By Sarah Hayes
Discrimination. That is what
Social Science department adjuncts are calling a move by department officials
after finding themselves keyless for the first time in recent history. The
Social Science department’s decision to take office keys out of the hands of
adjunct professors after a change of locks in the building have some professors
- full-time and part-time - seeing red.
The change in policy was first initiated in December of 2012 and was put in motion this January while students were on winter break. When Social Science instructors came to pick up their new office keys the week before classes started, those who were not full-time found themselves facing a new obstacle: no keys and no easy access to their office or supplies.
Many felt like they had been
relegated to second-class instructors, especially since full-time professors
still had their keys.
In a memo compiled and released by
Doctor Margaret Tyler, both full-time and adjunct professors voiced their
displeasure with the decision to take keys away from adjuncts. Anonymous quotes
from a variety of Social Science professors suggested an overall atmosphere of
displeasure with adjuncts not being able to access their office as easily as
other instructors. Some adjuncts are even considering leaving the college,
saying that lack of respect trumps bringing in a paycheck in this scenario.
Among the complaints in Doctor
Tyler’s memo include adjuncts’ now limited access to equipment within the Social
Science office, such as office supplies, printer, Scantron machine (used to
grade Scantron tests), and official college forms. Adjunct instructors find
themselves facing delays in starting class as getting into their office when a
secretary is off duty means waiting for Campus Police to unlock the door for
them - or hoping a full-time professor is around with a key.
Another issue for adjuncts without
keys is safety. Because of access issues, adjuncts now must carry all their
belongings around with them instead of leaving them in their locked office, for
fear of theft. This means lugging to every class their purse/bag,
laptop/tablet, exams, coats, class supplies, car keys, et cetera because they
cannot keep them in a safe place. Having adjunct’s belongings out in the open
means having it more vulnerable to theft. The policy that was meant to make
campus safer seems to doing the opposite for the ones hardest hit by it.
For Doctor Tyler, enough was enough.
She made her position on the loss of adjunct keys very clear in a January 12
email to campus president Marcia Pfeiffer, in which she declared that “every
faculty member, whether full-time, temporary full-time or adjunct, should have
keys to the Social Science Department, their offices, and their classrooms”.
Tyler went on to formerly request a reversal in the adjunct policy so that
those in Social Science could “continue to provide the quality instruction and
academic counsel . . . (they) are known for”.
Doctor Nancy A. Linzy has a different
take on the Social Science scenario. Doctor Linzy is Academic Dean of the
school’s Liberal Arts Division and she sees the decision to take away the
adjuncts’ keys as a correct one and that it “brings us in line with the
predominate practice on this campus and in the district”. Linzy’s comments
highlight the fact that, until this year, Social Science was the only
department in which adjunct professors had keys to the offices and classrooms.
The adjuncts of Social Science’s neighbors, Communications, to date have never
had possession of such keys for their offices.
When asked if she believed that
adjunct professors are valued on the same level as full-time professors, Doctor
Linzy said they are “absolutely essential to accomplishing the STLCC mission”.
She then went on to clarify that adjunct instructors do not have the same
status as those instructors who are full-time, thus the difference in who does
and does not get keys.
This idea does not sit will with some
of the professors who spoke anonymously with Doctor Tyler. In her memo, one
professor says the decision is “humiliating” and has made them feel “alienated”
in their workplace. Another calls the measure “exceptionally insulting and
seems discriminating” against part-time instructors.
“If adjuncts are entrusted to teach,”
an anonymous instructor said, “they should be entrusted to have keys. End of
story.”
Currently, there are plans to re-key
the other departments on campus but none of them save for Social Science has
been touched. Doctor Tyler is adamant on pressing forth about this issue and
making sure her adjuncts get back their keys and their mobility - “no matter
what”.
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