The New School’s reputation as a progressive institution for social justice and equality isn’t living up to some part-time faculty’s standards, as they said they’re paid an unlivable wage much smaller than administrators and full-time professors. Part-time faculty are an essential part of the university, making up 87% of the teaching staff, according to New School spokesperson Amy Malsin. Faculty said they strive to support academic and creative experiences for students by dedicating long strenuous hours outside of classroom settings.

 UAW-ACT Local 7902, an academic union consisting of New School part-time faculty, health workers, student workers, and NYU adjuncts opened up the dialogue around salary transparency and the university’s tuition distribution effort through their Instagram account. 

On Nov. 5, the ACT-UAW Local 7902 Instagram account shared The New School’s part-time faculty salaries compared to administration and full-time professors, captioned: 

“The total tuition for an 18 student undergraduate seminar at the New School is over $90,000. For the same course, a professor’s salary is approx $4-6k depending on their seniority. So, Part-Time Faculty make 4% – 7% of course tuition. Where do you think the rest of the money goes? … Why is our work so undervalued? And what can we do about it?”

A number of New School students, professors, and outside community members reposted the union post on their stories and expressed concerns in its comment section. A pinned comment from @shoshandentz stated: “The students should know this! As an adjunct who is not teaching today but voluntarily emailing my students all day to support their independent work…the bare truth of my salary is demoralizing.” 

Part-time Parsons professor and ACT-UAW Local 7902 labor union representative, Tamar Samir, talked to The New School Free Press about the union’s social media approach: “We want to make [students] aware of the part-time faculty salaries and when we made that calculation …. we based it on the highest rate that part-time faculty get paid – the seminar rate.” The seminar rate is listed as $127.85 an hour, according to Samir. 

Part-time faculty are paid for the time spent within a classroom setting, but the labor outside remains uncompensated. Non-contact labor includes recording tutorials, office hours, in-person tutoring, and Canvas course preparation.

One professor, who asked to remain anonymous, shared their salary compared to how much it would be if they were paid for work outside of class. “As a part-time faculty, our hourly pay rate is an illusion,” they said. “On paper, my hourly rate on paper is $155 an hour. In reality, I earn $18 an hour. I work 280 hours a semester and I earn $5,000 for a course.  If I put all the hours I put into the course, using the additional duties scale as a guide, I would earn $24,000 for that course.”  

Victoria Manganiello, a part-time Parsons professor, and union representative said,  “I don’t receive pay for the time I’m preparing my curriculum’s syllabus, demonstrations…corresponding with students about their assignments and deadlines [or] creating feedback and grades.” 

During the height of the pandemic, part-time faculty said they worked tirelessly to convert courses to various online formats. When classes transitioned online, the costs to purchase laptops, cameras, microphones, and other supplies weren’t paid for by The New School. 

Annie Larson, a part-time union chair and Parsons professor said, “There wasn’t any acknowledgment that there was a crunch on resources for folks working from home…From Parsons, we teach detailed specific things and there was not a bigger follow up from the administration and departments.” Larson referenced the union contract and pointed out classroom expenses, “[The university] grants approval to those who ask for financial support for supplies or equipment. It’s a type of thing where you have to go and ask for it, then not everything would be approved.” 

Elizabeth Chakkappan, a Parsons professor shared her experiences of the university’s lack of financial support, “Nobody even offered compensation. I never saw communication in which a faculty member’s lack of access to the internet or to computer hardware needed to be addressed.”

Adrienne Kim, a professor at Mannes, echoed Chakkapan’s sentiments, as she said “I think every single teacher went out and bought microphones, [or] a second camera. I teach piano so I needed another angle to show the keyboard.” 

Part-time Mannes professor, Mariano Aguirre, related to Chakkappan’s experience, as he had to purchase a laptop and professional microphone for his virtual music theory classes. With the administration’s lack of financial support, he said he was unprepared for virtual learning, which was more likely to affect students. “Teaching conditions affect learning conditions,” he addressed. 

The university’s transition to in-person learning created a set of various teaching modalities for part-time faculty. This includes multitasking with in-person classes and asynchronous lectures for students who stay home due to COVID-19 related situations. Professors said whenever a student gets COVID-19, it creates a separate workload for accommodating their students’ remote educational needs. 

Part-time professor and union representative, Douglas Morse said his classes started with 18 students then a few students switched to remote learning because of campus access problems and quarantine restrictions. Morse expressed his concerns, “It’s not a great situation for the students. Obviously, the smaller the class, the more individualized attention. This idea of squeezing us for more work is also creating an environment where we have to take shortcuts….I’ve seen more issues where students need sort of more hand-holding. They need more individualized attention because my job for the ones that are really struggling is to get them over that finish line.” 

Part-time professors are dedicated to creating a strong faculty-student connection with students who seek regular counsel and support in their coursework. 

Sophia Huda, a former professor at Milano and the School of Public Engagement, said her student’s well-being was vital. “I would never compromise my students’ teaching and learning experience…. It hurts to know that [students] might not be getting [their] full education. The teachers want to do their best, but we have our limits as well. There are only 24 hours in a day, and going back to job precarity, I’m not going to put in 60 to 80 hours a week, knowing there’s no payoff. I think it’s time that we start getting recognized for the amount of effort we put into our classes.” Huda said.   

Oliver Kellhammer, a part-time Parsons professor, shared his thoughts on the physical and emotional labor part-time faculty endure, “[The school’s reputation] is a really vital part of our brand and our fear is [that] there’s a disconnect between the New School brand and the way it’s being run, kind of like Amazon. The idea is that we’re just labor that can be turned on and off like a tap. We’re basically putting toothbrushes in boxes and that’s not how we work. We work individually with students because [they’re] important, and [they’re] not toothbrushes, [they] are people that we really care about.”

An anonymous professor encouraged all professors and graduate workers to be transparent about their salaries to raise awareness and solidarity for part-time workers, “I think we’re at a pivotal moment where we’re saying we’re mad as hell. We’re not going to take it anymore. We can’t do this as a labor of love. It’s too expensive to live in New York City. We can’t donate our time to the university, especially when we know our administrators are making exponentially more than we are,” they said. 

The labor union shared their upcoming plans for a student initiative raising awareness for part-time faculty at the New School. “If this is an important issue for them, one thing we’re considering is creating an organization of students that support the rights of faculty. We will be posting and reaching out to students about it so that people can get involved if they want,” said Samir. 

The union expects to begin negotiating a collective bargaining contract in 2022 with the university. There is an issue of extreme workplace insecurity for newer faculty in their first five years of teaching. Part-time faculty members wrote a letter to President Dwight McBride on workplace precarity and non-reappointment. The letter has garnered widespread support from full-time faculty members and one associate dean, according to Samir. 

A previous version of this article attributed a quote by professor Adrienne Kim to professor Elizabeth Chakkapan, claimed part-time faculty were looking to gain support from full-time faculty and an associate dean (when they already have) and that non-contact labor included Canvas course evaluations, while it’s actually Canvas course preparation.