Students and faculty demonstrate in support of better pay for adjunct instructors. (Photo by Shayla Bailey)
Even with a recent pay raise, many part-time faculty at one of the country’s top art schools make poverty-level wages.
Virginia Commonwealth University has more than 900 adjunct instructors, and almost 200 teach in the School of the Arts (aka VCUarts). The university raised adjunct faculty pay this spring from an average of $750 to $800 per credit hour to a minimum of $1,000, with a six-credit cap per semester, and no benefits. Before the increase, a petition by VCUarts Adjuncts Organizing for Fair Pay listed the annual average salary for adjunct faculty at $10,000 — under the federal poverty level of $12,140 for a single person.
VCU’s high number of adjunct faculty is not unusual. The American Association of University Professors says in its 2016-17 report that the share of part-time faculty in higher education has increased 66 percent during the past four decades, with adjuncts making up about 40 percent of the academic labor force. The AAUP lists the average salary for part-time faculty as $20,508, compared to $80,095 for full-time faculty.
Last October, VCUarts Adjuncts Organizing for Fair Pay sent a letter to Shawn Brixey, the school’s dean, President Michael Rao and others citing a “pay inequity crisis” and asking for $2,000 per credit hour.
“It’s based upon living wages and the cost of living in Richmond, specifically, and that takes in consideration other jobs I’m working, too,” says Tom Burkett, an adjunct instructor at VCUarts. “I also teach at other state universities in Virginia that pay that same amount, so it’s not unattainable.”
Mike Porter, a spokesman for VCU, says that adjuncts are often paid more than the $1,000 minimum, depending on a department’s budget, need and market demand.
After meeting with adjuncts, Brixey emailed faculty a letter in January detailing plans for a task force to study adjunct compensation and policies at peer institutions and public research universities. Porter says the task force, which comprises adjuncts and full-time faculty, began work during the winter and may have some initial findings to report this summer.
In May, VCU’s Board of Visitors approved a 6.4 percent tuition hike, which covers, among other priorities, “funding to ensure a minimum rate of $1,000 per credit hour for adjuncts.”
Students for Equal Adjunct Pay, which seeks to create awareness of the issue, opposed raising tuition to fund the increase.
“It creates a kind of us-versus-them mentality among the student body,” says Eric Eckhart, one of its members.
