October 13, 2016
Questioner: Anonymous
Posed to: Radha Pyati, President/Designee, UNF Faculty Association
If it is true that the interim dean of the College of Arts and Science received raises over his last two promotions equal to or greater than $80,000, how can the administration possibly defend paying a great number of UNF staff members less than $25,000 a year? And how can it defend paying adjuncts $2250 per course? How is this just?
Responses from FA president Radha Pyati:
Twice in the last ten years, we have given compression increases to our lowest-paid employees. We recognize that we need to find more opportunities to do this, but that does mean less in the overall pool when we negotiate our other contracts. With regard to adjunct pay, the questioner should note that the $2,250 referenced in the question is the lowest amount paid for an adjunct at UNF and there are a number of adjuncts who make more. We top out at about $6,000 in highly specialized areas.
If we use the most recent data available in the Chronicle of Higher Education, we find that in Florida when you average adjunct payment across disciplines, the average of averages is $2,389, with a range from $450 (adjunct teaching English at Embry Riddle) to $7,800 (adjunct with specialization in a field of business at Miami University).
There is no doubt that, with greater fiscal resources, we could address the issues facing some of our lowest-paid employees and we will continue our efforts toward that end. With regard to adjunct compensation per course, we currently perform better than the state as a whole.
