Today, based on American Association of University Professors report, more than 50% of all faculties are part-time employees. Part-time faculty are often officially titled “adjunct faculty.” Adjunct faculty are classified as a part-time typically, but can be full-time, and they are paid “by the course, without benefits and so many colleges teachers lack access to health insurance,” the report stated.

Current part-time faculty Prof. Doretha Singley of the nursing department describes her job in this way: “We are part-time. We are usually on a semester-by-semester contract. …My employment is not continuous.”

She told me that she has been working at Fayetteville State University since 2013. This means at any time she can be let go; there is no guarantee that her job will be available after her contract ends each semester. That is a tremendous amount of stress and worry for anyone to have to manage. The job security is not promised for any adjunct.

According to Ms. Tonya Williams of Human Resources, the rate of pay for adjunct professors teaching three credit course hours is $2,500. If they teach online classes, they are paid an additional $250 dollars.

As of October 1, 2017, a total of 885 faculty work at FSU, according to the 2017 FSU Fact Book. The individuals that make up 333 (38%) include full and part-time faculty, administrators with faculty status, retirees on contract, visiting faculty, and coaches with faculty status. The remaining 552 (62%) were administrators or support personnel. Of the 333 faculty, 67 or 25% of the faculty is part-time.

The News & Observer reported that, 59% of UNC faculty are adjuncts.

Why does this matter?

As current students know, college is expensive. Adjunct professors may not have much time to prepare for class with their heinous schedule, sometimes split between multiple colleges and universities. Some adjuncts are not given the same resources as full-time faculty, for example, office space. Without an office, this means there is less of a connection between the student and professor, giving the student less time to understand the material before midterms or the final exam, this lowers a student’s chance of passing the course. I want to be guaranteed that I being offered the best education with the money I am putting forth towards my education. I want the same for my professors; I want them to be given the respect and the resources they require in order to help me obtain my degree.

For one, many contingent faculty members that I had the honor of interviewing are excellent teachers and scholars. According to the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Samuel Adu-Mireku, the qualifications necessary to be considered for the position are to have 18 credit graduate hours, along with receiving a Master’s degree. This is a requirement for semesterly as well as full-time adjuncts. However, only full-time adjuncts receive benefits.

Dr. Molly Williams, an adjunct lecturer of social work confirmed this. She stated, “Adjuncts do not receive benefits, in order to receive benefits you have to be full-time. On some rare occasions, you may be afforded travel pay to attend a conference.”

What do adjuncts on campus wish people understood about being an adjunct?

Prof. Doretha Singley, part-time nursing adjunct– We may not be as available as their full-time professors. We try to make office hours available and a lot of us have other responsibilities other than teaching at the university.

Prof. Jocelyn Smith-Grey, full-time elementary education adjunct – Being an adjunct professor does not mean that you do not have the qualifications or the content knowledge to be a full-time professor. What it is, is that you don’t have the degree or you opted to take that position. There are some adjuncts that have terminal degrees. However, to teach undergraduates you have to have 15 specialty hours. For me, obtaining a terminal degree would make me highly qualified. However it does not mean that because I don’t have a terminal degree that I am less able than someone with a doctorate.

Dr. Molly Williams, part-time social work adjunct– I would hope that they realize that adjunct faculty is an asset to their department; I think they should be valued more.

What is the solution?

There aren’t readily available ones. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a project known as the Adjunct Project (https://data.chronicle.com/). This database offers a self-report that adjunct professors and other faculty at institutions can disclose data of the salary per class taught. This could possibly helpful future adjunct employees as well as students compare FSU with other colleges to best decide the best institution. Additionally, the site has data on health insurance, retirement, and working conditions that offers a comparative of how adjunct faculty is treated at any given institution. Yet, because the database is compiled by optional self-report, when I searched for FSU we currently have no data to work with.

The first step is visibility. Students should be aware of who adjunct professors are and how they contribute to the university. These adjunct professors are part of our campus community and should be treated as the

We live in the age where the principle of representing a community and fairness are no longer useful. It is a game about power and abandoning morals in order to remain in power.

This is a game of power known as gerrymandering. Gerrymandering in laymen’s terms is giving a party an advantage over an opposing party by drawing political boundaries. I have referred to gerrymandering as a game, but I assure you this not to be taken lightly.

The practice is as old as our country, but gets its name from former Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, who in 1812 created a district that looked like a salamander, according to The Atlantic. The fact that this concept has gone on this long is asinine. Yet, when you think about it if your team had the advantage and you were winning, would you want to stop and be fair? The short answer is no, diminishing the voting power of the opposing party’s supporters is the goal and the Republican Party has been winning, especially in North Carolina, which, according to the Washington Post, has three of the of the most gerrymandered districts in the country. In Pennsylvania, there are 12 Republicans in the congressional delegation as opposed to five Democrats, which experts think would be more Democratic with un-gerrymandered districts, according to Politico.

Yes, hating gerrymandering is easy, but how can we fix the problem? Should districts be drawn to be more compact? Should it be more inclusive of underrepresented racial groups?

Both Pennsylvania and North Carolina districts have come under judicial scrutiny in recent months for gerrymandering. The latest court ruling on gerrymandering in Philadelphia was January 9, 2018. According to CBS News, the Pennsylvania court said the boundaries “clearly, plainly and palpably” violate the state’s constitution, and blocked it from remaining in effect for the 2018 elections. The deadline to run in primaries for the seats is March 6. Following the 2010 census, Republicans who controlled the legislature and governor’s office broke decades of geographical precedent when redrawing the map, producing one of the country’s most gerrymandered districts outside Philadelphia, dubbed “Goofy kicking Donald Duck” for its ludicrous shape.

North Carolina like most states tasks the state legislature with congressional and legislative redistricting, a practice which allows those who benefit from the system to control it. On January 18, the Supreme Court blocked a temporary order from a lower court that would require the legislature to redraw districts before the next election cycle, according to the New York Times. The districts were found to favor Republicans. However, two gerrymandering cases from Maryland and Wisconsin are likely to be decided soon by the Supreme Court and may have bearing on North Carolina’s map.

Gerrymandering in all its forms damages our already fragile democracy. While the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts are turning their attention to this unconstitutional partisan practice. You and I can combat gerrymandering by voting for candidates for the General Assembly who support a bipartisan redistricting system.

The right to bear arms has been a fundamental American right since it became the Second Amendment right in 1791. Yet, when another mass shooting takes place the NRA is silent. I, myself, am not against American citizens owning guns, but I am against senseless killings at the hands of White males as statistics have shown. According to Mother Jones, of the 95 mass shootings since 1982, 54% have been committed by White men.

App reports that U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson D-NC, whose district includes Fayetteville, has sponsored the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, which would allow a person who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon in one state to another state. The Las Vegas shooting has spurred debate about gun control and a possible ban on bump-fire stocks. According to the Associated Press report, bump-fire stocks effectively turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic machine guns. Stephen Paddock, the shooter, had some of the accessories in the hotel room where he fired.

I have viewed countless shooting from the view of new programs. Everyone asks the question: What can be done to stop mass shootings?

I’ve found myself recently pondering if I am safer with a gun of my own then living without one. I’ve never shot a personally, I’ve only held a replica of a paintball handgun. Honestly, I felt a since of danger, but power in hand. I wonder, at times, if shootings like the ones that have happen on college campuses across the country are likely to happen on 1200 Murchison Road. Living on Fayetteville State University’s campus I admit I was not told much about gun policies or even the restrictions placed on faculty. Nevertheless, I understand that before I should ever fire a weapon, I need to educate myself in the polices that have been set in place.

The following interview conducted was with the Vice Chancellor of Fayetteville State’s campus police chief, Mr. Renarde Earl.

First, could you explain to me what it is that you do and your name?

I’m Renarde Earl the Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief of Police for Public Safety, basically my job is [to provide] safety and security for the entire university.

How long have you worked here?

I started working here August the first of this year…a little over 3 months.

What kind of training did you have in order to be permitted to fire a weapon?

Well of course I have my degree in Criminal Justice, I’ve been in law enforcement close to 25 years and over 20 of those years I spent serving on a college campus. This is my third college campus. …I’ve had countless supervision, leadership training, prior to this positon I spent 14 and a half years as the Chief of police a psych tech community college in Winston Salem.

What are some of the standard procedures with gun policies here at FSU?

Well of course, guns are not allowed on campus unless you have a state of North Carolina conceal carry permit, but with the concealed carry permit if you bring that weapon on campus it can’t be a rifle or a shotgun. If it is a handgun it has to be locked in a concealed compartment inside a vehicle…a glove compartment, in the trunk of a car. You cannot walk around with it openly.

I read this report, there was a proposal that made it illegal to carry weapons openly in Cumberland County, but it did not become a law because it did not pass unanimously. Why do you think people believe it is there right to carry weapons in public?

Well, people think and believe that they have the right to protect themselves. If I were carry one I wouldn’t want to carry it openly, people will kinda look at you as possibly being a target. …but if you have the gun permit and if you don’t have the concealed handgun permit you have to carry it openly. So the concealed carriers permit allows you to carry it concealed where people don’t see it.

How long would that take then to get the necessary paperwork in order to receive a permit.

Here in North Carolina all of that is handled by your insurers office, you have to apply, they do a background check in regards to certain things so if everything checks out then of course you have to pay certain fees for the concealed carriers permit. I have mine I [received it for around] $90, but if you go and apply for a gun permit I think that’s about $5, but that’s different. The gun permit just allows you to be able to go out let’s say a gun store and purchase a gun. A concealed carriers permit requires various things, you have to be a certain age, you have to do the state mandatory training, you have to go through an extensive background check.

There is a quote from someone who opposed the proposal that I mentioned earlier saying that, “the only way to stop bad people with guns is good people with guns.” How much of that statement do you say is true?

I wouldn’t say I agree with that statement, part of the reason is I’ll give you an example, you and I are at a restaurant, I am a police officer, I’m in uniform, you are a citizen, whether you have your concealed carriers permit or not you have a gun. Let’s say a person over here does something, I don’t know you, but I see you pull out a gun. That can cause some problems, as an officer the only thing I see is a gun, I don’t know you, you could be a good person, but if I see that gun and I see you pointing that gun I don’t know if you’re the good guy or the bad guy. So you run into those types of situation s and like I tell people let the police and law enforcement handle the situation.

Are staff and faculty, professors and janitors, people that work for the school, are they allowed to carry firearms.

No.

Why?

Because it’s against the law.

Are there weapons restricted that even campus police cannot use or carry?

No.

They’re not?

No. We’re police, therefore just like if someone was to come here and let’s say for instances it was a rifle, we carry handguns. Now rifles are gonna [going to] give you a whole lot better of a distance in terms of shooting if you’re trying to hit a particular target. A handgun is only going to go so far and so we have to be able to use whatever weapons, tools, or resources we have to stop a threat, so if that includes us using rifles then we have the authority to do that.

So if I saw someone carrying a weapon here on campus, what would be my first course of action? What would I need to do?

First thing you need to do is contact us, give us a description of the person, clothing description and a direction of travel. Also, we would ask you to describe the weapon…give the best possible description and call 911 or call us here (dial 1911)

Reports about the Las Vegas shooter found the he had “pump/slide stock” which increase the rate of firing speed. I found that citizens could purchase this for around $99. What do you think about that?

I do think that there should be limits in regards to certain that citizens are allowed to purchase as it relates to firearms. But other people think differently, those who are good citizens use certain equipment and firearms to hunt…pretty much nowadays you can go out on the internet and buy anything that you want to buy.

Do you think that there should be limits on how many magazines can be purchased at one time? I’m not sure if there is a limit for citizens.

There is not a limit…but when you intend to harm others yes there should be a limit, but how do you determine who these individuals are? Just like when you go to apply for your concealed carriers permit, they ask you if you’ve ever had any domestic violence, any mental health issues. Now part of the job if you say no is that they have a background check. If you say yes, that could be an automatic disqualifier where you can’t obtain that permit.

Some argue that the minimum age to purchase a fire arm should be 21, do you agree? Why or why not?

I will be honest with you, I think it should be older than 21.

How much older?

I would say myself personally, probably 25, reason being, you should be a little bit more mature and so having a little bit more of life experience so to speak.

What do you say to people that feel taking guns away would decrease mass shootings?

“ I’m kind of neutral on that. First, it would be next to impossible to literally take people’s guns away. However, Australia had a massive gun reform in the 90s, after a dealt mass shooting and after there hasn’t been another one since. Even though there was a mass shooting every couple years prior to that.”