Picture a classroom with about forty desks. Put a college student in each of those desks, then stick a few more along the wall by the door. Some of them will be sitting on the floor, others leaning back against the whiteboard, trying not to look as nervous as they feel. If you’re an SRJC student this semester, it won’t take a great imagination to see this picture in your mind. You saw it the first couple weeks of the semester, probably in every class. Now a few weeks into the semester, it’s just the desks that are full, after your instructor gave out as many add codes as they possibly could without breaking fire codes.
In spring 2009, average class size for a mathematics course was 34.2 students. In spring 2010 average class size was 38.6. English courses went from 26.9 students per course in spring 2009, to 31.3 in spring 2010. French classes went from 17 students in spring 2009 to 29.7 students in 2010. Every additional student is another seat filled, another test to grade and another series of questions to answer for each lecture. By taking extra students, teachers often ensure extra work for themselves beyond what they’re paid for.
“They’re troopers,” said Vice President of Academic Affairs Mary Kay Rudolph. “The thing I love about this school more than anything is that we all get that we’re in it together…in the ends there’s a love of this college. Look at our fauclty, they stay…they love the students and they love this institution. The faculty and community support for this institution has been phenomenal…I believe that this is the best faculty that I have ever worked with.”
Although Adjunct faculty are responsible for their specific classes, all the administrative work within each department is performed by the full time faculty. In the past, there were enough of them to handle the pressure, and there was enough money to pay for the hours put in. Now, fewer full time faculty handle the same amount of work, while teaching classes filled the maximum number of students.
“Most of the classes I teach, I only teach,” said full time faculty member Eric Thompson. “One of the things that means is that I usually have five different classes. That’s always been the case and I don’t mind that. But it’s a lot of work. I work all the hours I get paid for and more, just prepping and getting ready for and doing a good job and having quality material for the five different classes I have every semester.”
Sometimes adjunct faculty are asked or volunteer to help with the administrative end of things, but the JC’s adjuncts not only deal with having more and more students in their classes, but many of them work multiple jobs and put in more hours on grading and helping students than the JC can pay them for.
“It is a challenge, because I have to turn students away,” said LaDawn Meade, adjunct faculty. “It’s hard because I feel for the student, I know what it’s like to need the class to get all of your requirements to transfer or to graduate.”
Enrollment efficiency for SRJC classes in 2009 was 69.95 percent in the summer and 90.75 percent in the fall. In 2010, efficiency was at 95.79 percent for spring classes,75.87 percent for summer classes and 95.31 percent for fall classes. Classes went from having a couple empty seats, to one or none at all. More students are trying to get into fewer classes, and the JC is being forced to cut even more sections because of the State Budget and deficit.
“How the budget affects me, specifically in a small department is that all my classes are packed and I try not turn students away, as much as possible,” Thompson said. “That means in the first couple weeks [there are] people sitting on the floor and stuffed in. Another thing is, the main way the budget, the whole climate affects someone like me is that there’s extra work to do, we’re being pressured to cut classes to cut extra things in our curriculum. So there’s all kinds of work that only full time people can do.”
Thompson said it’s always been the case adjunct faculty are not paid to do that kind of work, but only for classroom time and a little bit for prep, and full time faculty as part of their contract a portion of their salary is devoted to administrative work. The budget has meant that there’s more and more of that work to do and fewer and fewer full time faculty to do it, Thompson said.
“There’s fewer full time people, we’re losing full time people steadily,” Thompson said. “We’re not firing any full time people or laying anyone off, but we’re not replacing full time people that are retiring.”
Sometimes adjuncts in the past could be paid extra to help with administrative duties, but that money is not there anymore, Thompson said. On top of that, the college has been forced to lay off many adjunct faculty, so even if they wanted to help on their own time there aren’t enough adjuncts around to do that anymore, he said. For Thompson, the pressure of having students wanting to get into full classes is minor. The real issue for him is that there’s more and more administrative work. “Compared to two years ago, I’m doing more work for less pay. And that’s true I think of all full time people,” Thompson said.
Meade thinks the instructors are doing the best they can. “They are taking in more students per section, getting larger rooms if they’re available so that you can put more students into a single section,” Meade said. “I don’t think students realize that every student that is added to a class means so much significantly more work for the instructor in terms of answering questions and grading. Just grading alone. I don’t really hear faculty complaining about that, they’re not, which I think is very professional and great. Should they have to do that, no, but they’re doing it and they’re doing it with a really good attitude toward the students.”
