“I have worked two overloads per each of my first two semesters and a part time job teaching adult learning classes for another public school district on two weeknights and a weekend day. The salary of all of these jobs combined is enough to afford the housing and necessities of life while saving for retirement in Lowell, but my base salary as an assistant professor obviously falls very short of offering that luxury.”
I’m a new hire at Middlesex Community College. I am 28. I am single. I work a lot. I enjoy teaching as a profession, but my situation makes it not as enjoyable or sustainable as it can be. I have worked two overloads per each of my first two semesters and a part time job teaching adult learning classes for another public school district on two weeknights and a weekend day. The salary of all of these jobs combined is enough to afford the housing and necessities of life while saving for retirement in Lowell, but my base salary as an assistant professor obviously falls very short of offering that luxury. The hours that I work are unsustainable for a long-term career. I would love to be a professor here in the state’s community college system forever, but if I decide that in five or ten years I want to commit to a family and scale back my hours, then this state’s community college system will not be the field that I decide to do that in.
The low wages are exploitative in nature because of an inherent want to commit our lives to educating the people of Massachusetts. If this system is to truly offer an equitable education, then the educators providing that education need to be able to do so without burning out or leaving the state’s community college system by 40. Due to my circumstances, and the realities of the state’s cost of living, I recommend that the faculty salary for all levels in the community college system be raised by at least 50% so that we can consistently and sustainably offer a free and quality college education to the citizens of Massachusetts for decades to come. I am a proud graduate of the state’s community college system, go Middlesex! I would hate to see the quality education that I received be watered down and marketed as something that it is not to the future generations of students. Please raise the wages as soon as possible for the sake of the long-term stability of the commonwealth’s community college system.