OPINION: Full-time faculty positions should be increased

As an adjunct instructor at the University of New Mexico since 2020, I write to raise the alarm — not only for myself and my colleagues but for the long-term health of our higher education system and our local economy. There are currently 965 full-time instructors at UNM and 493 part-time temporary instructors, also known as adjunct instructors. Other colleges and universities in the state also rely heavily on part-time instructors.

Colleges have moved away from hiring tenure-track professors, choosing instead to cut costs by hiring more adjunct faculty to fulfill their mission.

Adjunct faculty possess the same credentials as their tenure-line colleagues, most have doctorate degrees in their fields, have peer-reviewed publications, and in most cases have valuable experience from working in their fields in the private or public sector, bringing current and valuable experience from their fields to students. Adjunct instructors continue to teach because we love teaching, and we have the experience to show.

However, adjuncts are paid a minimum salary, of around $880 per credit hour on average in New Mexico, have no job security and often receive no benefits.

Adjunct faculty experience a lack of career advancement, lost wages due to minimal pay increases over the years, worsened by inflation, as well as the so-called “proportionate scaling” in which we are penalized when our courses do not meet arbitrary enrollment thresholds and get canceled at the last minute and we are not paid despite the hours of work we already put in to prepare them.

Adjunct faculty are perceived to operate like “independent contractors” just because we sign contracts from semester to semester, despite the fact that we labor as W-2 employees and are defined by the college as “faculty” in the UNM Faculty Handbook. We, of course, perform the same instructional tasks as full-time faculty. We design and create our own courses, and in most cases teach higher teaching loads and classes with very high enrollment, but we receive less than half of the pay of our full-time counterparts.

It is believed that when we sign our contracts as part-time employees, we willingly accept the conditions in the contract; however, there is no acknowledgment there are increasingly fewer openings for tenure-track or full-time positions at UNM or in higher education institutions nationwide, even though tenured-faculty in most higher education institutions are close to retirement age and being replaced by adjunct faculty instead.

New Mexico ranks 38th among the states in average pay for higher education faculty, even without accounting for the pay disparity between tenure-line and full-time faculty versus adjunct faculty. UNM is the 6th largest employer in the state. So, what are the long-term consequences to our community and to the local economy if a plan is not put in place to improve the working conditions of the growing numbers of adjunct, or part-time, faculty at UNM?

The consequences are clear: lower consumer spending, reduced tax revenue and increased reliance on public safety nets. It doesn’t have to be this way.

We need our lawmakers to act. Higher education institutions must be required to expand full-time opportunities, offer fair pay and benefits and limit the proportion of courses taught by adjuncts. We need legislation that guarantees a livable minimum wage and benefits for adjuncts and opens long-term, full-time positions with pathways for promotion.

Students and parents deserve to know who is teaching their classes, and our educators deserve dignity, stability and respect. The future of our state depends on it.