As students flood the summer job market for that fat summer paycheck, UCSB lecturers are wishing they could do the same.

The lecturer’s union is negotiating with the University of California for higher pay for lecturers, who will be required to take on an expanded teaching load under the university’s new summer session plans.

The university is trying to expand its summer school enrollment to allow more students to pass through without increasing the campus population. The two sides met with a negotiator April 27 to discuss employee pay and summer sessions.

The UC is offering pay increases to faculty members teaching summer sessions to bolster the number of faculty members willing to teach summer session classes. Senate, or tenure-track faculty members, will receive an 11-percent per-class raise, while lecturers, who teach the majority of summer school classes, will receive an 8-percent increase.

University officials said they offered the incentive discrepancy because of a greater need for senate faculty to teach the additional quarter.

“It’s a simple issue of fairness,” said George Yatchinsin, president of the University Council of the California Federation of Teachers (CFA). The lecturer’s union is part of the CFA. “Our goal obviously is to protect the lecturers, but our goal is [also] to protect the quality of the education.”

Darren Lee, the chief negotiator from the UC Office of the President, said many of the problems have stemmed from the lack of changes made to the contract the lecturers union has with the UC. Currently, the union is operating without a contract, since the old one expired in June 2000.

“This is the first time in over 15 years that the union has sought to make any significant changes to the contract,” he said. “Lecturers on average make over $51,000 a year, those who work full time, nine months a year.”

Mark Schlenz, a lecturer in the writing dept., said he believes many of the lecturers are disgruntled because they receive less pay for more work, while responsibility for teaching summer sessions will only contribute to their work load.

“When I left Santa Ynez High School in 1987, my salary was roughly $38,000. Now, with a Ph.D. and eight years of service, my UCSB salary is roughly $38,000,” he said. “The fellow who has my old job makes about $55,000.”

Assistant professors who teach four to five classes a year are usually paid close to $53,000 a year. However, Yatchinsin said research impedes assistant professors from teaching more classes.

Since the lecturer’s contract expired, lecturers have failed to receive a general-range pay increase of 2 percent due to inflation. They will not receive this raise until the contract is settled, Lee said.

“It’s not a secret or a surprise that the University wants to make the best use of the money that they can,” said Lee.

Both sides, Lee said, are working to reach an agreement that satisfies everyone.

“We are really pushing to reach an agreement soon so that we can give the raise to the lecturers,” Lee said. “We have offered it; we are just waiting for the union to accept it.”

“We’re trying to find out what our lecturers are willing to do, we are going to have to take a more dramatic approach,” Yatchinsin said. “But we’re going to have to see.”

The lecturers will meet with Lee and the negotiator again on May 25, but neither side has said how much longer the negotiations will continue.

Editor’s Note: In Tuesday’s article “Lecturers Ask for Higher Pay,” the pay for lecturers was incorrectly stated to be an 11-percent increase for tenure-track faculty and an 8-percent increase for lecturers. All faculty receive 8.5 percent of their annual salary to teach summer school. The UC has offered senate faculty 11 percent for the next summer session, while lecturers are still offered 8.5 percent.