Community college professors — and leaders — want higher pay for instructors

When the school year ends at Cape Cod Community College, professor Tom Schaefer gears up to begin his summer job as an education consultant. It's a four-hour round trip commute to that gig, at a private four-year university in Boston.

"The drive is kind of brutal," he said.

Schaefer's consulting work is one of three extra jobs he works on top of his full-time position teaching English literature. He acknowledges that it's a lot to juggle, but worth it, because it keeps his family financially stable.

"It allows my family to live a more flexible life and just makes things a lot easier for us," Schaefer, a married father of two, said of his summer pay.

He's not alone in working more than one job. According to the Massachusetts Community College Council, the union that represents faculty and staff at community colleges, most of their members need to take on additional work to make a sustainable living. The union is pushing for higher wages at a time when more students are enrolling in community college and instructors are in demand.

Schaefer makes a base salary of about $64,000 at Cape Cod Community College. To further supplement his income, he teaches five additional courses on top of the 10 that are included in his full-time instructional load. And he’s stacked on the added role of serving as the college’s remote learning coordinator.

"It's a lot," he said of his full plate. "I love the work that I do, of course, but I wish that I had the opportunity to do less of it, so I can spend more time with my kids and my family."

According to the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the average community college professor salary in the state is about $68,000 — almost $30,000 less than the living wage estimate for an adult raising one child.

That pay rate means some instructors not only have to take on extra work but are leaving the field altogether, said Claudine Barnes, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council.

"It's an enormous problem for recruitment, retention, exhaustion and morale," she said. "We're losing people who love the community colleges and support the mission with all of their hearts because they can't afford to take the job."

Barnes added that she knows several community college educators who struggle with food insecurity and regularly visit their school's food pantry, which is open to anyone affiliated with the college.

"We're losing people who love the community colleges and support the mission with all of their hearts because they can't afford to take the job."

Claudine Barnes, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council

The hiring and retention concerns come at a time when the need for community college instructors is high, with surging enrollment across the state's 15 community colleges. The state's free community college programs, called MassEducate and MassReconnect, have drawn more than 10,000 new students into the system over the last two years.

Barnes also noted that many of the new non-traditional students entering college need extra academic support.

"When we don't have enough advisors and counselors and librarians and full-time faculty, those students are not getting all of the support that they need," Barnes said.

Union advocates are trying to pressure Beacon Hill lawmakers to take notice.

In May, the unions placed more than 30 billboards around the state's 15 community college campuses to draw public attention to the staffing struggles.

These signs advocated for “fair pay” for community college instructors. The unions want lawmakers to fund a wage equity study for community college instructors — which hasn't been done in Massachusetts since 1999 — in this year's budget.

The results of that analysis could pave the way for a pay bump. It would also avoid raising issues with other state worker unions like "re-opener clauses," which allow unions to renegotiate their contracts if another group gets a higher than typical pay increase.

Community college presidents also want to see higher pay for their instructors, said Nate Mackinnon, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges.

"We are really feeling the pain when it comes to recruiting," he said. "It's not often that you see management and a union together working toward something like increasing compensation, but that's exactly what we have here."

Cape Cod Community College president John Cox said offering higher wages to full-time professors would benefit students, too. Staff wouldn't be as stretched thin by extra jobs and financial stress. Higher wages would help reduce faculty attrition for high-demand subjects like aviation maintenance — jobs where the pay is lucrative but only require an associate's degree.

"We really need to acknowledge going forward that as the world has changed," he said. "We need to make sure that we remain competitive."

"It's not often that you see management and a union together working towards something like increasing compensation, but that's exactly what we have here."

Nate Mackinnon, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges

Officials from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education say they are committed to addressing the issue.

"The Higher Education Quality and Affordability Commission is actively engaging on this topic and we look forward to reviewing its recommendations for improving faculty recruitment and retention," DHE spokeswoman Nicole Giambusso said in a statement.

Faculty "bring life-changing opportunities to community college students," she said, and the state is "committed to a fair contract that recognizes their contributions while also meeting budget criteria."

Schaefer, the Cape Cod instructor, said he finds such movement encouraging. And while he does not plan to leave his community college teaching role for a different full-time position anytime soon, a bump in salary would make his life a lot easier. Maybe he could even cut out that four-hour commute in the summers.

"It's not that I want to work less," he said, "it's that I want to enjoy the time with my family more and have more capability to do that."