Some part-time teachers at Gavilan College are outraged that their hourly pay—and often their courses—are being cut while top administrators receive bonuses and increasing salaries.
In the fall of 2013, adjunct faculty—teachers who work on a variable part-time schedule—accounted for 77 percent of Gavilan College’s instructional staff, according to state figures. On the other hand, full-time faculty make up 23 percent of the teaching staff.
When it comes to pay, part-timers are the lowest on the fiscal totem pole. Gavilan College President and Superintendent Steve Kinsella is the top earner, both at the college and amongst other California community colleges, based on a search of public records. Kinsella made more than $336,322 last year, including benefits, and received more than $306,450 in 2012.
Currently, Kinsella makes more than the presidents at Hartnell College in Salinas and Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, which served approximately 7,056 and 6,613 full-time equivalent students in 2012-13, respectively. Gavilan served roughly 5,500 full-time equivalent students in 2012 between its three South County locations, state records show.
Since his contract was signed in November 2011, Kinsella’s salary has increased by more than $10,000 a year. Kinsella is scheduled to receive a $31,5000 pay increase on Dec. 31, 2015, as delineated on the first page of his contract.
But for part-time teachers, their pay situation is much different. How much adjunct faculty members earn is dependent on the number of students who enroll in their courses and how many full-time faculty members are available to teach. On average, temporary instructors collected $54.65 an hour in the fall of 2013 while the average hourly salary was $65.43 during the fall of 2012, according to state figures.
“We only get paid when we’re teaching,” said Colette Marie McLaughlin, who heads the college’s Department of Computer Graphics and Design, adding that preparing lesson plans, meeting with students and grading exams and assignments are all unpaid activities. “We are exploited workers that the administration can easily get rid of—but we love the school and our students. We love the college. I’ve been an educator for a long time, and this is the best school I’ve worked at.”
In May, McLaughlin helped commission an online survey to see how part-time teachers felt about their compensation, relationships with the administration and students and other topics. Many teachers submitted comments anonymously.
“I provide a great deal of additional support for my students, more so than is expected, according to my part-time contract; it would be nice to be compensated for this,” one teacher wrote. “My pay is less than minimum wage when you count the number of hours (and) weeks spent on classes.”
“Break down the hours spent in and out of class—even with 20 years of experience—and basically we could make more money at Walmart,” another teacher said.
The amount of money Gavilan sets aside of its $28 million budget for part-time faculty members fluctuates based on how many courses the school is offering and how many full-time instructors are available to teach those courses, according to college spokesperson Jan Bernstein-Chargin.
“For the past five to seven years, we’ve been scheduling and offering more classes than we wound up getting reimbursed for by the state,” she said. “We’re hoping that with the increase in state education funding this year we might be able to fund more of this extra enrollment—but it doesn’t look like that will be the case. We’ll probably be cutting back on some of the lower enrollment classes.”
And if classes are dropped due to low enrollment, some teachers said they are the last to find out and have no say in whether a course is offered, according to survey responses.
“I find out if and what I am teaching by looking at the online schedule. I am a pawn,” one teacher wrote in the comments section.
“Until a year ago, I had two courses and they (the administration) cut one without telling me in advance. I found out by checking the schedule,” another teacher wrote. “The resulting pay cut has caused some definite hardships and anxiety for me. My pay per course isn’t that bad by community college standards, but I only have one course (and) there’s no way I can live on just that.”
All teachers at the college have the option of joining the Gavilan College Faculty Association, which is affiliated with the California Teachers Association. Bernstein-Chargin pointed out that the salary and benefits of Gavilan’s teachers are negotiated through a collective bargaining process.
Depending on education and experience, full-time teachers can earn between $52,270 and $109,169, according to the salary schedule for fiscal year 2013-14. On the other hand, adjunct faculty members are hired to teach specific courses on a semester-to-semester basis, Bernstein-Chargin said.
