Half of CSU's faculty is considered temporary

There was a time when 75 to 80 percent of California State University faculty members were tenured. Now half are lecturers — or "contingent faculty" — who are considered temporary employees even though some have been working at the same college campuses for decades.

"Years ago, university faculty were part of a community of scholars that worked together," says Linda Current, a lecturer at CSU-Sacramento. "Now it's part of an administrative game that separates people into a caste system. Lecturers are the lower class. Under this system, half of the faculty lack job security. Lecturer salaries are much lower. We are like migrant workers and seen as expendable. We're talking about people who have doctorates, and it's a tragedy."

Like their counterparts at community colleges, known as "freeway fliers" or "road scholars," lecturers are paid less than tenured professors and sometimes commute between campuses to eke out a living. While some are lucky enough to have three-year contracts, most have one-year contracts — or work from quarter to quarter or semester to semester.

They may not have office space or be able to hold office hours with students. At CSU-Los Angeles, nine history lecturers share a small office and, because of the crowded conditions, must meet with students in the hallway.

Unlike tenure-track faculty, they don't even get paid to attend department and college meetings. Many, like Current, go on their own time in the interest of staying informed and involved.

While their working conditions may differ, most lecturers say they are constantly under stress due to a sense of uncertainty.

"I end up alternately getting too little work or too much work," says CSU-Los Angeles lecturer Craig Flanery, who serves on the California Faculty Association (CFA) Board of Directors. "Sometimes, due to budget cuts, I don't know if my classes have been canceled until the second week of class. In order to cover myself when I think I might lose a class, I take on other classes. It's stressful not knowing. And we know that if cuts are made, lecturers are likely to lose our jobs."

When the CSU budget was slashed this fall, temporary faculty experienced heavy casualties. Many lecturer positions vanished throughout the 23-campus system, according to CFA members.

Administrators seldom refer to lecturers as being the victims of "layoffs." Instead, they prefer to say a lecturer's contract was "not renewed," making it less apparent that drastic cuts have been made.

"We don't have firm numbers on how many lecturers we've lost," says one CFA lecturer who retained his job. "It's like pulling teeth [to get concrete numbers]. But a lot of people disappeared over the summer. Just yesterday we had a lecturer meeting and talked about how many of us had disappeared. At the end of the year, when we were working hard on grading exams and reading papers, some lecturers got notes saying, 'Please turn in your key and empty out your office; you won't be back next semester.' There was not one supportive word, not a thank you, nothing. Some of the folks were crying. Some had worked there 13 or 14 years. They were just devastated. It was very painful and sad."

Their departure may not have been highly publicized, but their absence has been noticed. Throughout the CSU system, the number of classes available to students has been reduced and the student-to-faculty ratios have been increased to make up for the staffing shortage. As a result, students are having difficulty getting the classes they need and graduating in a timely fashion.

Budget cuts have brought uncertainty and even despair to lecturers who must cope with the potential or actual loss of their paychecks, health benefits, disability insurance and professional life, for which they have spent years preparing.

For one CSU-Los Angeles lecturer, a serious illness was made much more stressful by a lack of job security and questions about health benefits. Delores Griffie, a political science professor at the campus for five years, did not receive class assignments last year and lost all her health benefits. However, class assignments and her health care were reinstated — shortly before she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

However, just a few days before her scheduled surgery, Griffie worried whether she would have enough time to recuperate before she had to return to the classroom. "My medical coverage is based upon the fact that I'm going back in the classroom in January to teach," she said in October. "What happens if I can't? Will my benefits be canceled? It makes me very anxious and stressed."

In the fall, she taught for four weeks while undergoing chemotherapy in order to maintain her health benefits. Even though she felt terrible, she says she had to "buckle up" and do the best she could under the circumstances.

Despite their own personal challenges, lecturers have been at the forefront of efforts to improve conditions within the CSU system for students and all faculty members.

"At both the chapter and state levels, we have helped organize and participate in these efforts to support the CSU and our students," says CFA Associate Vice President for Lecturers Elizabeth Hoffman, who teaches at CSU-Long Beach. "Lecturer organization and involvement has strengthened CFA's commitment to protect the working conditions, job security and academic freedom of all faculty — including the lecturers who do more than 50 percent of the teaching."

The lobbying by CFA and the Coalition to Save the CSU is responsible for the restoration of $40 million that had originally been cut from the budget. "Although we have saved the jobs of hundreds of lecturers, hundreds of others have lost or will lose work," says Hoffman. "That's a tragedy not only for the lecturers, but for the thousands of students they would have taught."