Part-time college faculty want ‘fair pay’

Photo: Lamar Community College, Lamar, Colo.
Lamar Community College, Lamar, Colo.

A bill by Representative Randy Fischer (D-Ft Collins) would require the state's 13 community colleges to create a single salary rate for all faculty members.

It would also treat everyone with teaching responsibilities as faculty.

Adjunct faculty members say many of the system's 4000 part-time instructors are paid a fraction of what full-time faculty make for the same work.

"We are teaching some of the most disadvantaged, the most needy students in our state," said Caprice Lawless, an English Professor at Front Range Community College. "We need the system to support the teachers. We're the teachers who make it all happen. We're the backbone of the entire enterprise."

Rhonda Bentz, with the Colorado Community College System, says officials value their adjuncts and are reviewing the bill's financial implications.