It has been very disturbing to me to sit and watch the administration at each and every bargaining meeting completely disregard the role that full time faculty members play at PSC. What I really mean is how the administration’s lawyer interprets the role faculty plays, because nobody else on the administrative side ever says anything anyway (yet they get paid quite nicely to bargain, hmmmm?)
Without our quality instruction, we would not be known as one of the best community colleges to attend. Adjuncts are great, but let’s face it, a college can’t exist without the dedicated full-timers. There are so many of us who could be working at higher profile jobs, making more money, but we chose to stay local, give back to the community of Pensacola, and do what we love: TEACH. For the first time, I am second guessing my decision for working here. Instead of worrying about what lesson I am going to be teaching the following day, I find myself worrying more about how my job is going to be affected again by changes the administration is trying to make. At the root of this worry is how the administration is trying to change the load points for several departments. Have any of them (admin) visited these specific departments and really dug into what goes into running these various programs? Absolutely not. To say that because a program doesn’t make enough money for the college, we are going to reduce the money going to the instructors running it is just ridiculous. All this is managing to do is pit departments against each other, instead of uniting us. If this logic is what salaries should be based on, then why are department heads, deans, VPs, and even the president paid so much more? What money do they generate for their areas? Better yet if faculty have to suffer, then shouldn’t other PSC employees sacrifice something too? I want an administrator to explain to me, to my face, why my hour of instruction is worth less than someone else’s hour of instruction! Each department has a crucial role at the College, but more importantly, in the community. The college should be supporting every faculty member equally, because that is the right thing to do. I have an even better idea: if the administration wants to save money, then how about they consolidate some of the administrative positions for once?
I think it is time to get this story out to all the trustees and more importantly the public. It is time for our community to understand how little respect the faculty are receiving here at PSC and because of that we now have no RESPECT or CONFIDENCE in the abilities of our administration!!
Thank you to all those faculty members in leadership roles and on the bargaining team willing to put their time and essentially their careers on the line to represent the best interest of all faculty. They may be trying to get rid of some of our best faculty, but we will not give up the fight. WE ARE PSC….and students keep coming back for us, not the administration.
