Nassau Community College
AAUP Advocacy Chapter
November 9, 2015
Let’s talk about what’s on everyone’s mind. The number of full-time faculty at NCC has declined sharply while at the same time the number of administrators has increased dramatically. Add to the mix the fact that administrators’ remuneration has increased and we can’t help but wonder what is next.
Five years ago there were 752 full-time faculty and of that 74% were classroom faculty. As of today, we are down to 660 and when we begin the Spring 2016 semester our numbers will stand at 585 (over 100 of our colleagues took the special retirement). This is an astounding 22% loss since 2010 and there appears to be no concrete plans to replace these lines.
We are told the college is “broke,” yet we now have 74 full-time administrators. Seventeen of these were added in the last three years alone along with 10 part-time administrators. And let’s not forget that many of our “retired” administrators simply move onto lucrative consulting contracts at NCC often worth far more than what an instructor or assistant professor earns. In 2014 the average administrator’s salary was $107,401 with the majority of these employees serving less than nine years at NCC. It takes faculty about 15 years to earn $100,000!
To add insult to injury, over the past six years we have seen many administrators receive anywhere from 10% up to 40% increases either as raises or in the guise of a “title change.” And now our Board of Trustees is contemplating giving these same employees a 2.25% across the board increase! Meantime, our current four-year contract has provided for two lag pays, two years of half instead of full steps, two years of “bonuses” as opposed to real salary increases (which were cancelled out by the lag pay) and only two years of “real” wage increases of 1.75% and 2.0% respectively. And this was begrudgingly given to us by an Administration crying poverty and imploring its faculty to essentially sacrifice for the good of the college. Sacrifice at NCC is apparently a one-way street.
Clearly, the new normal at NCC is that faculty do more and essentially earn less, while the Administration does less while earning more. And what about our students? They are short-changed because their full-time faculty is shrinking, their class sizes are increasing, and the college continues to cut the types of resources and services our students genuinely need to succeed. And what about that tuition bill? All indication is that our students will be saddled with another substantial increase for fall 2016. We thought providing a high quality, low cost liberal arts education was our institution’s primary service. Apparently we were wrong.
We call on our Board of Trustees to do the right thing for our students and declare a moratorium on administrative raises until full time faculty replacement lines are issued and tuition is stabilized.
Sincerely,
NCC AAUP, Executive Committee
NCC AAUP Advocacy Chapter 