As a former student of Flathead Valley Community College and the University of Montana, and a current student of the University of Great Falls, I was appalled by the decision to limit adjunct facility hours. I personally know the majority of the 25 adjunct teachers who are currently teaching more than 10 credits. These teachers are quality professors, who clearly are not in this profession for the money. Teaching is an underpaid, unappreciated job and this decision to reduce adjunct facility hours is a prime example of this. Basically, we are trading in quality for quantity to avoid providing health insurance. I pay for tuition, and I would like to get the best quality education possible. I think by cutting the adjunct’s hours will hurt FVCC’s quality. If anything, those adjuncts go above and beyond the requirements and should be rewarded with more classes to teach.
The teachers are not in it for the money. They teach because they care about the student’s education. That’s the teacher I want. Their goals as teachers are to teach us the course at its full potential, while inspiring us. The adjuncts that are inspiring their students and care about the students are the teachers who provide the best quality education. A quality education is what makes us stronger in our careers. An inexperienced adjunct that doesn’t inspire us as students or who is unfamiliar with the course description does not provide a good quality education. This will frustrate students because the students are paying for a course that did not serve their educational expectations. Eventually, when a school starts cutting professor’s wages and taking away benefits, it in return becomes a chain reaction that could make it where the experienced quality educators cannot afford to live and teach at the community college. You get what you pay for, right?
Brooke Sampson
Kalispell