On the first day of my Mathematics 27 class every seat was taken and the wall next to the door was lined with students, all wanting to get into one of the few college algebra classes available. The instructor walked in, opened his roster and said: “If you showed up on the first day and you are on my roster, you are in, even if you’re on the wait list. If you aren’t on the list and you showed up, keep coming. We’ll see if we can’t find a seat for you.”

In every one of my classes it was the same story; instructors took on their load, and then some. Why did they take on so many students? The same reason their paychecks were lighter, the same reason there were such a huge number of students wanting in every class: budget cuts. With less sections to go around, my instructors took it upon themselves to take the only action they could to lessen the students’ burden; let more students into their classes.

Through the Spring semester it was the same story, through the summer break, the same. Here this fall? After a whole year of budget cuts and salary reductions? SRJC instructors are still taking on more students than their contract requires. Why are they doing that? Certainly not because they enjoy being overworked and underpaid. They do it because as they have shown through for a full year of their actions, they give a damn.

If all our instructors wanted was a paycheck, they’d have the minimum number of office hours and allow the minimum number of students into their classes. They would save themselves the pain of grading more essays and tests and answering the same questions over and over in their offices.

So thank you instructors, for squeezing my classmates and I into the last couple of empty seats, not desks, in the corner of your classroom. I am pretty sure all of my classes started off with extra students. Each extra students adds one more test, essay, homework assignment and final to grade. Considering I am in four classes, that is a significant amount of work my instructors have picked up, arguably on their own time, since they aren’t being paid extra for their extra students.

Instructors want their full salaries; students want to qualify for more financial aid, but we all don’t get what we want. We get what we get. Thank you, all SRJC faculty, for doing more with less.