Bob Hayden wrote:
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Petr Kuzmic -----
>
> $5000 - 25% federal + stat tax = $3750
> 16 week semester, that's $234/week after taxes
>
> How many hours in the week for a University lecturer:
>
> 3 hours / week in the classroom
> 6 hours / week preparing & reviewing lecture
> 3 office hours / week
> 2 hours / week writing homework assignments
> 1 hour / week grading homeworks w/ graders or reviewing grades
> 1 hour / week (prorated) writing exams
> 1 hour / week (prorated) grading exams w/ grader & TA
> 3 hours / week answering email from students
> 1 hours / week supervision of TA & grader
> 1 hour / week general administrative duties
> -------------------------------------------
> 22 hour/week
> Indeed it's a half time job (50% appointment, essentially).
> So now, $234/week after taxes makes $10.60/hour.
> Interesting. That's about a buck fifty per hour more than a janitor
> makes elsewhere in Boston:
>
> ----- End of forwarded message from Petr Kuzmic -----
>
> Yes, but it is about three times what we pay;-(
>
> Also, if you prorate it X 8 (we teach 4 classes per semester) it
> comes out to about 40k per year, which I suspect is higher than our
> starting salaries. But in that case the hours may not add up if you
> are lucky enough to have multiple sections of the same course.
If someone is lucky enough to be teaching two sections of the same
course in Statistics (out of four sections they are teaching) then we
should subtract 6 hours / week preparing & reviewing lecture from the
additional section. Of course if they have three identical sections,
they are saving additional six hours.
Looking for additional savings: if someone is teaching four sections per
semester, they might want to cut down on how much time spend on email
with students, even if the 'student body' has by now grown quite
accustomed to "email tech-support" from the instructor. Let's say we'll
cut down from three hours per week to one hour per week per session.
I might add that Temporary Lecturers have more work to do than tenured
faculty with regard to lecture preparation, because old timers can (I am
not saying they all do!) just dust off those old lecture notes and
recycle them for the 10th of 20th time. In contrast, a Temporary
Lecturer might be someone who just got a doctorate and is looking for a
regular job, so they'll end up writing their lecture notes from scratch.
Thus, as I am looking at my little table, I don't see a lot of other
things to cut in the work load of a Part-time Temporary Lecturer
teaching four classes [never mind the fact that teaching four classes
per semester at a University shouldn't be called a "part time": it's
more like "one and a half" time job for a beginner], so we'll end up
with something like 50 hours a week.
Now, you are saying that your school pays about $1,200 per course.
That is astonishing, because it amounts to about $4,800 per semester
before taxes for about 16 x 50 hours of work, which is $6.00 (six
dollars) per hour before taxes. I believe that's what people make when
they go work for MacDonnald's flipping burgers, but then again, it
"makes sense", because there *might* be people who will work for
$6.00/hr after 20+ years of schooling ending with a Ph.D. So why not
take advantage of that fact?
With regard to your comment:
> Also, if you prorate it X 8 (we teach 4 classes per semester) it
> comes out to about 40k per year, which I suspect is higher than our
> starting salaries.
Please note that the Boston University job advertisement specifically
talked about teaching one course in one semester, not eight courses in a
year. I believe that there is a reason for this. Universities do not
hire "part time temporary lecturers" to teach eight classes a year,
because then you can't call call these folks "part time" and you have to
pay them fringe benefits. If someone is appointed to teach one course,
they do not qualify for medical and dental insurance, life insurance,
retirement contributions, etc., which is an advantage for the University
(not such an advantage for the Lecturer).
So I agree, in a purely hypothetical scenario where some other job
announcement might talk about teaching four classes per semester at
$5,000 apiece, with renewal for the Spring, it would in fact add up to
$40,000 a year as you suggested. However, in the real world we are
talking about a non-renewable position to teach one course in one
semester, paying $234/week after taxes, September through December.
How much is rent in Boston?
- Petr
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