OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR KEMPTHORNE
by Nick Gier, IFT President, December 3, 2004
I have just completed a state-wide tour of Idaho’s colleges and universities. As always, I was overwhelmed by Idaho’s natural beauty: the top of White Bird summit looking into the Frank Church Wilderness; the raging North Fork of the Payette; hiking into the heart of the Sawtooth Wilderness on Labor Day; the awesome expanse of the Southern Idaho’s farm land; the stark beauty of the Lemhi Valley; and fly fishing the Lochsa River on my way home.
I was equally impressed with our campuses: the beautiful buildings and landscaping, the hard-working instructors, and the well equipped labs. Even with the problems that I will lay out below, these professional academics are fully committed to their students and the advancement of knowledge in their re-search areas.
OVERUSE OF "CONTINGENT" FACULTY
The one issue that I heard most in my conversations with Idaho faculty was the overuse of "contingent faculty." I will use the term "contingent faculty" to represent not only part-time faculty, but faculty who teach a full load but do not have continuing contracts. In order to frame the problem, let me give you some national statistics gathered by our DC office.
From 1971-1986 the number of contingent faculty increased 166 percent while the number of tenured positions increased only 22 percent. Currently two of three first-time hires in our community colleges are contingent faculty. In a survey of nine disciplines, only 48 percent of the introductory courses were taught by full-time, tenured faculty. The remaining 52 percent were taught by TA’s and contingents. In English and Foreign Languages only 25 percent and 28 percent of introductory courses were taught by tenured faculty.
Gender differences are significantly higher among contingent faculty. In 1998 36 percent of full-time faculty were women, but among the contingent faculty it was 48 percent. In the humanities the difference was staggering: 38 percent full time versus 59 percent female contingents. Currently only 17 percent of contingent faculty have medical coverage and only 20 percent are on a subsidized retirement plan. Finally, 73 percent of these faculty are paid at a rate of less than $3,000 per course.
On my campus tour I was able to get the most recent figures for Idaho, where the situation is worst at BSU. Just before Thanksgiving a BSU official announced that the number of credits generated by contingents is approaching 60 percent university wide, exceeding the national average by 8 percent. BSU’s English Department used to have a dozen full-time instructor positions with benefits. That number has now been reduced to three, so that there are now 46 contingents and 34 full-time faculty in the department. The BSU history department currently has 15 full-time and 18 contingents.
FOUR "Cs" FOR CONTINGENT FACULTY
Nationally the AFT represents 45,000 contingent faculty, more than any other faculty organization. Here are some contract items that have been successfully negotiated contrasted with Idaho campus facts.
Continuity. After a period of satisfactory performance, contingent faculty receive a "Certificate of Continuing Employ-ment" that gives them hiring preferences and access to benefits. As a stark contrast, UI part-time instructors have recently been fired at the end of the semester so that benefits would not have to be paid.
Compensation. Contingent faculty should be paid a salary proportionate to the salary paid to the full-time faculty with equivalent qualifications. In dramatic contrast, pay per course at the UI ranges from $1500 to one third of a full professor’s salary. Some UI contingents have never received a pay raise, and we propose that all Idaho faculty go to a salary step system like the one in place at North Idaho College.
Consistency. Not only are there wide discrepancies in pay, there are also wide differences in contingent appointments. The ISU Department of English and Philosophy should be commended. Of its 58 faculty only nine are contingent. Although their salaries are low, the 20 instructors are employed full-time with full benefits on continuing contracts.
Coverage
. Combining consistency and continuity, all contingent faculty who are working more than half time should be entitled to medical and retirement benefits. In June, 2002 one UI college, without any notification, cancelled the contracts of its part-timers and left them without medical benefits until they were rehired in the fall.STATE-WIDE SALARY STEP SYSTEM
I had not been on the NIC campus for some years, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the faculty has a salary step system. In 1976 the UI Federation proposed a step system based on the federal G-S scale, and if UI had gone to that system, its faculty would now be at the top of its peer institutions rather than at the bottom. If the NIC faculty can benefit from a step system, then there is no reason why all Idaho faculty should not.
When asked about merit pay, the NIC faculty voted to stay with the guaranteed steps instead. The AFT position has always been that as a long as salaries do not keep up with the cost of living, then merit pay is a moot point. When legislative raises are applied according to merit, many faculty end up with pays cuts because of the decline in general buying power.
TENURE AT NIC; WHY NOT AT CSI?
The other significant discovery at NIC was that their faculty can earn tenure. It is sometimes argued that academic tenure is only for faculty who do research, but this reasoning is invalid. Tenure provides the strongest protection for academic freedom, the freedom to choose the content of syllabi, the range of discussion with students, and the topics of our re-search, which some two-year college faculty indeed do. Therefore, all faculty, after a rigorous probationary period, have the right to be considered for tenure.
In my discussions with NIC faculty I learned of an odd con-fusion about tenure. Some administrators have claimed that it means something different at 2-year colleges as opposed to 4-year schools. Academic tenure means the same for all faculty; it means that one cannot be dismissed except for a felony conviction, professional incompetence, or moral turpitude. Tenured faculty can also be fired during financial exigency or be-cause of program discontinuance, but it is the program, not any particular faculty, that must be the target.
Speaking of program discontinuance, I wrote to the SBOE’s Executive Director about our problems with the policy that was rushed into existence in October, 2002. (This is found in Section III.G.8 and III.G.9 of Governing Policies and Procedures.) We are particularly concerned about the lack of faculty consultation in the decision to close programs. We are also distressed about the lack of due process for faculty who appeal their termination under 9.b.2.d. In essence, this policy undermines the rights of all tenured faculty. I received no answer to my letter of December 30, 2002, and I urge you to request the SBOE reconsider this policy and make the fact finding and appeal process at least equal to the policy on financial exigency.
STATE-WIDE OMBUDSMEN
For thirty years the IFT has been the de facto faculty union for grievances on Idaho’s campus. We have handled well over one hundred grievances, most of them settled at the department or college level. Ten cases have gone to court and the IFT has won eight of those. For these achievements and more see
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/achievements.htm.During the 1990s the UI Federation successfully lobbied its administration for an ombudsman’s office. The AFT there thought that some faculty were loath to come to the union with their problems, so this office would provide a much needed service. The UI ombudsman now handles over one hundred cases a year, and the AFT case load has now come down to manageable levels. We believe that ombudsman services should be established on every Idaho campus.
KEEP THE SALES TAX AT 6 PERCENT AND SAVE OUR PROGRAMS
Finally, we urge you keep the penny on the sales tax. Our budgets are already cut past the bone because of years of financial exigency. Every program that is eliminated and every faculty member that is dismissed impacts the local and state economy. For example, in 2002 the mining and geological engineering program was eliminated under the policy discussed above, and six faculty members were dismissed. We, together with the American Association of University Professors, saved the three tenured positions, but the three untenured professors have now left. One had a $5 million research grant, the overhead of which could have paid all three salaries. With silver mines reopening and new mining opportunities in Southeast Idaho, this appears to have been a very unwise decision, not to mention the body blow to young untenured faculty who had bought houses expecting long careers at the UI, careers that would have contributed millions to the local and state economy.
We urge you to take these recommendations seriously discuss them with your advisors and the State Board of Education.
Sincerely,
Nick Gier, IFT President