I'm going to break from our honeymoon South Dakota updates for a moment to share what's been happening around here in terms of my job. In short, things at my work (Hawkeye) have been distressing lately. The problem is that the college is experiencing the recession pretty hard now and because of the reduced funding they will receive from the State this year, have decided to take some drastic measures and reduce the number of faculty and staff. My job seems to be ok for this next year (though I'm still waiting for my contract which should come within the month), but for many of my friends and colleages, the news is not good.
Last week, the college cut 43 teachers -- 1/3 of our teaching staff. This includes 33 Regular Part Time teachers (like an adjunct but they teach 4 guarenteed classes a semester and get partial benefits) and 10 full-time faculty. By contract, the college has to fire all of its RPTs before it can start letting faculty go, and when that happens it usually means the new hires are the first to go. This would have included me, but for some reason, it did not this time (or at least I believe this for now). I think it has to do with who teaches where and how many other teachers there are in that department. I am the only full-time dev. writing teacher, so I think I'm safe for next year...but who really knows? Sadly, several of my friends that I started with this academic year are now faced with no jobs.
There is such a dark feeling around the campus now, and everyone is going to be affected by this. If you didn't lose your job, you feel bad for those who did. If you lost your job, you're wondering what you're going to do now. The sad thing is that the college will still need these teachers, so the question becomes: who will they hire? UNI in Cedar Falls let go of all their adjuncts too, so they may be competing with some of our RPTs for classes. Additionally sad is the fact that the college may try to rehire the fired RPTs as adjuncts and pay them significanlty lower amounts and give them no benefits. Rotten huh? No word on whether they will really do this or not, but that's one of the rumors.
Ken and I have had many discussions lately about what we would do if I lost my job, if not now, in the future. It's very scary to think about this happening to so many people. When it happens to those you work with everyday, it certainly becomes more real and it hurts to see those you care about frightened about the future.
2 comments:
Fingers crossed for you, Marcy.
This is a very sad and frightening situation. Unfortunately, it is a common move to cut workers who cost more; it is certainly unfair. At HCC, the admin has decided to institute a hiring freeze and raise class sizes instead of cutting jobs. Of course this has pedagogical effects (workload issues, student success/retention issues, etc.), but for the moment--thankfully--it looks as though no jobs will be lost.
This happens to be a contract negotiation year for our faculty union, so more changes regarding benefits and professional development monies are still under consideration to be cut; we'll know more by August.
I'll keep hoping the best for your job stability, Marcea.
Post a Comment