Editor,
I congratulate Professor Melissa Bokovoy for sharing with readers the current state of education at UNM, and in particular, for her solidarity with the “poorly compensated part-time faculty.” I encourage other faculty members and students to publicly share their thoughts and experiences regarding these matters. As the proverb goes, Hablando se entiende la gente: Talking makes for mutual understanding.
I have been teaching since January 2009 in the department of Spanish and Portuguese, generally three classes per semester. I am told that I can call myself a “lecturer” or an “instructor.” As such, allow me to share my own experience at UNM. It is my understanding and experience that “lecturers” teach four classes and receive a comparable salary. In our department the great majority are, however, false “lecturers.” That is, they are not recognized, in financial terms, as lecturers but rather receive a salary based upon each class taught. This is accomplished by declining to give them four classes, which would immediately make them eligible to the higher compensation as “lecturers.”
I will use the term “instructor” to distinguish between these two categories. However, this spring of 2010 all instructors (with one exception) have been dismissed from the department of Spanish and Portuguese because of the cuts. Rather than signing a contract for next fall, I understand that the department will simply call available parties during the summer when they realize they need to augment the teaching staff for the courses that must be taught in the autumn. Since there is a growing pool of unemployed Spanish teachers, there will always be someone who can teach the Composition or Introduction to Literature courses, which have generally been reserved for tenured faculty, all but dissertation doctoral students or instructors.
However, last minute choices in July or August do not make for the most effective way to choose university teachers, nor does this method benefit teachers who must determine their future earnings and act accordingly. It is a haphazard method and lacking in professional solidarity for a very sizeable portion of the teaching staff at UNM.
Therefore, my contribution to this discussion is that the University actually treats part-time faculty like faculty by opening up the “lecturer” position and offering a decent salary based on four classes per semester, which is a sizeable load if one is truly teaching. Since at this time the part-time, nontenured track seems to be a corporate reality at this Research I university, it should be accomplished in such a way that is in the interests of those who study and teach at UNM.
This is of course merely a provisional measure, allowing for professional solidarity among faculty and encouraging higher standards of teaching in the classroom, while UNM grapples with its willingness to offer the great majority of its teaching staff (read faculty) professional respect in the form of tenure.
Theo Walker
UNM instructor
