Contingent Professors Marty Achatz and Shirley Brozzo have a combined teaching history at NMU of over 50 years. They have held down full-time jobs, raised families, been involved in the community and also taught many courses at NMU.
Achatz and Brozzo are part-time contingent faculty members who teach less than 12 credits each semester. However, the combined credit hours generated by contingent faculty makes up nearly 9.4 percent of the FTETF at NMU. “If you weren’t really dedicated to teaching, I don’t think you would stay a contingent. Because most contingents I know have second jobs, sometimes third jobs. So, it takes a person who is really willing to juggle their lives and different jobs to be able to teach,” says Achatz, who teaches a variety of courses in the Department of English.
When he’s not in the classroom, Professor Achatz works as a Patient Service Representative for Upper Michigan Cardiovascular Associates. When interviewing for his position with UMCA, he asked if they could accommodate his teaching schedule as a condition of employment, and they did. “The job that I have in cardiology pays for my health insurance and everything, but something that really feeds my soul and my passion is what I do over at the university,” said Achatz.
Brozzo has a full-time job as the Associate Director of the Multicultural Education and Resource Center at NMU but still enjoys extending her day into the classroom. “It’s a great way to connect with the students. You’re right there in front of them, you get to hear what’s happening on campus that you don’t always hear by sitting in the office. Also, it’s important for me to teach back about my culture,” says the Contingent Professor in the Center for Native American Studies.
Contingent faculty joined the NMU-AAUP in 2012. Since then, the union has negotiated an agreement to create a seniority system for contingents. Also, contingent pay per credit hour at NMU exceeds the national average. The NMU-AAUP’s Executive Committee also supported an effort to establish an award recognizing the contributions of part-time faculty at Northern, and Provost Kerri Schuiling instituted the award in fall of 2017. In December of that year, Professor Achatz became the first winner of the Excellence in Part-time Teaching Award. “Because there were so many highly qualified people that I knew had applied for it, I was sort of flabbergasted when I found out that I had won because I know so many of the contingents, and they just work so hard, so the fact that they chose me was kind of humbling,” said Achatz.
This past year, Brozzo became the second winner of the Excellence in Part-time Teaching Award with a little help from Marty. “I was so excited, it is a great honor, and Marty helped me out with my application because he was the first one who went through it.” For Brozzo, the award is also symbolic of the progress part-time faculty have made at NMU. “A lot of people have been instrumental in ensuring that we became part of the union. Making sure we have access to as many things as we can, but there’s still a long way to go. There’s still very much a dichotomy between the full-timers and the part-timers and the us and them that shouldn’t be there. It should be faculty as faculty whether you’re teaching four credits or twelve credits per semester,” says Brozzo.
Achatz says he would still welcome a chance to join the faculty full-time. “I would love to do that, to be able to do something you are really passionate about full-time and get paid for it. I think most contingents would say off-the-record they would almost do it for free because they love it so much, but of course that’s not financially possible. After 23 years, I still do have that desire, I would love to see it happen, but I love being committed to the community and being invested here. It would be wonderful if that would happen but so far it hasn’t,” said Achatz.
Part of Marty’s involvement in the community has been his work as Poet Laurette of the Upper Peninsula. He has done poetry workshops with public school students all across the U.P. He has also used this position as a means of helping others. “One of the biggest benefits for being Poet Laurette is that I get to organize charitable events for causes that are near and dear to my heart. When they had the Father’s Day flood up in the Keweenaw, I organized a reading, and we raised close to $500 dollars, and I’ve done a lot of readings for Room at the Inn and the Warming Center here in Marquette.”
As if working a full-time job and teaching isn’t enough, Achatz serves as an organist for Mitchell United Methodist in Negaunee and St. John the Evangelist in Ishpeming. “I like to say with the organist stuff, I’m basically working almost seven days a week because the church services are Saturday night and Sunday morning,” said Achatz.
Marty says he owes his musical training to his mom. “When I was a kid, my mom realized that I had ADHD, so she decided I needed something to focus on, and she decided that piano was the thing that I should do, and it actually did the trick. I went from a kid bouncing off of the walls to pounding on the piano for three to four hours each day.” Marty took 12 years of lessons, but does not consider himself a gifted musician but a hard-working musician. This work ethic has clearly carried over into his professional life.
Like Achatz, Brozzo is also an avid writer, and has had more than 40 short stories, poems, essays, and academic papers published both nationally and internationally. She does differ from her contingent colleague in that teaching full-time is not a career goal. “I’ve tossed around the idea, but I really enjoy what I’m doing here, and I do have the advantage of being on campus all day. I jokingly tell my students, that I have the best office hours of anybody because I’m here from 8-5 every day,” said Brozzo.
An Ironwood native, Brozzo has been part of the CNAS program since its inception, and her love for teaching is still evident in her smile as she looks back on her career at NMU. “I’ve been involved with it since I got here in 1990. Once I had graduated, there was an opening, one of the professors was ill for a summer semester, and I got to fill in, and I’ve been teaching ever since, I just love it.”