Adjunct professors at Ramapo College who have been teaching for more than 15 semesters are paid a mere $20,000 a year for teaching two classes per semester.
The math works out to $1250 per credit or about $20,000 a year. Part-time cashiers earn around $11 an hour more than adjuncts, and make $24,000 a year for working at a grocery store.
Adjunct professor Kathleen Shannon who teaches in the school of humanities and global studies said her wages and benefits are sub-standard.
“Adjuncts like me who have been here for over 15 semesters are paid slightly more than adjuncts who are more recently hired. We get no medical benefits with the job; if we want medical insurance we have to pay for it out of our earnings. We have no tenure, and are hired semester-to-semester,” Shannon said.
By contrast, President Peter Mercer, makes a whopping $298,500 a year and has a list of benefits, including: Free housing, (Mercer is “required to reside in the Havemeyer house across the street from the college”), an annual housing allowance of $20,000 for maintenance and other expenses, funding for the house and all other utilities, a deferred compensation plan, health insurance, retirement, paid sick leave, vacation, retirement, disability, travel expenses, telephone and cell phone service, and sabbatical leave.
Automobile benefits are also included. As per Mercer’s contract, which can be found online, “The college will provide the President with a newly purchased or leased, mid to full size automobile for official business every three years; may use for personal and family matters.”
The question then becomes how one survives on $20,000 a year, as opposed to higher paid full time professors.
“Many adjuncts work at several colleges in order to earn a decent living. Adjunct teaching is an extremely precarious job–we never know if we’ll get classes next semester,” Shannon said.
“Sometimes a full-time professor’s class doesn’t fill, and that professor is given an adjunct’s class to teach. People are scrambling for extra work to make ends meet,” Shannon added.
Junior Domenica LaRocco said she feels the adjuncts deserve better pay and more benefits. “They’re a huge part of campus life and do the same work and more as the other professors, but with less resources. The wage difference between the president and the adjunct professors is totally unjust,” LaRocco said.
AUDIO: Listen to junior Emma Thor, 21, talk about what she thinks about this difference in pay and benefits between adjuncts and Mercer.
Both adjuncts and full time professors at Ramapo have been working without a contract since June of 2015. When working without a contract, there are no yearly pay increases. “We are falling behind financially–our earnings can’t keep up with the cost of living,” Shannon said.
When added together, Shannon says it’s easy to feel like a second class citizen on campus. “There’s not a lot that connects us to each other and to the school. Most adjuncts teach their classes and run to other jobs, so there’s no sense of community for us.”
I do agree with the closing statement, as a college student I never noticed my professors interacting with one another or having any pride for the school they were teaching for. I also can vouch that most of my professors work at multiple teaching outlets to earn a decent salary. My question after reading this is why do professors choose to lower their working standards being that they are one of the most highly educated people in society?
Wanted more student perspectives. Overall well written story.