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CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014
VOLUME 107, ISSUE 82
Western offers response to low prof wages Sessional professors claim pay barely covers living
Bill Wang GAZETTE
ALL WORK AND NO PAY. Eric Lohman, an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, joined in with a number of others to express concerns over low-pay for sessional and part-time faculty via Twitter.
Aaron Zaltzman ASSOCIATE EDITOR It may not have been the best birthday greeting Western has gotten, but Warren Steele and Eric Lohman’s comments on Twitter are representative of a growing concern for Western’s faculty. The two took to Twitter on Western’s Founder’s Day to air some grievances they have as adjunct professors — namely, low pay and insufficient job security. The comments were met with little response from the university — neither professor has heard anything beyond a single tweet from Western’s account, and when asked for their response, the university’s comments on the matter were brief. “As a university we certainly respect the right of individuals and groups to have their opinions
and voice them,” Keith Marnoch, Western’s director of media relations, said. “With regards to those specific opinions, I would say that issues of that nature are generally handled during contract negotiations, and I assume that will continue to be the case.” Steele said that the university had not yet reached out to him about the tweets. “I have not received a response from the university,” he said. Both Steele and Lohman explained the reasons they took to Twitter to express their concerns. “Given the lack of progress in recent years, and the deaf ears on which our concerns continue to fall, I thought it was time to communicate our plight publicly,” Steele said. “There isn’t really any internal mechanism in place for us to air these grievances,” Lohman said.
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“Taking to Twitter for me was mostly out of frustration that there really isn’t anywhere for us to go or anybody who’s going to listen to us about this,” he continued. Lohman, like a growing number of university lecturers, is an adjunct professor, rather than a tenured or tenure-track professor. These professors are hired on a contract for either a certain length of time or to teach a certain amount of courses. According to Alison Hearn, the president of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association, these contract positions entail significantly lower pay than tenured professors, as the going wage for a course is roughly $7,200, subject to tax and other deductions. The situation is only slightly better for term-based contract positions. “Even someone on a contract for
a year would only make between $40,000 and $60,000, which is better,” Hearn said. “But if you’re an academic you want to do research, and only tenured professors are paid to do so.” Also problematic in these positions is the low job security, as the contracts can change or be eliminated every year. “These employees can’t have lives, plan their future or plant roots here,” Hearn explained. The issue of adjunct positions is widespread and growing across Canadian universities. Hearn explained the positions, which are major money-savers for institutions, have occupied a greater percentage of teaching jobs as universities deal with funding cuts. Even worse, existing tenure positions that become vacant are not being replaced, she said.
As the problem grows, so does the aggravation. “At some point you get frustrated and taking it to whoever will listen,” Lohman said. UWOFA appears to be listening, as Hearn said increased pay and job security for adjunct professors will be a major pillar in upcoming negotiations between the association and Western. “Western is in good financial shape, so there is no reason why Western has to pay these people badly and not give them job security, as well as not replace tenure track positions,” Hearn said. “We’re not going back to the old days, but the question is how can we better protect our members now by getting them more job security and better wages.” — With files from Richard Raycraft
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