Community colleges cutting adjunct hours so they don't have to provide insurance under ACA

[eridani]

http://www.pnhp.org/print/news/2013/march/teachers-colleges-getting-early-lesson-in-obamacare

They jokingly refer to themselves as "road scholars," the part-time, often itinerate employees who teach the majority of the classroom hours at community colleges.

Without their willingness to work for modest pay, tuition at these colleges would be out of reach for many of those looking to put a foot on the first rung of secondary education.

And now some of these instructors are finding themselves among the first to be ensnared by a requirement of Obamacare — the Affordable Care Act — as their employers are planning to cut their teaching hours to make sure they don't qualify for health care benefits under the new law.

Friday morning, adjunct professors and their supporters are planning a protest rally during an Illinois Council of Community College Presidents meeting in Lombard to urge leaders of the state's community colleges to "Keep the 'care' in the Affordable Care Act," as their promotional flier puts it.

Here's the problem: Starting next year, Obamacare will require companies that employ more than 50 full-time workers to provide health insurance to employees who work 30 or more hours a week, or else pay a fine.

But what's an "hour" for a college teacher? Depending on the subject matter, level of interaction with students and other factors, one hour in the classroom can require two, three or more hours of preparation, grading, conferences and so on.

[raccoon]

1. THat's happened in SC too. And undoubtedly other states as well. nt

[teenagebambam]

2. Yep.

My partner is a middle-administrator in WV. He started his new job this academic year and one of the first thing he was tasked with was cutting his adjuncts back to less than half time (some of them were literally teaching time-and-a-half teaching loads.)

[Greybnk48]

3. They were most likely teaching

overloads so they could afford to pay their bills on a very low per class salary. What a mess.

[teenagebambam]

10. Exactly. n/t

[enlightenment]

4. My institution is completely silent on this.

There was mention of a "working committee" to be established by the Board of Regents - initially they weren't planning on having any adjunct representation, but were chastised by one of their number. So now they'll probably have one or two carefully selected adjuncts on the committee and come to the conclusion that they have already made (carefully selected meaning, those who really are doing it as a hobby, so any income they make is pin money - as opposed to people who count that income as necessary to their survival).

We're a right to work state and they make sure adjuncts know their place. They already only allow a maximum of three courses a semester (one in summer), across state institutions - so if an adjunct is teaching three classes at the uni, he/she can't pick up an extra at the community college or four-year. They don't want anyone sneaking over the magical percentage that would qualify them for benefits. They used to allow adjuncts to waive their benefits to get around the three-course cap, but got rid of that a number of years ago.

Offers are generally made well in advance of the next term - naturally because the lead faculty assigned to scheduling needs to figure it out early . . . but contracts are not offered until the semester begins. Usually after the semester begins, truth be told - anywhere from one to three weeks (in essence, they could decide to cancel the class in that time period and not be liable for paying a dime to the person who taught it). One year they tried changing adjuncts from a four pay-period schedule (which means no pay until you've been working five and six weeks, depending on when the semester begins) to a three pay-period schedule. That didn't work; bad press after some adjuncts complained that they were working almost three months before they saw a paycheck - but knowing that would be the result didn't keep the school from trying it out.

Lately, the Board of Regents presented a "study" done by an outside agency on the state of distance education in the state. Naturally the researchers pushed MOOCs, the latest shiny object in academe, but buried in the 100+ page report was another little zinger. Adjuncts, they said, should be put through additional assessment - because they can't be trusted to do a good job (why? because they are adjuncts - it's a wonderful bit of circular logic). ONLY adjuncts need this additional assessment - not full-time faculty.

Just one more beat-down to make sure adjuncts don't get uppity, I guess.

I have never seen a definitive study of the "adjunct situation" - it varies wildly since there are no standards and really, no rules. Pretty much what a school wants to do. I'd guess that, on average, adjuncts earn about a third of full-time faculty - for doing the same work - most under marginal conditions (no office space; no dedicated phone number where students can leave messages; no or little clerical support from the department; no or very small allowance for supplies, copies, etc) - ghost faculty, really.

Yet those ghosts teach upward of 70% of all courses in higher education. It is the shameful, dirty secret of American colleges and universities.

[TalkingDog]

6. Well, said. n/t

[Starry Messenger]

11. Great post.

[teenagebambam]

12. The good/bad news is

that a lot of the big accrediting institutions (SACS, etc) are cracking down and saying that schools either have to limit adjunct hours or offer them benefits. Since there are only a limited number of adjuncts to go around, it should result in more full time positions being created.

[former9thward]

13. Why do you think there are "only a limited number of adjuncts to go around"?

Just the opposite is the case. There are an unlimited number of people who would do it and its only limited by the number of jobs available.

[teenagebambam]

14. Yes, but

If adjuncts (I am one) are limited as to how many hours they can teach, they will either fill up their schedules at several different schools, or quit the game altogether. My partner came into a situation where there were adjuncts teaching load-and-a-half, and after being forced to limit their hours, he could not find enough adjuncts to cover everything that needed to be covered. And this is a pretty sizable metro area (DC).

[TalkingDog]

5. Yep and although I need the money, I'm glad. If they paid adminstrators less, they could hire more

full time instructors. As it stands, adjuncts are essentially scabs.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. If they're going to cut people out of health insurance coverage b/c of ACA

can't they at least have the decency to wait until the exchanges are up and running first?

[JCMach1]

8. My generation of scholars (Gen X) have really been screwed over this

as boomers have clung to their tenured positions.

[Evasporque]

9. Futire headline: GOP Introduces Voucher Compensation Bill

Republicans are drafting a voucher compensation plan to replace traditional monetary compensation. Under the plan employers will have the ability to pay hourly employees with vouchers for food, housing, healthcare and retail goods rather than a direct deposit cash payment. An unnamed Walmart spokesman said that this would very good for WalMart as they have always seen employees as some of their most loyal customer. "Now we can really lock them in to a life long career at WalMart and a generous labor cost saving source for the company. We can now finally compete with third world wages and profit from it."

Wage Allocation Liberty and Retirement Security (WALRS) program or Walrus was drafted by ALEC and WalMart executives and introduced by Senator Arden Fatback republican from Virginia.

Senator Fatback stated that they will surely include generous tax incentives for employers to adopt this method. "We will essentially offer the company 30 cents on the retail dollar for every voucher dollar they pay out while still maintaining appropriate payroll and equivalent income taxes. Which incidentally pays for the tax incentive. Some may see It like robbing Peter to pay Paul to rob Peter again and again but that is patently false. We really have to be focused what is important and that is Paul. So really the old adage does ring true. The Walrus [program] is Paul."