Secret lives of Bay Area part-time profs: Here's why they work at Safeway, live out of cars

Hai Nguyen was born in Vietnam and came to the US as a child. Inspired to learn more about American history, he went on to pursue a master’s degree in that subject and become a community college history instructor in the Bay Area. Nguyen teaches six classes between five campuses: Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, San Jose City College, DeAnza College in Cupertino and Ohlone College’s Fremont and Newark campuses. He works seven days a week and is forced to grade more than 200 student papers during each test cycle — something he is not paid for. On the weekends, Nguyen works at Safeway. He and his wife are expecting their first child in February. CLICK THROUGH FOR MORE STORIES OF PROFESSORS MAKING ENDS MEET. less Hai Nguyen was born in Vietnam and came to the US as a child. Inspired to learn more about American history, he went on to pursue a master’s degree in that subject and become a community college history ... more Photo: Hai Nguyen Photo: Hai Nguyen Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Secret lives of Bay Area part-time profs: Here's why they work at Safeway, live out of cars 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

A vice chancellor and a part-time college professor walk into a bar. They have a drink and start talking about work. Both have tough jobs and hectic schedules. Both have Ph.Ds and both are public servants.

But when it comes to pay, the joke is on the part-time teacher.

The part-time professor earns about $30,000 annually and pays for health benefits while the vice chancellor makes a six-figure salary with full benefits.

Earning more than $70 per hour, it appears part-time college instructors are well paid. But this rate is misleading because only classroom hours are counted, not actual time spent on prep, grading and district administrative work.

The result is a two-tier system with little upward mobility for those at the bottom. Far from the comfort of an ivory tower, the world of academia has led many Bay Area part-time college instructors into secret lives of hardship.

Brad Balukjian is an adjunct biology instructor at Laney College in Oakland. He has a Ph.D and earned just under $25,000 from teaching in 2017. To survive at age 36 in the Bay Area, he rents a room with a senior couple in Alameda.

"Is that where I want to be in my life right now? No," said Balukjian, who is also the union representative for part-time faculty at the Peralta Community College District.

Hai Nguyen teaches six classes between five campuses in three South Bay college districts. He works every day and often grades more than 200 student papers during each test cycle — something he says he is not compensated for.

On the weekends, Nguyen works at a supermarket. All together, working seven days a week, he says he cobbles together about $70,000 annually while his wife works one job in marketing and makes $75,000.

"Sometimes I feel embarrassed, not with my wife, but with the students because students have this perception of a professor," Nguyen said. "A while back, my worst fear was to bump into one of my students at Safeway — for them to see me in my Safeway uniform."

What makes Balukjian and Nguyen's stories unique is that unlike many private sector jobs, a master's degree or higher is required to work in college academia, and both men were forced to spend years of their lives and thousands of dollars on higher education just to qualify.

At Peralta, part-time instructors comprise two-thirds of all faculty, Balukjian said, yet they have no guarantee of employment semester to semester and often find work in multiple districts for balance or just to make ends meet.

"The reality is that a lot of our part-timers are freeway flyers. They may work in three districts. They may have trouble paying their rent," Balukjian said. "You can get unemployment, but this is where you get into situations where part-timers are living out of their car."

A quarter of all part-time college faculty and their families are enrolled in some form of government assistance program, according to a 2015 nationwide study by the UC Berkeley Center for Public Relations.

On top of this, more instructors are being priced out of the Bay Area, said Peter Brown, a full-time machine technology professor at Laney College who worked for eight years as a part-timer. Brown said he knew of one part-time teacher who was evicted and ended up living in a closet.

"These people don't want to go in front of students knowing that they are in this plight," he said. "It creates an uncomfortable dynamic with the students."

A part-time faculty member makes less money per hour than a full-time faculty member at every step of the salary schedule in the Peralta District, a parity problem Balukjian says could be fixed with only $1.15 million each year.

Full-time community college professors can make anywhere from $70,000 to $120,000 depending on experience, and they are paid for classroom instruction, grading and administrative time. Administrative managers, such as vice chancellors and deans, can make anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 annually, while several Bay Area chancellors earn more than $300,000.

Former US Secretary of Labor and current UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich told SFGATE disparity exists because of the unique job market for each position based on supply and demand. Reich said adjunct faculty, who are plentiful, do not benefit from this economic situation.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't make any difference whether we are talking about public colleges or private colleges — the fact of the matter is that every bit and every part of the labor market is in its own bubble," Reich said. "Morally it's wrong. It's unfair. But that's what the economy is doing."

The national trend in recent years has reflected a significant increase in top administrative salaries and a reduction in total money spent on instructional salaries, according to Howard Bunsis, former chair of the American Association of University Professors, who recently performed an analysis of higher education salaries across the country.

"I see this at institution after institution," he said. "The number and salaries of instructors is flat or down; the number and salaries of admins goes up."

The ballooning of the administration's budgets and salaries is a problem that started in the private sector and has infected higher education, Balukjian said. "I have a moral problem when it's a public district and taxpayer money."

Even at private Bay Area colleges, part-time instructors must supplement with other income to survive, said David Kersten, an adjunct professor of public policy at the University of San Francisco.

"I don't believe that many adjunct professors can make a living on teaching full-time at USF," Kersten said. "I just don't believe it's possible, unless you teach for various colleges and institutions."

So what is the future of the career adjunct teaching in multiple districts? Not plausible, says part-time Merritt College biology instructor Daniel Edelstein, whose teaching earns him a fraction of what consulting business does.

"Working at 3 districts is too hard — today that would be a recipe for a heart attack at the age of 45," he said. "If you don't have a Ph.D, you'd better be prepared to market yourself. A person who thinks they can rely on teaching alone is not in tune with the contemporary paradigm."

As for Hai Nguyen, who is working seven days a week and is expecting his first child in February, slowing down is not an option even though he has admittedly grown jaded of the system.

"As a student I had such a glorious perception of what it was like to teach, and now I'm actually up there and I see the other side," he said. "We are still in it because we love our students and we love what we do and that is the only thing that is keeping me going right now."