MONTAGE
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Serving the St. Louis Community College - Meramec community since 1964 • ACP Award Recipient VOLUME 55, ISSUE 10
FEBRUARY 27, 2020
WWW.MERAMECMONTAGE.COM
Adjuncts seeking right to vote on College Senate
Faculty, administrators weigh in on the voting right of adjuncts at all four STLCC campuses
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Bri Heaney News editor
he STLCC College Senate is a self-governance structure that meets weekly to discuss and vote on the affairs and policies of the district. It is comprised of full-time faculty and staff. Each meeting has a set agenda that is determined and revised on a staff and faculty-wide Blackboard forum. Once issues have been decided on, they are recommended to the college’s leadership team. Adjuncts, or part-time professors, want in on this system. They argue that since adjuncts comprise 71 percent of faculty at STLCC, there should be a seat for them at the table. The senate was created in the fall, replacing the previous governance structure. Two campuses voted in favor of having adjuncts serve on the senate: Forest Park and Florissant Valley. Two campuses voted against: Meramec and Wildwood. Forest Park appointed an adjunct position to its senate, which was filled by Instructor Kim Crank. The position allowed for input, but without voting rights at meetings. Forest Park then hosted another vote to allow adjuncts to vote, which passed. “I got myself appointed to be the adjunct rep at Forest Park and the first thing I did once I found out it was a non-voting position I said, ‘Well, why is that?’ and can we consider changing that
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The school can benefit seeing through the eyes their employees. Kat Fossell Adjunct
Graphic by: Ashley Biundo only,” said Crank. Later that fall, Andrew Langrehr, vice chancellor of academic affairs for STLCC, announced that the college was not interested from in having a voting position adjuncts but would still of all for allow them in a speakingonly position. “Of course the adjuncts were really disappointed because we had worked so hard and made some progress and it was sort of snatched away,” said Crank. “They just decided we will have no parttime voices.”
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as we are working on the new bi-laws? They voted and approved at Forest Park
Langrehr said that for one campus to allow a voting position for adjuncts, all campuses would need to do the same. “We had two campuses on one side of this and two campuses on the other,” said Langrehr. Meramec Political Science Professor Emily Neal said that her opinion on the matter is complicated due to her background in teaching politics, her position as a full-time employee and her position as the president of the full-time faculty teacher’s union. “The invitation to participate in governance is full-time employment with the college from my perspective,” said Neal.
Neal said this is because of the differences in duties and responsibilities that full-time and part-time instructors have on campus. “When you look at what full-time faculty are expected to do as a part of their commitment to Saint Louis Community College, it is night and day different to what is expected of an adjunct,” said Neal. However, Kat Fossell, adjunct and SIUE adjunct teacher’s union chief steward, said she believes that it is those differences in responsibilities and challenges that give adjuncts something unique to bring to the table. “Any employee of STLCC who is willing to volunteer their time to help improve the school by sharing their perspective and input should be welcomed and valued by the All-College Senate,” said Fossell. Fossell said that it is not about the amount of hours worked, which for many adjuncts do go over the full time hourly requirement for Missouri, but it is about how the school needs to function and wanting to see the perspective of its necessary components. “The school can benefit from seeing through the eyes of all their employees,” said Fossell. The question of the size of the role that adjuncts play at the school has remained unclear. While it is true that 71 percent of teachers at the college are adjunct, it is not clear that they teach the majority of classes. Neal said that because full time teachers teach a minimum of five classes, many teach up to nine classes with overload, so it is possible that they impact more students. Economics Professor Gail Hafer, who is a member of the College Senate, said that it is the difference in commitment and time spent as well as the number of students affected by teachers that makes a difference as to whether adjuncts should have a voting role. Continued on p. 3
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