“Not every university professor is on the sunshine list. Far from it.”
Those were the words of Nathalie Pender, the Grenfell Campus executive representative on the Memorial University of Newfoundland Faculty Association (MUNFA) during an information session Thursday to draw attention to the plight of per-course instructors at the university.
While MUNFA organized the event, it was in support of the Lecturers Union of Memorial University of Newfoundland (LUMUN), which represents instructors who teach two or less courses per semester.
Pender noted per-course instructors are paid around $5,000 per course and have little to no job security, as they must constantly reapply for contracted work. They also receive no benefits, such as a pension plan or help with health care costs, from their employer.
“They are expected to make a living on roughly $20,000 a year and you need to have a PhD, so it doesn’t add up somewhere. … It’s a tough gig,” said Pender.
Chris Short, who teaches one visual arts course, is LUMUN’s member-at-large at Grenfell Campus. She said per-course instructors at Memorial University are the lowest-paid sessional instructors in Canada.
“When you have our administrators being paid on an equal basis with those across the country, yet you have sessional instructors like us being paid the lowest, there is a large inequity there,” said Short.
Thursday’s information session, which was held simultaneously with rallies and protests at the university’s main campus in St. John’s during what is dubbed Fair Employment Week, came amidst ongoing contract negotiations between Memorial and both LUMUN and MUNFA.
“We aren’t making much progress,” said Short. “This is why we are here: to bring some of our concerns to the public, to students and the faculty here.”
Anna House is also a per-course instructor with Grenfell’s visual arts program. She felt it was crucial to take part in Thursday’s event.
“If we are going to benefit in the long run, we need to show solidarity with one voice and one purpose,” said House. “I’m here to show my fellow workers I support them. It’s important for everybody to have a fair playing field.”
Pender said Memorial is using more and more per-course instructors as it uses attrition to not replace all retiring full-time professors. This means less continuity of education for students and less chances for engagement in university life as would professors who have full-time work at the school and opportunities to build their seniority.
“We are really worried about the way the university is acting by not replacing permanent positions,” she said.
