Monica Aguinaga
JOUR 300
Portfolio 2, Data Analysis revision
Pay for adjuncts above national average
Adjuncts at the University of La Verne are earning more than the national average, even without
a higher degree, but union efforts continue to be in process.
Higher pay is one of several issues for the push to having a union on campus. On July 15, 2012,
an amended statement regarding faculty salaries was sent out by Human Resources.
For the 2012-13 fiscal year, full-time faculty and adjunct faculty at ULV received a renewed
salary grid. Per four credit course: those without a higher degree earned $2,850 as an Adjunct
Instructor and $3,050 as a Senior Adjunct Instructor; those with a terminal degree earned $3,150
as an Adjunct Professor and $3,350 as a Senior Adjunct Professor. If a course is less than four
credits, the rate decreases by half or one-fourth for undergraduate courses and by two-thirds or
one-third for graduate courses.
In the 2011-12 fiscal year, the beginning pay rates without a higher degree were $2,750 for an
Adjunct Instructor and $2,950 for a Senior Adjunct Instructor. Those with a higher degree earned
$3,050 as an Adjunct Instructor and $3,250 as a Senior Adjunct Professor.
With the 2012 revision, there was an increase of $100 for the starting pay rate for both
instructors and professors. A report from last year by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, a
group seeking better working conditions for part-time faculty, found that the median pay
nationwide for teaching a standard three credit course was $2,700.
[Adjuncts] arent doing it for a living. If they are, then theyre teaching five different classes at
different universities. If [the university] wants to save money somewhere, theyre saving it with
adjuncts, said Tom Sinsky, an adjunct professor at ULV.
Sinsky is teaching his second class at ULV this semester after five years, but is also currently
teaching at a different university.
According to a La Verne Labor Dialog Fact Sheet, ULV has increased the average adjunct pay an
average of 18.6 percent over the last four years without the help of a union. The Service
Employees International Union has won an increase of 6 percent over 6.5 years for the adjunct
faculty in the last few years less than one percent annually at George Washington University.
Conditions have been improved since [GWU] adjuncts formed a union in 2006 and won a
contract two years later. Salaries are 20 percent higher and the university now pays a minimum
rate of $3,500 to $4,030 per three credit course depending on the lecturers degree. The
university also has to go through a procedure before deciding not to bring back the instructor,
said Kip Lornell, in an excerpt from a Huffington Post article. He is an adjunct music professor
at GWU.
The National Labor Review Board has yet to count the unionization votes made by adjunct
faculty at ULV, which may or may not affect their future pay rate.
Tom Sinsky, Adjunct Professor
La Verne Labor Dialog, [Link]
Huffington Post, [Link]/2013/11/01/adjunct-faculty-unions_n_4194652.html