Include Adjuncts in Loan Forgiveness Program | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government:
I don’t normally do politics here, but this is a thing that’s important to me and a lot of my off-line friends.
Roughly 75% of college classes are taught by adjuncts. Adjunct, contingent, or part-time faculty members are paid less and get fewer benefits than their full time counterparts.
Yet, overall, we tend to teach more.
A full time teaching load is usually 5 classes. In an average semester, I need to teach 5 to break even, 7 to have a cushion, and at most I think I’ve taught 8 at a time. However, adjuncts are limited in their ability to teach classes; either by time constraints because we get what’s left after the full time instructors get their classes, or because the number of units we can cover in any one semester is limited (usually to about 10 units). At two of my schools, most classes are 4 units, limiting me to two classes per semester, hence the teaching 7 classes at 3 colleges.
Here’s the issue: Because we only teach 10 units at a time per school, the reported hours we teach is less than full time at each institution. Because of this, we don’t qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Yet, overall, we’re teaching more than our full-time counterparts.
Please sign this petition to make adjuncts eligible for this program. We’re hard working instructors, invested in the future of our students and working hard to give them a great education, often having office hours via text messages or out of the trunks of our cars, flying from campus to campus to teach as much as we can, and spending our free time grading, prepping, etc.
If you don’t want to sign (or aren’t a US citizen that can’t), that’s cool, but please consider reblogging to get it around. Adjunct parity is important. There’s no reason we shouldn’t benefit from this program too, just because there are more of us than there are full time positions. We work just as hard as the full-time college and K-12 instructors that do qualify for this program. We deserve the same benefits.
Reblogging myself to get this around again. I’d apologize for the spam, but I’m not sorry.
Hell to the yes.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/221HAxA