Los Rios must reduce adjunct faculty

During a recent afternoon in Davies Hall, adjunct professor Elizabeth Moon was making her way from student to student, teaching communication basics to her English as a Second Language writing class.

Moon's passion for the subject matter – as well as her rapport with her students – was evident to everyone in the room. She would seem to be the perfect example of what an instructor at American River College should be.

However, Moon will not be returning to ARC in the fall.

California's current budget crisis has left many adjunct faculty members – or instructors who are not full-time professors -- in a state of nervous limbo. As classes are cut, so are some of the instructors who teach them, and adjuncts are usually the first in the line of fire. As of now, a rough estimate puts around 35 adjuncts out of work in the fall, according to ARC officials. That number could change, as the state budget remains in flux.

"It's very, very painful," says ARC's Vice President of Instruction Colleen Owings. "Our adjuncts are so important to us at AR because many have been with us for 20, even 30 years and so they're a part of the ARC family.

Owings says many full-time faculty have given up overload classes to help their colleagues out. "They are essentially reducing their pay so they can save an adjunct," she said.

The void left by these adjuncts will be felt immediately. Many of Moon's students want to improve their language skills so they can find a job. With class reductions looming, many will be unable to learn the skills they need to work. Moon says she worries about students who are now going to have to learn English on their own. "They're going to be lost," she says.

Adjunct English professor Laurette Buljan, who represents the adjunct faculty at the English department meeting, also sees students suffering from the impeding cuts.

"There's a glut of students and not enough sections, and you get these poor students who just couldn't get a section and they're kind of desperate," she says.

Buljan says she considers herself lucky to get classes next semester, but some adjuncts have already started the search for other work to fill the gap.

"Ironically, when I assessed the jobs I could do, they were the same jobs I used to put myself through college," says Karen Ruan, another ESL adjunct via email. Openings in the teaching sector simply aren't plentiful right now in California and Ruan says she felt a "gut-wrenching frustration" when she realized she would be looking for new gainful employment.

Moon has been at ARC since 2008, which puts her on the lower rungs of the seniority ladder. She says her part in this has already been decided as she knows she will not be back in the fall and most likely not in the spring either.

"Moving on" is a term a lot of people have been forced to deal with in the current economy. ARC and its adjunct faculty are the next in line to redefine the way they live.

Moon considers herself lucky in that her husband has the means to cover the mortgage, but she says explaining certain things to her children will be the hard part, "My salary went to all their activities," she says, "and we are going to have to say ‘Nope, we just can't do that.'"

It's clear that money is only part of what both faculty and students will be missing. Moon says what's going to be really hard is giving up being a part of the college community.

"It's just an amazing place with amazing people," Moon says. "It has a really good feeling when you walk on campus. It's positive, it's full of good energy."

On one of her last days in the classroom, Moon's chalkboard had a sentence scrawled across it that might be appropriate for many of the adjuncts at ARC that read: "There is going to be a storm."

Over the next several months, many will be scrambling for umbrellas.

messinm@imail.losrios.edu