A substantial number of faculty here are hired on an 80-percent contract. Unlike part-timers, we “80 percenters” do receive health benefits. However, when one is 80 percent, everything else is pro-rated. I am full-time: I teach a full-time course load, I grade student papers on weekends – but I am not tenure-track. (I have been “visiting” for five years.) I am widely considered to be a good teacher and colleague, so in order to pay me a fair wage and prevent me from languishing in adjunct limbo, Western Carolina University granted me 80 percent status. This means I teach, but I don’t have to advise students, serve on committees, or publish.

 

The trouble is, it’s impossible to do my job well without contributing that other 20 percent. I don’t have to advise students, but I do spend the better part of my afternoons chasing down potential English majors or attending to the line of underclassmen outside my door who need advising. Which class, which computer code, which professor? They ask me because they’ve known me since their first week of college. I’m not trained in advisement but I figure I give the right answer much more than 80 percent of the time.

 

I don’t have to do service or scholarship, but at the moment I’m juggling meetings with two committees, one university task force, two community groups, and my former masters’ degree thesis director (who is pushing me to publish an academic article I’ve been working on). I go to these meetings because they are important, because full-time faculty are often busy with other priorities – and because to do a good job I feel I have to. 

 

When the state approves our annual budget, I get 80 percent of the standard faculty pay raise. When I earned a fellowship last year, my fellowship stipend was cut to 80 percent of what a full employee would have been paid. I am not eligible for travel funds, graduate assistants, teaching awards, or representation on our faculty senate.

 

Incidentally, and just for the record, I earn $26,000 per year.

 

Things could be much worse. I love my job. My peers and students treat me with respect, regardless of my status. To be honest, I probably care too much. I should cut off 20 percent of my commitment, put aside 20 percent of my love for my career and my campus. I should pro-rate my dedication. But I won’t. There is a line of students outside my office door. And that academic article isn’t going to write itself. If I’m lucky, Western Carolina University will change its math. Until then, I’m not going to worry about percentages.