Proposal

Macomb Community College’s President, Board of Trustees, and administrators should expand the college’s full-time Tuition Reimbursement Program by extending the benefit to part-time employees, thereby allowing them to be reimbursed for coursework completed while pursuing higher education opportunities not available at Macomb Community College, and by increasing the size of the fund available for reimbursements. 

We believe that achieving parity between full-time and part-time employees regarding this benefit is an important step in building and maintaining a professional educational community at Macomb Community College

Current Financial Support Opportunities for Educational and Professional Development 

                  Full-time Faculty Provision                                   Part-time Faculty Provision

Background

As part-time faculty members at Macomb Community College, we are all too aware of the many disparities that exist between the opportunities and benefits afforded to full-time faculty and the opportunities and benefits afforded to part-time faculty. AAFMCC is committed to serving its members and to fighting for adjunct rights in order to tackle the member issues of greatest concern and highest priority. We realize that among these utmost concerns are matters pertaining to salary/pay rates, heath benefits, seniority, scheduling, academic freedom, workplace equality, and department governance. However, since most of these issues are contractual, we will not be able to make progress in such areas until we renegotiate our AAFMCC contract in 2018. Thus, at the current time, AAFMCC is limited in what advancements we can pursue. 

Thus, in 2015, when MCC established the TRP for full-time faculty and staff as an auxiliary, non-contractual benefit, AAFMCC leadership saw it as opportunity to launch a campaign to include part-time faculty in the TPR, which is currently only offered to full-time faculty and staff. 

A Logical Appeal: Macomb’s Future is Dependent on the Educational Development of its Part-Time Majority

As stated in MCC’s description of the TRP for full-time faculty and staff, “Macomb Community

College recognizes the benefits of higher learning for the individual and institution.” Furthermore, according to the program literature, MCC developed the TRP in order “to assist employees in attaining their professional and education goals and in pursuing higher education opportunities not available at Macomb Community College” because enabling employees to acquire “further knowledge and skills supports succession planning and professional growth and development of college human resources.” 

In offering full-time faculty and staff the opportunity to take courses outside of MCC, The Board acknowledges that many college faculty members hold advanced degrees in their disciplines and that if they wish to seek further training in their fields, they must enroll in courses at colleges and universities that offer upper level courses and graduate study. 

With that being said, MCC, like any reputable institution of higher learning, acknowledges that the college must encourage and support the higher education and professional betterment of its employees in order to “continue to be a leading edge community college and the community’s preferred choice for lifelong learning, cultural enrichment, and community development opportunities” (MCC Mission Statement).  

MCC employs approximately 250 full-time faculty members and 1300+ part-time faculty members. 

Thus, if the professional and educational development of MCC’s faculty and staff plays a significant role in the continued progress and success of the college, then it would follow that the professional and educational development of MCC’s part-time faculty—the very individuals who make up 75-80% of the teaching staff here at Macomb—plays an exceptionally crucial role in fulfilling the mission of the college. If part-time faculty—the very lifeblood of this college—are without the very opportunities that will, in turn, better the college, then how can MCC anticipate the sustainment of its mission? How can MCC move forward without providing the majority of its instructors the financial means to facilitate that progress? 

Tuition Support for Part-Time Faculty: It’s a Matter of Financial Need

Regardless of what it was originally designed to be or the function it used to serve in higher education, for many of us, “adjuncting” is our career and our sole source of income. The recent surge of publications from reputable sources such as The United States House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce (January 2014), The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, and The Washington Post (to name a very few) attest to the fact that adjuncts are highly educated and highly qualified and yet terribly underpaid and impoverished. One of the most alarming statistics published by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education in April 2015 is that 25% of part-time college faculty rely on some sort of government public assistance. In short, tales that chronicle the plight of the adjunct are ubiquitous, and we would be ignorant to believe that adjuncts at Macomb Community College are somehow anomalies of this appalling national data.

The maximum potential yearly salary for an adjunct at MCC is $17,865. This figure is based on the Step 4 current rate of $776.75 per credit hour and is contingent upon said (lucky) adjunct reaching the 23 credit yearly cap, which is, suffice it to say, a highly unlikely scenario. Nevertheless, in the instance that an adjunct was able to earn the maximum annual salary of $17,865, it would be extremely difficult to fund a year of full-time graduate coursework at a local Michigan university. 

According to an analysis of 201 public and private colleges and universities presented by Collegetuitioncompare.com., in 2015, the average full-time tuition cost at Michigan colleges and universities was $7, 315 for undergraduate coursework and $12,670 for graduate coursework. At Wayne State University, a student would spend $12,350 for a full year of undergraduate coursework or $15,352 for a full year of graduate coursework. At Oakland University, a student would spend $11,460 for a year of full-time undergraduate coursework and $15,294 for a year of full-time graduate coursework.  

Any of these projected figures ($7,315-$12,350 for undergraduate or $12,670-$15,352 for graduate) are hardly manageable on an annual salary of $17,865, and being that this is a very liberal estimation of a MCC adjunct’s annual income, compared against a more realistic salary estimate of $12,000-$14,000, funding a full year’s tuition of undergraduate or graduate coursework would be numerically impossible in some cases. 

A cost analysis that measures the amount an adjunct earns for teaching a 3-credit course against the amount he/she would spend to enroll in a 3-credit course also offers a similarly bleak financial situation:

*These tuition figures reflect approximate costs as calculated by the tuition and fees calculators provided on WSU’s and OU’s websites. These estimations do not include course textbooks or materials. 

The Ethical Implications of a TRP that Ignores the Majority of Macomb’s Educators

If MCC truly recognizes the “benefits of higher learning for the individual,” then MCC should encourage and support further education for ALL its individuals, not just for the minority of them.  If MCC is committed to strengthening its institution by way of individual professional and educational advancement, then MCC should be committed to the entire community of individuals who serve as educators at Macomb and who are integral to the college’s progress— not to just 16% of the full-time faculty.  

Instead of perpetuating the culture of financial, professional, and emotional disparity that is so commonplace for adjuncts at MCC and across the nation, why not make a statement that demonstrates how much MCC values its adjuncts? Why not reject the rhetoric and the implementation of policies that categorize adjuncts as unessential, expendable, and undeserving? We are the very majority of individuals who equip MCC’s students with the tools to attain their professional and educational goals, and yet, MCC fails to recognize that our educational aspirations are worthy of funding and integral to the college’s development.

A Direct Address to MCC Adjuncts Who May Be Unsupportive of This Campaign

Some of you (fellow adjuncts) may be apathetic to this cause or unenthusiastic about this campaign because, for a wide-range of reasons, you have no intention of enrolling in college or university courses. You may already hold the highest degree in your discipline. You may already be unquestionably proficient and well-respected in your field or trade. You may have a rewarding career outside of the college classroom. You may be retired or nearing retirement. You may view your part-time employment at MCC as a hobby or a passion. You may have other personal or professional sources of educational funding at your disposal. Regardless of your reason for not wanting or needing the benefits of a TRP, we ask that you stand with your fellow part-time colleagues. We ask you to see this as a campaign for parity—to see yourself and your fellow part-timers as individuals who, like full-time faculty, are integral and essential resources to this great institution and therefore deserving of equal opportunities for professional and educational advancement. We ask you to stand with us as a matter of principle. 

We ask for your support so that we all can stand in solidarity to implement the mission of Macomb Community College, and so we all can be acknowledged as worthy contributors to
our mission.