By Amy J. Higer

I’m an adjunct instructor (part-time lecturer or “PTL”) at Rutgers University, where I have taught for over 20 years. I am one of 3,000 PTLs across the state who are critical to Rutgers fulfilling its central mission of educating its students. PTLs teach tens of thousands of students each year.

Many of us teach multiple, high-enrollment courses, earning on average only $5,500 per course. Rutgers has never provided us with the option of affordable healthcare coverage. Roughly two-thirds of us make a living this way, teaching as many courses as we’re offered, year-round, often by working at several universities.

Like me, many PTLs have been teaching at Rutgers for a very long time and we are among its most experienced teachers. We do this work for low pay in part because positions for full-time faculty have almost completely dried up in recent years. But we also believe in what we do and know that good teachers and mentors can make all the difference in a student’s life.

This semester, of course, has been a semester like no other. The COVID-19 crisis has forced all of us to quickly transition our in-person courses to online formats. The transition was labor-intensive, but we worked quickly and tirelessly to modify our courses so our students could successfully complete their semesters, and we did so without any additional pay for the extra hours we put in.

On April 2nd, Rutgers rewarded our good deeds with a sharp slap in the face. The administration sent an email to all university employees announcing an “across-the-board” hiring freeze but specifically targeting “all” PTLs. When our union asked administrators to clarify the policy, they insisted that those of us who had already secured fall appointments would be spared. We soon learned, however, these same administrators were telling deans and department chairs to reduce the PTL workforce by as much as 25%. As of today, none of us knows whether we will be teaching at Rutgers in the fall.

Rutgers University does not have to do this. At $30 million, PTL compensation comprises less than 1% of the university’s budget. A 25% reduction in the PTL workforce this fall would save the University, at most, $4 million. Drastic reductions in PTL’s will hurt not only those thrown out of work. It will also diminish the quality of education for everyone. It will mean eliminating courses, increasing class sizes, and leaving students without trusted faculty mentors.

After Rutgers’ first response to the crisis showed its determination to target its most vulnerable employees, our PTL union mobilized and joined forces with other unions of Rutgers employees. We learned that Rutgers’ health care providers were not getting the PPE gear they desperately needed. We learned that full-time faculty were never consulted about the impact of PTL cuts on their departments and their students.

And we learned that we all have a common interest in demanding full transparency so we know that administrators’ claims about a financial crisis have a factual basis. After all, Rutgers retains a “rainy day fund” totaling as much as $500 million, and it will receive approximately $54 million from the first round of federal stimulus aid. Will any of these savings go toward shoring up its primary mission?

Today, at least in part in response to Rutgers-wide union activity, Rutgers is just starting to do what other colleges and universities have already done. Rutgers Chancellor Robert Barchi announced reductions in top administrators’ and athletic coaches’ pay over the next four months of between 5% and 10%. This development is welcome but it is not enough.

While Rutgers’ administrators seem to view adjunct faculty as expendable, full-time faculty, students, alums, and community members do not: In just one week, an online petition objecting to these cuts has garnered over 2,500 signatures.

For over 150 years, Rutgers has stood as a model of enlightened, humane values, offering excellent and affordable education in the public domain to all who qualify. The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on so many lives, and laid bare the inequities in our workforce and our workplaces. PTLs, staff, students all struggle in normal times. Rutgers should do much more to make sure it does not inflict unnecessary and additional harm on those of us doing the central work of the university — educating its students.

Amy J. Higer, Ph.D., president, Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter AAUP-AFT.

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