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Springfield Technical Community College nursing program graduates (from left) Lynette Trujillo, Malak Elkadri and Margaret Geaney at their commencement at the MassMutual Center in Springfield on May 30, 2024. (Ed Cohen photo)
Edward Cohen
As students across Massachusetts prepare to walk the stage at community college graduations, many will do so thanks to the state’s bold investment in making their studies free. This initiative is a game-changer for access to higher education — but without a parallel investment in the people who make it work, that promise is on unstable ground.
At Springfield Technical Community College, and at the 14 other community colleges across the Commonwealth, faculty and professional staff are facing a crisis of unsustainable workload, low compensation and stagnant support. We are committed to our students. We are proud to teach, advise and guide the next generation of health care workers, engineers, educators and entrepreneurs.
But many of us are burning out — and burning through our own savings — just to stay in these roles.
Faculty in Massachusetts community colleges earn far less than their peers in other states. The average full-time faculty yearly salary is approximately $64,000, while faculty in neighboring states like Vermont and New York start nearly $20,000 higher. And when adjusted for cost of living, we lag behind systems in places like California — even though Massachusetts is now one of the most expensive states to live in.
This is not just a problem of recruitment. It’s a problem of retention, morale and long-term sustainability.
The Massachusetts Community College Council (MCCC), which represents faculty and professional staff at all 15 campuses, has launched a wage equity campaign to address this systemic underpayment.
You may have seen the billboards go up in recent weeks calling on state leaders to invest in the educators who keep our campuses running. But what may not be as visible is the toll this inequity is taking on those of us working every day in classrooms, advising centers, labs and online learning spaces.
Here in Springfield, the challenges are acute. Our faculty and professional staff are being asked to do more with less — more students, more advising, more program development, more administrative tasks — with no corresponding investment in time, pay, or support.
Qualified adjuncts are being turned away from course assignments. Students wait in long lines for advising. Administrative leadership is increasingly absent from campus. And when we raise these concerns, we’re told they’re off the table.
Most recently, at the bargaining table, management has refused to discuss faculty workload — a core issue for our members and a fundamental part of wage equity. Let’s be clear: workload is compensation. When job expectations grow but compensation and support do not, that’s a hidden pay cut. To refuse to even engage on this issue is to ignore the reality we are living.
We’ve also raised these concerns with the STCC Board of Trustees as part of the presidential evaluation process, urging them to include broader campus voices in their review of leadership. So far, that feedback has been excluded.
This is about more than a contract or a spreadsheet. It’s about whether the people responsible for delivering on the promise of free community college are being respected, supported and paid fairly for their work.
We want free community college to succeed. We believe deeply in the mission. But without action on workload and wages, this model isn’t sustainable.
The state has made a major investment in access. Now it must make a parallel investment in quality — and that means supporting the workforce at the heart of every campus. Because if the educators and staff walk away, the promise walks with us.
Renae Gorman is president of the Massachusetts Community College Council chapter at Springfield Technical Community College. The union represents the faculty and professional staff at the state’s 15 community colleges.
