From: Christopher Chippendale Adjunct Associate Professor, FA 2-D Massachusetts College of Art
To: Members of the Joint Committee on Public Service, State of Massachusetts
Re: Testimony regarding (SB 1535), extending state group health insurance to part-time faculty employees
Date: 22 September 2005

My name is Christopher Chippendale. I teach part-time as an adjunct Associate Professor at the Massachusetts College of Art. I began teaching at the College directly out of graduate school in 1991. I have taught every semester there, including summers, for fourteen years. I teach primarily in the Day Program through the Painting and Printmaking Department. I also teach through the Continuing Education Division. I am submitting to you my testimony at these hearings principally because of the chronic, precarious situation I face every day with my family because we have no health insurance. I want to thank the members of the Committee for the opportunity to deliver this testimony today.

I began teaching at Mass Art as a Visiting Lecturer, and have since worked my way through two Rank Adjustments to the level of Associate Professor. I do not, however, hold a permanent appointment at the College; I am one of a number of so-called part-time faculty who teach courses vital to the curriculum for less pay and no benefits. Currently, the tally of credit hours from my part-time teaching adds up to nearly ten years of full-time teaching at the College.

Some of these years have been better than others in terms of income and benefits. My employment status at the College has varied. Some years, I have been hired to teach half-time at a pay scale commensurate with my rank, and have received health and retirement benefits. I have been able to supplement that income by picking up a couple of other courses in the Day Program or through Continuing Ed. During all of these years, the life of being a non-permanent teacher has been one of living from semester to semester, year to year, cobbling together enough income to try to make ends meet. The few years when I have had health insurance and benefits have been years when the stressfulness of an already precarious mode of living has been partially alleviated, and a basic security restored. The difficulties of my situation are symptomatic of the difficulties facing all part-time teachers throughout the state. I have been more fortunate than some: I have felt, on occasion, the positive impact and stability that health insurance and retirement benefits can make in my profession. I have also know the other, more precarious and dangerous situation of living without these basic necessities.

I am fifty-three years old. I am married and have three sons. Since the summer of 2003, we have been living without health insurance. This is not the first time that we've been without insurance, but its reality is fresh in my mind. Since that summer of 2003, I have been teaching a lot to make ends meet. In my so-called part-time status, I've been teaching more than full-time professors in our State college system. Last year, we were disqualified from applying to the Free Care program at our community hosptial because my income surpassed the thirty-nine thousand dollar cut-off for a family of five. That same program had helped us through two athletics-related injuries in the past. Now, we also pay full fee, directly out of our pocket, for each our appointments and annual checkups with our primary care physician. Dental care, these past two years, has been out of the question. Eye care (three of us wear glasses) has followed a similar fate. We have three active teenage sons. Fortunately, this year, we have been spared the need for another emergency trip to the hospital.

After fourteen years of teaching, I consider myself a veteran in the classroom, and an integral part of the fabric and culture of the community where I work. I attend all of my Departmental meetings, I help on committees where I can, I participate at Departmental functions as I am able, and I try to sustain the growth of my own work as a visual artist. Part-time teachers, as all teachers, need to be and feel integrated into the programs where they teach. But much is working against them. The chronic precariousness of their situation takes its toll upon morale. The opportunity to receive health insurance and retirement benefits would provide us with much needed tangible assistance, as well as affirm the needful role we play in our college classrooms.

Sincerely,
Christopher Chippendale