Thinking and Linking by Joanne Jacobs
More colleges are limiting adjuncts’ work hours to avoid Obamacare’s insurance mandates. Some colleges now require adjuncts to report the hours they spend preparing for lessons and grading papers. Those who go over the 29-hour weekly limit risk losing their jobs.
Colleges and universities are hiring part-time instructors for an average of $2,987 for a three-credit course. Adjuncts at rural community colleges average $1,808. Part-timers can be hired and fired as needed; few receive health insurance or other benefits.
About half of all college and university faculty — more than 70 percent at community colleges — are part-timers, estimates the American Federation of Teachers.
To avoid paying for health insurance, a Pittsburgh community college will cut the work hours of 400 adjunct instructors and support staff. Under Obamacare, employers don’t have to provide insurance for employees working less than 30 hours a week. Community College of Allegheny County will save $6 million.
“It’s kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don’t have the money to pay for it,” said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis.
Poorly paid adjunct professors are using food stamps, Medicaid and other public aid to pay the bills. Some 70 percent of college instructors are adjuncts with no job security, no benefits and low pay.
On Community College Spotlight: To stop the exploitation of adjuncts, end tenure for college instructors.
Also, an adjunct biology instructor wins $100,000 from the community college that fired her for discussing whether sexual orientation is inherited in a class on Human Heredity. (A student was offended.)
On Community College Spotlight: Public colleges should learn from the for-profits how to serve low-income students.
Also: Community colleges and non-elite four-year institutions rely heavily on adjunct instructors, especially in low-level classes. Do students learn less from adjuncts?
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