HIGHER EDUCATION PENSION & HEALTH BENEFITS CONCERNS FOR ADJUNCT FACULTY, PART-TIME LECTURERS, PART-TIME PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES AND PART-TIME NURSING PROFESSIONALS

The proposed pension & health benefit reforms will have an adverse impact on over 10,000 adjunct faculty, part-time lecturers, and health professionals in New Jersey public higher education as well as negative consequences for our colleges/universities who rely greatly on these same employees. Prospective part-time higher education professionals should be placed in the existing Alternate Benefit Program the same as current full time higher education employees. This program was created for NJ public higher education.

Additional exemptions should be granted for current part-time employees. S-1969 or any companion bill needs to allow for adjunct/part-time employees to designate multiple employers in public higher education.

• Adjunct and part-time faculty employees do not have defined hours or a defined work week.  They are generally hired on a semester to semester basis and paid according to how many courses or credits they teach.  The typical adjunct in the state college system will teach one or two courses (3 credits or 6 credits) per semester at a single institution.  And in some semesters they may not receive a contract to teach at all, but will be hired back in a subsequent semester. Under the proposed legislation , existing employees may get bumped from PERS if they miss a semester of teaching.
• Because of the modest level of compensation paid, e.g.  $1,100 - $1,325 per credit hour taught in the fall 2008, many adjuncts and part-time lecturers work at multiple institutions (state colleges, state universities, county colleges and/or privates – county colleges compensation is considerably lower), in an attempt to cobble together a meager and barely survivable income. Our state colleges and universities are increasingly relying on these employees to save money, instead of creating enough full time faculty positions. Over 30% of the undergraduate courses at Rutgers are taught by PTLs. and a higher percentage of classes are taught by adjunct faculty at the nine senior state colleges & universities. These employees should be viewed as a resource, not a burden to the state.
• Existing adjunct and part-time faculty are currently eligible to participate in PERS after earning $1,500 for 2 consecutive semesters.   If adjunct and part-time faculty work at more than one institution, they earn and receive pension contributions from each institution.  Allowing adjunct and part-time faculty members to participate in the pension system based on employment at multiple colleges and universities is a longstanding practice and should not be eliminated. There is no evidence of pension abuse from this group of state employees.
• In the rare cases where adjunct and part-time faculty work long enough to vest and to collect a pension from the state, they receive paltry benefits. To limit pension contributions to one employer for existing employees will have extremely adverse financial consequences for these invaluable state employees upon their retirement.
• Many health professionals work part-time often because our health care institutions do not offer full time work in their attempt to deal with financial constraints.  Some professionals work at two or more health care institutions in order to piece together a full time job.  Hospitals and other health care institutions require 1.5 RN’s to fill one shift for one week.  So as not to over burden full time staff; the part-time RN’s and professionals are hired to fill in the weekend and holiday shifts.  At Runnells Specialized Hospital, a county facility, of the 71 RN’s on staff 24 of them, or 34 %, are part-time.
• UMDNJ and Runnells Specialized Hospital currently allow employees working 20 hours or more per week access to the State’s pension benefits system.  Any legislative action changing the definition of eligibility for State and County employees would limit a facilities ability to recruit and retain vital part-time positions.
• No matter what changes are made in their pensions, adjunct and part-time faculty should continue to be permitted to make contributions to PERS for each position and to have their retirement benefit calculated using the combined salaries of the positions held.
• Placing newly hired adjuncts and PTLs into the Defined Contribution Retirement Program, as proposed in Senate Bill 1962 (or any Assembly companion bill) needlessly creates a third retirement system in NJ public higher education. Limiting these employees to only one employer will severely affect their participation due to the nature of semester by semester employment in higher education. Currently, higher education full time employees are the Alternate Benefit Program (an existing defined contribution plan).  Adjuncts, PTLs & part-time higher education nursing professionals are in PERS (a defined benefit plan). We strongly believe that a two-tier system for this group of employees is wrong for the quality of higher education in NJ. If there must be a change for new hires, then the Alternate Benefit Program is the equitable and much better match.

Health Benefits

• Adjunct and part-time faculty are currently eligible to purchase state health benefits at their own expense, pursuant to Chapter 172, P.L. 2003.  They pay the actual full premium cost plus an additional 10% if the wish to buy into the plan. We are concerned that S-1965 and any Assembly companion bill might eliminate that right for new adjunct and part-time faculty.  We seek assurances and clarification that this is not the intent of S-1965 or any other bills, nor will it be its effect.
• Teaching Assistants and Graduate (Research) Assistants at Rutgers University are eligible for health benefits under Section 17:9-4.2(a)6. of the State Administrative Code. These benefits are included as part of a compensation package that attracts the best graduate students to New Jersey. A high technology and biomedical research state like New Jersey uses such a package to draw top quality teaching and research talent to the state. Rutgers, as a top tier public research university, depends on attracting such talent to boost its academic and research rankings, which in turn attract top faculty and research staff. The state risks losing federal and private research grants if Rutgers is unable to compete with peer institutions in graduate student recruitment.  Approximately 1,100 Teaching Assistants are enrolled in the SHBP. In addition, another 800 Graduate (Research) Assistants are enrolled with 100% of their benefits funded through federal and private research grants.
• Part-time RNs and professionals at UMDNJ are also provided health benefits. The proposed bills would eliminate their health benefit coverage and make attracting the best and brightest to our research institutions more difficult.  With the existing and growing nursing shortage, attracting part-time nursing professionals to UMDNJ will become even more difficult.  An additional unintended consequence of this would be fewer grants being obtained by our research institutions. S-1965 or any companion bills need to exclude public higher education.
• Retirement benefits - both pension and healthcare - do not often come with the job in healthcare. Having the security of these benefits is one attraction of public sector healthcare. Nurses, mental health clinicians, medical researchers and staff working in Newark and urban areas of New Jersey, often caring for the uninsured, should not themselves become part of the uninsured.
• Allowing part-time workers who do not have state health benefits to buy into health insurance is, in fact, cost-effective as well as good public policy. As NJ seeks to improve access to health care and reduce the numbers of uninsured, why would we seek to cut off access for those working in the healthcare system?