OPINION

Adjunct faculty need to be fairly compensated for attending meetings, training and flex activities

by Barbara Corzonkoff, Adjunct Faculty Member , Skyline College Business Division

I thoroughly enjoy teaching as an adjunct faculty member at Skyline College. I usually think I am a truly valued member of Skyline College because of the knowledge, expertise and caring attitude that I bring to the college and the students.

However, when I attend the opening day flex activities, or a division or department meeting, activity or training on a day other than ones I am scheduled to work, compensation becomes a real puzzle. It seems that on all days that I am not scheduled to work, but I come to the campus to participate so I am engaged and knowledgeable about the college, division or department topics and activities, I am expected to “donate” my valuable unscheduled time.

This experience has happened enough times to make me question exactly how the college values me as a faculty member. When I am sitting next to another instructor who is compensated to be at the meeting, and I, as an hourly, adjunct instructor, am expected to attend without any compensation because I am not scheduled to teach that day, the irony is all too blatant.

For several years as an adjunct faculty, I have tried to find a clear explanation of why this is the “way things are” but I can never seem to get a logical and understandable explanation from the college faculty or administration or the AFT Union. It seems to be a question that is muddled in with flex day compensation and various interpretations so that additional attendance in other activities – division, department, training and “strongly suggested you attend” meetings – compensation becomes a guessing game.

The restrictions that govern when and what adjunct faculty should be compensated for are not equitable nor clearly written or interpreted and the situation has been pushed aside for far too long. I strongly believe that adjunct faculty members should be compensated when they give up their valuable personal time to be engaged and active adjunct faculty members at Skyline College. Can someone tell me what we can do to bring clarity and understanding that will bring equity to this glaringly obvious inequity?