Increasing amount of U of R sessional instructors raises concerns

Some instructors at the University of Regina (U of R) are speaking out against the rising number of sessional instructors, who work at the university on a term-to-term contract basis.

“When I started my career, there were almost no sessional instructors, and right now I would estimate about 50 per cent of the undergraduate contact hours are taught by sessionals. It’s huge,” University of Regina Faculty Association President Dennis Fitzpatrick said. Fitzpatrick is also a biochemistry professor at the University.

Sessional instructors are concerned over a lack of benefits, low pay, a lack of job security and often, minimal time to prepare for courses.

“We do the same jobs that full time instructors are paid to do, but we have none of the benefits, none of the job security,” U of R sessional instructor Marianne Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen said while she and some other sessional instructors do have employment outside the university, the majority of sessional instructors rely on the University for term-to-term employment.

“It is stressful, because you don’t know where your next contract is going to be coming from,” she said.

“The regular faculty members understand what they’re going to be doing next semester, they understand what they’re going to be doing next month, they understand that they’re going to have a future,” Fitzpatrick added. “(With) sessionals, it’s term-to-term, it’s indeterminate and it’s a high stress work environment.”

U of R Provost and Vice President Academic Tom Chase says sessional instructors are being utilized in universities coast-to-coast. He also says they can be attributed to a growth in spring, summer, evening, weekend and off-campus courses, but it’s also due to funding shortfalls, courtesy of provincial budget cuts.

“Budgets are tighter and are getting tighter from coast-to-coast,” Chase said. “It becomes more difficult to invest in full-time faculty when you are getting multi-million dollar budget cuts from your provincial government and when you’re striving to keep your student fees at a reasonable level.”

“We appreciate their concerns. I’ve been a sessional instructor myself in years past, I know what it’s like, it’s difficult,” he added. “But the situation universities find themselves in with both grants and the need to mitigate tuition and fee increases for students leaves us in a difficult position.”

Jacobsen, however, worries the quality of the job could impact the quality of education.

“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions,” she said.