracts and are publicly available from the sources cited below.

Sources and notes:

1. The cost of living adjustment (COLA) values are from the Department of Labor statistics using their cost of living tables for urban areas in the Northeast US as of 4/2006. They are available here.

2. The UCONN rates are available at: http://www.uconnaaup.org/resources/contract.html in Article 19- Section IV. There are two levels. The upper level is at least 1% more than the lower level and used when a teacher has two, continuous years of teaching. These two rates provide the floor on salary negotiations.

3. The CCSU rates are available at pages 81-82 in the text of :
http://w3.sysoff.ctstateu.edu/web/CSUweb_Administration.nsf/b7989b92524436ce852569d8004a4615/32585fffa21adc4c852569ee001ebb49/$FILE/2002-2006%20CSU-AAUP%20Contract%20(a).pdf
with 2006-2007 rates given at: http://www.ccsu.edu/aaup/csu/Contract%20Agreement.pdf
There are 6 levels. The lowest is for non-terminal degrees and less than 30 load credit hours of experience, i.e., 10 3 credit courses. This is the “Low” value in the above table. The 4-6th levels are for teachers with terminal degrees. The “High” values in the above table are for the 5th level, which is for a person with a terminal degree and having taught 10-20 3-credit courses. The 6th level is almost $150 more than shown above, but seemed like an unreasonable comparison group, so was not presented in the charts or this table.

4. Both MCC and CCC have a union contract with salaries given at:
http://www.the4cs.org/docUploads/Part%20Timers%20Rates.pdf
The two pay levels are fixed and based upon experience only. The “Low” pay is for “less than 18 credit hours” and the “High” pay is for “18 or more credit hours.” The rates for 2006-2007 are a 5% increase and recently ratified by union members. See: http://www.the4cs.org/docUploads/wage%20reopener.pdf

5. The Quinnipiac University rates for 2004-2005 are located on printed page 37 of:
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/PreBuilt/pdf/Manuals/manual_policies_june2005.pdf
The other rates are from QU’s Vice President for Faculty Relations. There are three fixed pay rates at QU and are only based upon degree and course level. The QU “non-terminal degree” rates are for undergraduate courses taught by instructors without a terminal degree. The majority of adjuncts are paid at the terminal degree rate (including many that do not have the terminal degree, as that rate was rarely used in the past). The highest rate is for graduate level courses.

6. The older UHA rates are based upon a couple of “typical” CAS departments before this year, but I know some that were even lower. The rate for year “2005” is the average of the departments’ rates for last fall and the new base rate for this spring (2006). These are base rates, but they are also very close to the average pay as measured by the median (½ below and ½ above) because the committee report noted that 50% to 75% of the adjuncts would have their pay improved at these new base rates, so at least 50% were at or below these new rates to begin with). Do not be misled by reports of higher “average” pay (using the “mean” pay) because the mean is strongly influenced by the highest values, which are given for 4-credit courses, courses in selected colleges, or graduate level courses.

NOTE: Any questions about the data can be answered by John Stewart, x4331, jstewart@hartford.edu.