A committee advising a Pennsylvania state legislative task force has urged legislators to work for parity compensation for part-time faculty employed by state institutions.  The State Advisory Committee on Part-Time Faculty in April approved and issued a list of recommended "minimum standards" for part-time faculty pay, benefits and working conditions.

The recommendations call for part-time pay comparable to the pay provided for full-time work, full access to health and retirement benefits, reasonable working conditions (such as use of office space) for all faculty, professional development opportunities, priority consideration for full-time positions and continuation of part-time positions.

The committee also proposed that the legislature appropriate $4 million in incentive funding to begin implementing the recommendations. This would be targeted to community colleges, which rely more heavily on part-timers.

A coalition that includes AFT higher education locals in the state, the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers and the Pennsylvania State Education Association have been working since 1999 to improve the situation of Pennsylvania's part-time faculty. In 2001, they succeeded in convincing state Sen. Allyson Schwartz to introduce a resolution mandating a state study of public college practices and compensation relating to part-time faculty. Later that year, the influential chair of the state Education Commission, Rep. James R. Roebuck created a task force of legislators to study the issue, along with the advisory committee to assist it.

The recommendations should pave the way for a future campaign to allocate state funds specifically to improve part-time salaries, benefits and professional development, noted Karen Schermerhorn, co-president of the Faculty Federation of the Community College of Philadelphia. "We hope that this achievement will serve as a marker when working on future goals." [Heather Raiti]

[June 9, 2003]