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GLEN ELLYN, Oct. 25 -- Part-time college instructors today urged an Illinois Senate committee to change a law that keeps adjunct faculty members underpaid, unrepresented and unrecognized. The Senate Education Committee, chaired by Sen. Dan Cronin, heard testimony on House Bill 1720, which seeks to overturn a court decision that classifies part-time college instructors as temporary employees.

Vicki Root, a part-time instructor who has taught at College of DuPage for 26 years, told the committee that adjunct faculty members receive course assignments months in advance and often take an active role in course development. "We have been asking for simple recognition of the large faculty segment that has no voice, no legal existence as a member of the institution," she said.

Root testified that during her career, colleges such as DuPage have come to rely heavily on part-time faculty as community college enrollments have grown. She noted that the current law, interpreted by a court decision 10 years ago, "allowed for the legal disenfranchisement of a very necessary part of the college body. Most of the labor laws that mention us, take away rights but don't protect us from over-manipulation or abuse."

The lack of legal recognition has resulted in a dramatic gap in pay and benefits between part-time faculty members and their full-time colleagues. Oleh Sydor, a part-time instructor at College of DuPage, told the Senate committee that adjunct faculty members who teach a full schedule take home from $14,000 to $17,000 a year.

The average full-time instructor teaches three or four classes per term. To earn a comparable salary at part-time rates, an adjunct instructor would have to teach at least six to eight classes at several different schools. Part-time instructors receive few benefits and have no job security.

Adjunct faculty members, unlike their full-time colleagues, rarely have a voice in academic policy and decisions that affect them. Sydor noted that over-reliance on part-timers also takes a toll on tenured instructors, who bear a disproportionate load of committee assignments. Many schools use part-time faculty to teach 50 percent or more of their courses.

Root and Sydor were among part-time faculty members from several Illinois colleges who testified in favor of HB 1720. Other witnesses included Barbara Dayton from Oakton Community College and Larry Price from Harper College. The bill would extend the protection of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act to community college faculty who provide six or more hours of instruction per semester, who have taught at least two consecutive semesters of six hours or more, and who have a reasonable expectation of being re-hired (usually based upon past practice of being rehired over and over again).

The second-class status of part-time instructors is a national issue that has been termed "higher education's dirtiest little secret." Faculty organizations across the U.S. and Canada have declared October 28 to November 3 as Campus Equity Week.