The 2020 Adjunct Index

/ March 11, 2020

BY CAPRICE LAWLESS

A big part of our success in chapter-building and awareness-raising in the Colorado Community College System is a list of facts we publish biennially in a document we call “The Adjunct Index,” modeled on the “Harper’s Index.” The index is an easy format to send to our press contacts, lawmakers, and to distribute on campus. We presented this at our most recent faculty senate, where it left attendees speechless and was so damning that it was left out of the newsletter the administration distributes following those meetings.

Note: This is the fourth in the continuing Adjunct Index series, and is among the other research publications of the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) Chapters of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). The AAUP is the premier professional association advocating for academic freedom, shared governance, faculty rights, and equitable wages in higher education.

The 2020 Adjunct Index
AAUP Chapters of the CCCS

The CCCS Pledge to Colorado:
“To a better life, to more successful careers, to the pursuit of happiness”1

Number of adjunct faculty teaching in the CCCS on wages below the poverty level in 2020: 4,665 2

CCCS fiscal 2018 revenues as calculated by Moody’s: $643 million 3

Excess cash flows produced by the CCCS in 2019: $16.3 million 4

Amount in CCCS reserves: Approximately $274 million 5

On its scale of 1 to 20 (1 being the highest) Moody’s rating of CCCS finances: 4th highest 6

Typical reason CCCS admins cite when adjuncts ask for a pay raise: “CCCS doesn’t have any money for that!”

Current annual salaries, total, 14 CCCS presidents 48 vice-presidents: $8.7 million 7

Average yearly pay raise, each course taught, 4,665+ CCCS adjunct faculty, 2014-2019: $4.80/week 8

Average annual salary, CCCS instructors: Less than $20K 9

Minimum required living wage, 1 adult, no children, Denver County: $28,851K 10

Annual salary, CCCS System President, FRCC President, CCD President, respectively: $437K, 244K, 224K 11

Economic impact of CCCS on state of Colorado: $6 billion 12

Number of full-time faculty teaching in the CCCS, 2020: 1,135 13

Ratio by which CCCS adjunct faculty outnumber full-time faculty: 3 to 1

Definition of “adjunct”:
“something joined or added to another thing but not essentially a part of it” 14

Number of equal-pay-for-equal-work bills the AAUP Colo. Conference championed to help CCCS adjuncts: Two (HB 14-1154 and SB 15-094)

Amount CCCS paid its lobbyists to defeat the two equal-pay-for-equal-work bills: $132,000 15

CCCS Enrollment, 2008, 2020, respectively: 117,000 16 and 137,000 17

New minimum annual salary for CU Boulder instructors and senior instructors, respectively: $52K, $60K 18

Reason Univ. of Colo. cites for approving $10K increase to its non-tenure-track instructors in 2019:
“to recognize the significant contributions of these faculty to the university’s teaching mission and student success” 19

 

Guest blogger Caprice Lawless is first-vice-president of the AAUP, chair of the committee on contingency and the profession, and adjunct faculty at Front Range Community College, Westminster Campus. She leads the AAUP Colorado Conference’s community college project. You can email her with questions at coloradocaprice@gmail.com.

References

  1. “Setting a Higher Standard.” Colorado Community College System, https://www.cccs.edu.
  2. Fiona Lytle, “Response to Jan. 18, 2020 Colo. Open Records Act Request,” received by Caprice Lawless, 23 Jan., 2020.
  3.  Rudy Fichtenbaum, “A few facts from the Colorado Community College System Financial Statements and Independent Auditor’s Reports: Financial Auditor’s Reports Financial Audit Years Ended June 30, 2019 and 2018: Compliance Audit Year Ended June 30, 2019,” received by Caprice Lawless 1 Feb., 2020.
  4. Fichtenbaum, “A few facts from the Colorado Community College System Financial Statements and Independent Auditor’s Reports.”
  5.  Fichtenbaum, “A few facts from the Colorado Community College System Financial Statements and Independent Auditor’s Reports.”
  6. Fichtenbaum, “A few facts from the Colorado Community College System Financial Statements and Independent Auditor’s Reports.”
  7. Fiona Lytle, “Response to Jan. 18, 2020 Colo. Open Records Act Request,” received by Caprice Lawless, 23 Jan., 2020.
  8.  Alan Prendergast, “Colorado Community College Profs Seethe over Low Pay, Lame Raise,” Westword, Jan. 15, 2016, accessed 4 Feb. 2020, https://www.westword.com/news/colorado-community-college-profs-seethe-over-low-pay-lame-raise-7516881.
  9. Stephen P. Mumme, “Instructor Impermanence and the Need for Community College Adjunct Faculty Reform in Colorado,” in Academic Labor: Research and Artistry Vol. 2 (2018): 109,
    https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/alra/vol2/iss1/9/.
  10.  “Living Wage Calculation for Denver County, Colo.: 1 Adult, 0 Children,” Living Wage Calculator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accessed 4 Feb. 2020, https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/08031.
  11.  Lytle, “Response to Jan. 18, 2020 Colo. Open Records Act Request.”
  12. “Nearly $6 Billion for the State Economy Generated by CCCS Colleges and Their Students,” Resources: Economic Impact, Colorado Community College System, accessed 1 Feb. 2020, https://www.cccs.edu/resources/institutional-research/economic-impact/.
  13. Lytle, “Response to Jan. 18, 2020 Colo. Open Records Act Request.”
  14. “Adjunct: Noun,” Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adjunct.
  15. Caprice Lawless, “Requesting a Legislative Audit of the Colorado Community College System,” To Colorado General Assembly Legislative Audit Committee, 2 Sept., 2016.
  16. Colorado Community College: Academic Year 2008-2009 Fact Book, p. 5, accessed 2 Feb. 2020, https://internal.cccs.edu/wp-content/uploads/documents/Fact-Book-AY09.pdf.
  17.  “About CCCS,” Colorado Community College System, accessed 2 Feb. 2020, https://www.cccs.edu/about-cccs/.
  18. Cassa Niedringhaus,“CU Boulder Raises Minimum Salary for Instructors, Senior Instructors,” Boulder Daily Camera, Feb. 8, 2019, https://www.dailycamera.com/2019/02/08/cu-boulder-raises-minimum-salary-for-instructors-senior-instructors/.
  19. Niedringhaus, “CU Boulder Raises Minimum Salary for Instructors, Senior Instructors.”

*Photo credit: Mike Ferguson/AAUP; read about the “Adjunct Cookbook” here.

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2 thoughts on “The 2020 Adjunct Index”

  2. Fantastic. Just stunning when you see these stats all in one place. I hope Jill Biden and Jane Sanders both see it because, so far, they have not been interested in this dark underbelly of higher ed, although both of them work in the field.

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