Photo credit: Dave Zylstra
The Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) District Board of Directors’ proposal to lower part-time faculty salaries, remove the “class & step system” and reduce paid hours outside the classroom raised concerns about the quality of education offered by MATC from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 212.
After a compensation study compared MATC to other technical colleges in Wisconsin, the board of directors proposed a 20% reduction in new part-time faculty maximum pay and a reduction in paid hours outside the classroom from 102 to 84, according to AFT Local 212 Executive Vice President Kevin Mulvenna. The proposal would also eliminate the “class & step” system that determines faculty raises based on years worked at MATC and years of professional education.
“The question that needs to be asked is very simple: Who on Earth makes less today than they did 10 years ago for the same position? The answer? MATC part-time faculty, but certainly not MATC administrators,” Mulvenna says. As MATC salaries for administrators increased by 12.4%, total salaries for full-time faculty rose by 1.6% from 2016 to 2019, he says. Today, part-time faculty can earn a maximum of $5,575 for a three-credit course, which would decrease to a maximum of $4,488 for a three-credit course if the board approves the proposal, according to Mulvenna.
The budget for MATC is financed by state appropriations, district property taxes, tuition and fees. According to the financial report, 36% of the budget comes from local property taxes, which are subjected to a revenue limit under current state law. Because of these limitations, the board might turn to the faculty budget, according to the former president of AFT Local 212, Michael Rosen. “When people are demoralized, they don’t go the extra mile,” says Rosen. “And that hurts the students.”
Direct Impact on Students
Dean Le Blanc, a full-time professor of supply chain management, has a direct impact on his students, according to his statement to the board of directors in November 2019. According to Le Blanc, “Much of what we do is neither listed on a job description nor will a consulting firm take into consideration when developing a fair and equitable compensation plan.”
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Full-time faculty teach a total of 15 weeks with 55-minute lectures and can earn salaries ranging from $53,408 to more than $107,233, based on the “class & step system.” MATC also requires full-time faculty to complete academic advising, advisory committees, non-student contact events, school and/or department meetings and college committees, according to the 2019 Faculty Appendix. Part-time faculty are not required but encouraged to do the same. “Any cuts and/or modifications to future faculty compensation will have a direct impact not only on me, personally, but other faculty members who share similar stories,” says Le Blanc.
Outside of normal office hours, Le Blanc has helped students who struggle with basic reading and writing. He paused before sharing that a student confided in him that they were living out of their car. The education at MATC was the only thing keeping the student going.
Nationally, lower-income students are facing food insecurity and homelessness. According to a study by the Government Accountability Office in 2018, “75% of lower-income students experience one or more risk factors while in school.” Risk factors include students who are first generation, who receive SNAP, are single parents, disabled, homeless or at risk of becoming homeless or a former foster youth.
Rising tuition could leave students also vulnerable to for-profit colleges that create large debts. According to the financial report, course fees at MATC rose from $131.50 per credit in 2009 to $178.80 in 2018.
“Faculty play one of the largest roles in students’ success and have a direct impact on many of the key metrics we hear on a daily basis,” says Le Blanc. Dedicated instructors will still show up and make sure their students succeed without the compensation, according to an anonymous source, but as part-time faculty need to find additional work, there is less time for students outside of the classroom.
Incentives for Quality Faculty
MATC currently rewards quality instructors through the “class & step system.” For each year an instructor becomes more experienced in their craft, they earn increased salaries and raises based on a consistent scale, according to Rosen. “The beauty of it was that it was transparent,” he says. But the board of directors would like to replace “class & step” with an “open-range system” in which administrators would determine salaries and raises, which could lead to favoritism and gender and racial bias, according to Rosen.
AFT Local 212 President Lisa Conley suggested to the board to keep the “class & step” but modify how instructors progress through the system. “The current schedule system is transparent, predictable, time tested and easy to understand for employees, MATC and community members,” she says.
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) recently abolished its own “class & step system,” only to reinstate it this year after finding too many problems, according to former MATC board member Lauren Baker. Talented instructors left MPS to teach at other districts with salary schedules that insured security and stability. “It’s a penny-wise and pound-foolish strategy that sacrifices what is best in this college for a set of ideas that have been proven ineffective and wrong-headed,” she says.
Faculty Outside the Classroom
MATC uniquely requires all faculty to complete 150 recertification hours from the Faculty Quality Assurance System (FQAS) on top of their teaching. The FQAS recertified 98% of full-time faculty, counselors, part-time faculty and professional staff at MATC in April 2016, according to AFT Local 212.
Along with recertification hours, faculty also work additional hours outside the classroom for preparation time and office hours. MATC compensates faculty for 102 hours worked, but the proposal would reduce these compensated hours to 84 for new part-time faculty, making it difficult for instructors to enhance their classrooms, according to Mulvenna. “It’s just not the right thing to do,” he says. Reducing pay for preparation time could affect the part-time faculty’s ability to build lectures, create assignment instruction guides and make sure all courses are also available online, according to an anonymous source.
“When paid more, [instructors] take the time to grade students’ work,” says Mulvenna. For faculty juggling multiple jobs, scantron exams work well for grading, but they leave little or no room for constructive feedback for students, Mulvenna says.
MATC relies on top-performing part-time faculty to maintain “an educational environment consistent with current work environments,” according to the financial report. Police science instructors are police chiefs, and nurse instructors are head nurses at hospitals who can help students network outside of the classroom, according to Rosen.
Within six months, 95% of associate degree graduates are employed, according to MATC. But changes to part-time faculty compensation could stop attracting top-performing instructors to teach at the college. “If you’re not attracting the best and the brightest, you [don’t get] top faculty,” Rosen says.
