“BIOLOGY ADJUNCTS NEEDED BY IRSC (formerly IRCC)
Biology adjuncts–especially to teach General Biology and Microbiology at our Okeechobee campus, however, we can use more adjuncts at our other campuses starting for the Fall semester.
In order to lecture at the college, minimum requirements are a Master’s degree with 18 graduate hours in the subject you are teaching. Prior teaching experience would be nice, but is not required. The department will provide everthing you need (text book, lecture materials, example tests, etc).
Pay runs according to the degree (Master’s, Ph.D) you have but ballpark is $500/credit hour (lecture classes are 3 credits) so it is approx. $1500 per course. The course runs 15 weeks in the Fall & Spring and 6 weeks in the Summer semesters. Classes meet for 2 1/2 hours per week. Day classes generally meet twice a week for 1 and 1/4 hours, while night classes meet one day a week for 2 1/2 hours (usually 5:30 to 8 p.m.).”
Amazing. As a former college biology prof with decades of teaching experience (at so-called “Tier 1” private and state institutions) and a Ph.D., here’s how I look at this opportunity.
At the simplest level, for daytime classes there are 30 lectures for $1,500 or $50 per lecture. I live north of Vero Beach. Let’s say I’m teaching at the Main Campus in Fort Pierce, which is a roundtrip of about 60 miles. With gas costs around $4.00 per gallon, and my vehicle getting about 20 miles per gallon, it will cost me approximately $30 just in gas to get to my lecture. This ignores other real vehicle costs. So, now I’m making $20 per 1.25 hour lecture (before taxes). Sound good? Let’s take a closer look.
For that 1.25 hour lecture, I will need to prepare between 2 – 3 hours. Let’s say I’m conscientious, and it’s 3 hours prep time for every lecture. Viewed from the perspective of hourly wages, then, for the $1,500 I will work: 37.5 hours contact time + 90 hours prep time = 127.5 hours, or about $11.75 per hour. Not bad? Wait, I forgot to include office hours (not mentioned, but students will require them), exam prep and grading, assignment prep and grading, and course paperwork. My conservative estimate of this additional time would be about 2 hours per week, or another 30 work hours, for a total of 157.5 hours. Now, I’m looking at $9.50 per hour, before taxes.
But wait, I forgot the 2 hours of travel time to get to each lecture and then return home. That’s another 60 hours of my time, but I know I’ll never get paid for these, so forget them (but, if I did include this time my hourly would hover around $6.90). And, I have to remember the gas costs… If I return to my original calculation of $20 per 1.25 hour lecture, and add only the 3 hours of prep time, my pay becomes $20/4.25 or $4.70 per hour.
So, what’s the bottom line? Get a Ph.D. so you too can aspire to earn up to $4.70 per hour at Indian River State College? Are they serious? Who would take this job, I wonder?
