While it is important that full-time faculty members receive recognition for their service at Kennesaw State, it is unjust that their part-time counterparts are not also granted this courtesy.
One of the most pivotal parts of the student experience at any university is the professors responsible for teaching the classes. Thousands of instructors are employed by KSU, and after a first glance at the university’s faculty page, it seems as though these instructors are adequately appreciated through a slew of faculty events.
These events are only focused on full-time faculty members, while part-timers have been left out. Many of these part-time faculty have put in decades at KSU and yet their devotion goes unappreciated.
After a Years of Service Ceremony that took place on campus last semester, part-time KSU English professor of 20 years Yvonne Wichman wrote a letter to the editor to the Sentinel in December describing that lack of appreciation.
“I was sad to see part-time faculty again go unrecognized,” Wichman said. “We continue to be overlooked, ignored and taken for granted by the administration even though the university could not adequately serve its growing student population without us.”
According to KSU’s part-time faculty webpage, the university employs over 1,000 part-time instructors. The front page of the same website also plainly states there are no upcoming part-time faculty events. For an institution that employs so many part-time instructors, the lack of events seems disproportionate when compared to the 15 events scheduled this semester for full-timers, which can be found on KSU’s faculty website.
“In many ways, part-time faculty are the face of the university because we teach most of the intro level gen. ed. courses,” Wichman said in an interview. “And this issue isn’t only with KSU. It can be sourced back to the University System of Georgia itself.”
As part-timers, these instructors do not qualify for health benefits, according to the USG website. When Wichman was president of the Part-time Faculty Council, she proposed part-timers be able to get insurance through the university. Wichman’s request was denied and part-time instructors are still forced to pursue health insurance individually.
While it may not come as a surprise that these faculty members are not granted insurance from KSU, the lack of acknowledgment for their services on the part of the administration is a slap in the face. Full-time professors are often awarded a pin or a certificate for their benchmark years of service of five, 10, 15 or 20 years. Unfortunately, this is not the case for part-timers — even though many have served decades at the university.
It can be expected that part-time instructors are not awarded all of the benefits that come with working full-time. However, it is not too much to ask that these dutiful public servants be appreciated for their years of hard work at KSU. If full-time faculty have a ceremony celebrating their years of service, it is only fair that part-time instructors be acknowledged for their time at the university as well.
