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CLC instructors say more full-timers needed

Some College of Lake County instructors say the school should hire more full-time faculty and not depend as much on part-time adjunct instructors.

Reference librarian Michelle Carter, president of the College of Lake County Federation of Teachers union for full-timers, was among three faculty members to voice concerns about the use of the adjuncts at a recent board meeting.

“Why are full-time faculty members important to the college? ... It ensures continuity for the students,” Carter said.

Mathematics instructor and department chairman Byron Hunter said it’s difficult to find a part-timer with a master’s degree to teach the subject to students in upper-level daytime classes who are seeking to transfer credits to a four-year university.

Hunter said there are 60 part-time math teachers and 20 who are full-time. He said turnover by the part-timers is a problem, and the full-time instructors are spread too thin and overloaded with work.

“We kind of get burned out on the mentoring over and over again,” Hunter told CLC trustees, who didn’t issue a response per standard operating procedure at board meetings.

Rick Soller, a speech and communications instructor who formerly headed the full-time faculty union, said the teaching pool would be expanded if CLC relied less on adjunct positions.

Soller said adjunct instructors typically work locally because the pay isn’t enough to justify a move. He also contended it wouldn’t cost much more to bring on more full-timers at CLC at an average annual salary of $44,000, compared to $28,000 for part-time adjuncts.

“I think the hiring process for the full-time faculty has more (background) checks than the part-time faculty,” Soller said.

Full-time and adjunct faculty are covered under separate contracts at CLC. Both are in the middle of deals paying annual raises of 2.5 percent to the full-timers and 2.75 percent to the part-timers.