Opinion: Restore LaGuardia College’s crucial English Language Center
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LaGuardia Community College. Photo by Jim.henderson via Wikimedia Commons
By Linda Pelc and Rebecca Vaughn
Located in New York’s most diverse, global borough, The English Language Center at LaGuardia Community College in Queens is a lifeline for immigrants and foreign students who wish to attend college for the first time or seek a higher degree. The program, staffed mostly by long-time adjunct instructors like the two of us, has taught 275,000 students from over 80 countries since its founding in 1971. In a typical year, TELC serves more than two thousand students in courses ranging from basic English to college-level writing.
But now, budget cuts, management choices and the COVID crisis have put TELC at great risk — and put both of us out of work. In fact, more than half the adjunct instructors at TELC were laid off last summer and hours have been cut for those that remain employed. Last year 35 adjuncts taught a total of 70 classes in our program. This Fall, we have only 14 adjuncts teaching a total of 14 classes.
After our many decades of teaching in CUNY and especially in TELC, we find ourselves with a complete loss of income. We can no longer build for retirement, and have lost health insurance in the midst of a pandemic. All of our adjunct colleagues — even the ones still working reduced course hours — have lost their health care coverage.
As adjuncts in CUNY, we have always known that we lacked codified job security, yet, because of the quality of our teaching and commitment, we have been reappointed and served continuously for decades. Having been in the program since its early years, we have volunteered countless hours to its development, creating curricula and courses, hiring committee work, professional development workshops and mentoring new faculty.
When we were laid off in June, despite having received our letters of reappointment, when those classes that did run were assigned to new teachers in another category who are paid less, we were shocked. For us, along with the over 20 other TELC adjuncts, the crisis has meant we have had to quickly learn to teach remotely, and then to quickly find alternative sources of income and health care. We have found that despite our decades of creativity and hard work, we have been callously discarded.
The TELC program has been a beacon to immigrants and foreign students. It is a model of the best there is in Teaching English as a Second Language, in teaching college composition to non-native speakers. The crisis should not be used to permanently shrink the TELC program or replace adjunct faculty.
CUNY will be critical to the City’s recovery from COVID, and TELC will be particularly important in Queens. The immigrant students we have devoted our careers to live in communities hit hard by the pandemic. Some 40% of CUNY students have lost their jobs since March. Those who are still working are likely to be low-wage essential workers. English proficiency developed by working with committed, experienced instructors will mean better employment opportunities for TELC students, greater access to college and a chance at a better life.
LaGuardia Community College, like all of CUNY, is facing real fiscal challenges. The State has withheld hundreds of millions in critically needed funding for CUNY. Enrollment has declined with the temporary shift to online classes. But lawmakers and administrators have choices in how they address the crisis. They do not have to force austerity on working people or discard long-time employees.
Albany can tax the rich — who have grown richer these last awful months — and fund our University. City Hall can make CUNY funding a priority. CUNY Central can use some of the federal stimulus money they’ve been hoarding or new stimulus that may arrive from Washington, to restore adjunct jobs, including ours.
It is the decades-long dedication and contribution of adjunct lecturers like us that has built the reputation of TELC and furthered the education and careers of so many. CUNY cannot leave us and our students hanging like this.
President Adams, our boss, has the power to restore jobs at TELC, a program that has been a revenue raiser for the college. We urge him to demonstrate his commitment to quality English language instruction and the working-class immigrant communities served by TELC and Laguardia Community College.
He can do so by rehiring the more than 20 adjuncts who have been laid off from TELC or by offering signed assurance that TELC adjunct faculty will be reinstated with the necessary hours to restore our health coverage.
Linda Pelc and Rebecca Vaughn are former adjunct professors in The English Language Center at LaGuardia Community College (TELC). Since its creation, TELC has been a key pathway for immigrant students and community members to build their English language skills.
