This regards the meeting today between the Cleveland State Adjuncts Organizing Committee and AAUP today.
I think it was a bit touch and go there at the beginning regarding what we ought to be called. You don't realize just how right some of those crazy french philosophers are until you realize there's no word for you. Are you part timers? No, we work full time. Are we full timers? No, same reason. We're adjuncts. Yes, but some of us are listed as adjuncts, others are instructors, others are lecturers, and still others are departmental lecturers. We settled on adjuncts.
That being decided, it went swimmingly. The faculty are aware of everything we're saying especially as to the threat of adjunctification of the university and its effect on education. They are aware that general education and core classes are being taught increasingly by overworked adjunct faculty, that their new hires are being circumvented by adjunct hiring, that the disparity between pay rates is irrational, and that nothing is going to get solved so long as the university has an exploitable working class.
Basically, they get it. I gave them buttons. They put them on.
So, let's say we had a big day today, because we did. That's my impression of it at any rate. Roger, Russ, and Jim were all there with me so they may have their own impressions of the meeting, but I'm pretty sure they are probably closely aligned with mine. For my own part, I would say that, today, we scored a win.
We are putting together some ideas for them to help us with. Obviously, things like letter writing would be helpful, both for media outlets, for memorandum to the faculty on campus, and to higher up officials. There's also the faculty senate, which they would obviously have access to if we wanted to move some ideas through that. They know about the April 15th rally on campus and seemed pretty interested in that as well.
I don't know what else to say. Confidence is high.
If you're reading this, you are an adjunct, and especially if you are an adjunct at Cleveland State University, follow this link to join our FB group.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
The Day I Helped and It Didn't...
According to two sources I've seen so far (the CCCC review of how adjuncts should get out of their crisis and today's article in the Chron), the answer to the problem of higher ed's reliance on adjunct labor is for the adjuncts to take on more responsibility for their low pay. If we were to do more work, the argument goes, we would receive recognition from our "colleagues" and our condition would improve.
I took them up on this.
The other day, a Ph.D. candidate asked me if I would look at an essay he'd been sending out for publication and give him some feedback.
It was a fine article, but it had no literature review to speak of. Moreover, as the article was right in my wheelhouse, I was able to immediately note the three books he hadn't read and which experts peer reviewers would expect him to have read in order for him to publish in that particular subfield. I made copious notes on the document and gave it back to the guy.
A few points: first, the article had gone out four times without a literature review. Second, it had gone out under supervision. In other words, somebody had advised the guy that the article was ready to go out despite its not having a literature review. Third, the texts that were cited were obscure precisely because they were required reading for a graduate level class that, let me be blunt, must have been behind the times if those were the books assigned.
When I found the student to give back his paper, he was in a meeting with a professor (I think the professor who was guiding him through the paper). I pardoned the interruption, handed the student the paper, and walked off...having become a substantial part of the inner workings of my department, particularly in my volunteering to aid a graduate student. You will admit, becoming a mentor to a graduate student is outside my responsibilities as an adjunct. I took on the extra workload, now for that respect I'd heard so much about!
So, that professor will no longer look me in the face. He walks by me without acknowledging my presence. Do you know why? Because my input on his student in his program is not appreciated. Those are their graduate students, and its a problem when an adjunct walk in and tell them how to succeed where their mentor professors have been unable to offer useful advice. And there I am saying, "this will never get published without a literature review. Why don't you have a literature review?" The professor is just not going to be happy when he learns that the adjunct down the hall is giving better advice to the grad students than he is.
Seriously, no literature review. Sent out and rejected four times.
Having said that, I think that professor is, essentially, right. It's his department, not mine. It's not my place to tell the Ph.D. candidates how it's done. They let the student refer to himself as ABD. He isn't. He's in coursework. But ABD sounds impressive and since no one challenges him, it lets him think he's almost there. I explained to him that he wasn't ABD and he looked at me incredulously. Who am I to expose that--to send him back to his professor saying "but the adjunct says I'm not ABD, why'd you guys let me go around telling people I'm ABD?" I mean they shouldn't, but at the same time, if they do, I'm not helping the situation any. Who am I to critique the reading list of the graduate level class that teaches the student the "cutting edge" of scholarship in that field.
And while I'm on the subject, who am I to explain that the path through the major is counterproductive or that an elective slot is pretty much occupied semester after semester by the same class taught in the same way by the same professor? It's not my department. I'm an adjunct. And if I don't understand that, I will be reminded the second I try to shape departmental policy. I simply don't have a stake in it, and that makes all the difference, not just in what I might be willing to do to help, but also in how that help is going to be received and interpreted.
It is ridiculous to assume that we can just step in and start acting like faculty in our current position. First off, this idea of "becoming involved" makes it seem like those of us who aren't making any money are just not working hard enough. Why, we should be on committees too. Second , it assumes that the opportunity to become vibrant developers of our department's curriculum is available to us, when the reality is, our input is often not only unappreciated, but counterproductive to the department's mission. We are hired to teach our class and to go away. Sticking around to do more won't earn respect. It will make us look either bossy or pathetic.
I would love to have graduate students under my belt. Seriously, I would. I would love to talk to the other people teaching in my discipline and have arguments on why we should be pushing certain authors and theorists over others. But none of that happens when we are not equals. I'm just the guy who thinks that the professor in charge of my field is a decade behind the times. That's not fair. I can't help him. He can't correct me. I can't really help his students. Given the situation as it stands now, it's better, not just for me, but for everyone involved if I just teach my thing and go.
I took them up on this.
The other day, a Ph.D. candidate asked me if I would look at an essay he'd been sending out for publication and give him some feedback.
It was a fine article, but it had no literature review to speak of. Moreover, as the article was right in my wheelhouse, I was able to immediately note the three books he hadn't read and which experts peer reviewers would expect him to have read in order for him to publish in that particular subfield. I made copious notes on the document and gave it back to the guy.
A few points: first, the article had gone out four times without a literature review. Second, it had gone out under supervision. In other words, somebody had advised the guy that the article was ready to go out despite its not having a literature review. Third, the texts that were cited were obscure precisely because they were required reading for a graduate level class that, let me be blunt, must have been behind the times if those were the books assigned.
When I found the student to give back his paper, he was in a meeting with a professor (I think the professor who was guiding him through the paper). I pardoned the interruption, handed the student the paper, and walked off...having become a substantial part of the inner workings of my department, particularly in my volunteering to aid a graduate student. You will admit, becoming a mentor to a graduate student is outside my responsibilities as an adjunct. I took on the extra workload, now for that respect I'd heard so much about!
So, that professor will no longer look me in the face. He walks by me without acknowledging my presence. Do you know why? Because my input on his student in his program is not appreciated. Those are their graduate students, and its a problem when an adjunct walk in and tell them how to succeed where their mentor professors have been unable to offer useful advice. And there I am saying, "this will never get published without a literature review. Why don't you have a literature review?" The professor is just not going to be happy when he learns that the adjunct down the hall is giving better advice to the grad students than he is.
Seriously, no literature review. Sent out and rejected four times.
Having said that, I think that professor is, essentially, right. It's his department, not mine. It's not my place to tell the Ph.D. candidates how it's done. They let the student refer to himself as ABD. He isn't. He's in coursework. But ABD sounds impressive and since no one challenges him, it lets him think he's almost there. I explained to him that he wasn't ABD and he looked at me incredulously. Who am I to expose that--to send him back to his professor saying "but the adjunct says I'm not ABD, why'd you guys let me go around telling people I'm ABD?" I mean they shouldn't, but at the same time, if they do, I'm not helping the situation any. Who am I to critique the reading list of the graduate level class that teaches the student the "cutting edge" of scholarship in that field.
And while I'm on the subject, who am I to explain that the path through the major is counterproductive or that an elective slot is pretty much occupied semester after semester by the same class taught in the same way by the same professor? It's not my department. I'm an adjunct. And if I don't understand that, I will be reminded the second I try to shape departmental policy. I simply don't have a stake in it, and that makes all the difference, not just in what I might be willing to do to help, but also in how that help is going to be received and interpreted.
It is ridiculous to assume that we can just step in and start acting like faculty in our current position. First off, this idea of "becoming involved" makes it seem like those of us who aren't making any money are just not working hard enough. Why, we should be on committees too. Second , it assumes that the opportunity to become vibrant developers of our department's curriculum is available to us, when the reality is, our input is often not only unappreciated, but counterproductive to the department's mission. We are hired to teach our class and to go away. Sticking around to do more won't earn respect. It will make us look either bossy or pathetic.
I would love to have graduate students under my belt. Seriously, I would. I would love to talk to the other people teaching in my discipline and have arguments on why we should be pushing certain authors and theorists over others. But none of that happens when we are not equals. I'm just the guy who thinks that the professor in charge of my field is a decade behind the times. That's not fair. I can't help him. He can't correct me. I can't really help his students. Given the situation as it stands now, it's better, not just for me, but for everyone involved if I just teach my thing and go.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Big Rally on April 15th
One of the things we discussed at SEIU last Tuesday was a big rally which will happen on April 15th. The Cleveland Health Care Workers will be joining with the people who are fighting for $15 an hour, who will be joining with us. We do not do this alone. Many of these people are being told that they deserve their low wages because they didn't go to college. Well...I went to college a whole bunch and I still make about as much as they do! They are coming to CSU to help support our cause, hundreds of people showing up to show their support for you, and we hoping to get as many people there as possible. Every adjunct and every student... that's my goal.
We are starting at Tri-C Metro at 4 PM, and we'll march to CSU at that time. If you can't join us for the beginning, meet us in front of the Student Union around 4:30.
Calling All Stewards
Look, I'm probably not long for this CSU world. That's the reality of the thing. I tell people in my department that I'm organizing adjuncts. I walk out on National Adjunct Walkout Day. I do interviews for anyone willing to listen to me. Right now, someone out there is adding this all up and they are making a decision.
...and here it is. They are attempting to determine if getting rid of me will end the cause. Believe me, if not renewing my contract will eliminate that upstart adjunct thing, then they'll do it. Maybe they'll take some heat from it, but when the president of the university takes a $10 grand plane ride to a city that's about an hour's drive away, media fiascoes don't really seem like they're the deterrent one might hope they would be. If he can eliminate the cause just by replacing me at the end of this semester, he will. He'd be stupid not to.
Now, I'm guessing that you don't want the cause to just up and die. Maybe you're really into it. Maybe you're trying to help organize it. Maybe you just want a raise. Regardless, you don't want to be back at square 1 next year. So, how do we prevent that? Good question. We prevent that by decentralizing the leadership of this thing, and we do that by getting a steward in every department on campus for Cleveland State Adjuncts. Wherever this goes, we need to start acting like a union. Now.
The reality is, if there is simply someone to step up and take my place come next Fall, it ceases to be in their best interest to just get rid of me. Does that person already exist? Maybe. I don't know. I will say though that if there's a steward in every department, the administration loses their ability to single any one person out. We become a hydra with too many heads.
What does this break down to? For this to work, for this to continue, I need people who are willing to be representatives for the Cleveland State Adjuncts in their department. I need you. The stewards will then guide the direction we take in terms of how we make ourselves heard on this campus. The departmental steward is a leadership position; if you want to help guide our movement then you want to be a steward.
Look, we can sit on FB all day talking through ideas and sharing news stories, we can fade away completely like the Occupy Wall Street movement did, or we can get stuff done. I opt for that third option, but I need your help.
Please contact me and let me know that you would like to volunteer to aid our cause as a departmental steward.
...and here it is. They are attempting to determine if getting rid of me will end the cause. Believe me, if not renewing my contract will eliminate that upstart adjunct thing, then they'll do it. Maybe they'll take some heat from it, but when the president of the university takes a $10 grand plane ride to a city that's about an hour's drive away, media fiascoes don't really seem like they're the deterrent one might hope they would be. If he can eliminate the cause just by replacing me at the end of this semester, he will. He'd be stupid not to.
Now, I'm guessing that you don't want the cause to just up and die. Maybe you're really into it. Maybe you're trying to help organize it. Maybe you just want a raise. Regardless, you don't want to be back at square 1 next year. So, how do we prevent that? Good question. We prevent that by decentralizing the leadership of this thing, and we do that by getting a steward in every department on campus for Cleveland State Adjuncts. Wherever this goes, we need to start acting like a union. Now.
The reality is, if there is simply someone to step up and take my place come next Fall, it ceases to be in their best interest to just get rid of me. Does that person already exist? Maybe. I don't know. I will say though that if there's a steward in every department, the administration loses their ability to single any one person out. We become a hydra with too many heads.
What does this break down to? For this to work, for this to continue, I need people who are willing to be representatives for the Cleveland State Adjuncts in their department. I need you. The stewards will then guide the direction we take in terms of how we make ourselves heard on this campus. The departmental steward is a leadership position; if you want to help guide our movement then you want to be a steward.
Look, we can sit on FB all day talking through ideas and sharing news stories, we can fade away completely like the Occupy Wall Street movement did, or we can get stuff done. I opt for that third option, but I need your help.
Please contact me and let me know that you would like to volunteer to aid our cause as a departmental steward.
Friday, March 27, 2015
The Article for the Chron that Didn't Get Printed
This is my article for the Chronicle of Higher Education. It didn't get printed. Does the Chronicle of Higher Ed know that Sweet Briar and fraternity scandels at Penn State aren't really the big issues in education right now? Or are they purposefully ignoring the crisis in the hopes that it will go away?
Either way, it's a problem. We need to speak to faculty. They need to know what we have to say. Please share this any way you can.
...
Either way, it's a problem. We need to speak to faculty. They need to know what we have to say. Please share this any way you can.
...
Did your job search get cancelled? Are you looking across the hall and noticing
a new face in Bob’s old office? I mean,
seriously, Bob. Bob was a top scholar in
his field. A damned giant. He wrote that book. After that book, well, things changed in the
discipline and now, well, now Bob’s gone and there’s some new person there in
his office, and he/she is always wearing the same damned sweater day after
day. You tell your department head and
the rest of full time faculty you call your colleagues, “Hey, shouldn’t we
replace Bob. I mean who’s going to teach
class X.” The other two full timers in
your department agree with you. And your
department head says, “nothing we can do.
They’ve cancelled our search. Not
enough money in the budget right now to hire a new professor.”
And then you do the math.
Bob’s gone, and Tracy. Richard
left two years ago right after Carol, and…
Well, if you look back over the last decade, you realize that your
department has gone from 20 or so full time faculty, down to you four. Amanda retires this year… Will there then be only the three of you?
Well, no because your floor of the tower is still full of
people, right? They just don’t have, you
know permanent positions. They’re just
stop gaps who remain on, year after year, stopping the gap. “They got money to hire these people,” you
try to argue, but it’s no use, because, as your department chair points out,
“these people,” only cost about ten grand a piece as opposed to the $55,000
you’d have to give a new assistant professor.
“We can get 4 or 5 of them for the same money. Don’t worry, we've got people to cover the
classes.”
Classes, by the way, that you barely teach anymore. Sure, you still get to talk to some of the
grad students now and again, but as for the undergraduates in the major, they
move like ghosts through the department.
Their teachers are all of these adjuncts. Hard to even call them mentors, really. No one can be sure if they’ll be around from
semester to semester. At any rate,
they’re not required to take anyone under their wing, and you’d know because
part of this adjunct thing is that you need to check in on them every now and
again, as one of the few remaining full timers, to make sure that the
contingent faculty is all teaching according to the department’s vision. Those meetings are weird. Everyone there has at least a decade’s worth
of teaching experience, and there you are, trying to explain to them the
importance of having the students all write at least 20 pages worth of essays
for the classes. Everyone there’s aware
that it’s all for show, including yourself, but then you get release time for
it. At least that’s something,
“But if these adjuncts are always this affordable, when are
we ever going to get a new hire? When’s
the President ever going to think it’s a good idea to invest in the department
like that? Eventually, the only people
teaching will be the adjuncts. The rest
of us will be too bogged down in committee work to have any say in the shape of
our own department. ”
Amanda consoles you.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re
retiring soon. That’ll free up about
$85,000.” Eight more adjuncts, all of
them working at three institutions apiece.
A whole department full of “professors” who don’t belong to the
department, who don’t go the extra mile because there’s no chance they’ll ever
be promoted, and who don’t take students under their wing because they have no
incentive. You’ve got a whole department
of professors who don’t shape curriculum, who don’t have time to do anything but
show up and teach, and who don’t think of your department as their home. You will be replaced by 8 of them.
“Look, this meeting isn’t about replacing Amanda. We got the call from the Dean. In 5 years, they want to transition us into
one department for all of the Humanities.
Our department is going to be absorbed.
We’re going to be a specialty within that system. This will allow us to pool resources with the
other specialties.”
“What?”
“They say we don’t have enough faculty to stand as our own
independent department. All of the
specialties within the humanities are feeling the pinch right now.”
“But we’d have more faculty if they’d let us hire
replacements for all the people we’ve lost!”
“Yeah, but everyone wants new faculty. They just can’t afford it right now.”
The halls are filled with adjuncts. The department won’t even trust them with the
key to the copy room. They have to get
it from the secretary. Six of them to an
office and the office is filled with some retired professors books. Faculty member after faculty member
leaving. No one ever replaced because
they can get 8 adjuncts for each retiree.
The grad students who are yours: where do they think they’re going to
end up? The students you encourage in
their scholarship. The guy in Bob’s old
office who always wears the same sweater.
“So, we’re being downsized and we’re not getting a new hire
is what you’re saying.”
“Well, technically we are getting a new hire since we’ll be
part of the Humanities. They’re letting
modern languages do a search for a position in Chinese language and
literature.”
“Chinese.”
“Yeah, well the business department’s really pushing for
their students to learn Chinese, so…”
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Coming soon...
These are the big things that are happening:
First off, we the adjuncts at Cleveland State University will be meeting 3/24 (6 pm) at at the SEIU HQ at 1771 E 30th St.
Second, The New Faculty Majority and the Ohio Part Time Faculty Assocation are hosting a seminar on navigating Unemployment March 21st, 11:00-12:30, at the North Shore Federation of Labor, 3250 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.
On the 31st, at 12:00, I (and whoever wants in on this, please!) will be meeting with the AAUP to discuss... I don't know, but they sought me out so I think it will be good.
The Vindicator is recording interviews with me (2, I think). They've already done 1. So... I don't know. Face for radio... Just saying.
Finally, I have been informed that our own dear Connie Adjunct has sent her rebuttal to the Plain Dealer, so keep a look out for that.
Finally, they cannot win, we are mighty, keep the faith, and if nothing else, some guy with your email is willing to risk his job to help you get a fair wage. Come meet me on Tuesday.
First off, we the adjuncts at Cleveland State University will be meeting 3/24 (6 pm) at at the SEIU HQ at 1771 E 30th St.
Second, The New Faculty Majority and the Ohio Part Time Faculty Assocation are hosting a seminar on navigating Unemployment March 21st, 11:00-12:30, at the North Shore Federation of Labor, 3250 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.
On the 31st, at 12:00, I (and whoever wants in on this, please!) will be meeting with the AAUP to discuss... I don't know, but they sought me out so I think it will be good.
The Vindicator is recording interviews with me (2, I think). They've already done 1. So... I don't know. Face for radio... Just saying.
Finally, I have been informed that our own dear Connie Adjunct has sent her rebuttal to the Plain Dealer, so keep a look out for that.
Finally, they cannot win, we are mighty, keep the faith, and if nothing else, some guy with your email is willing to risk his job to help you get a fair wage. Come meet me on Tuesday.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
My letter to the President
Dear President Obama,
I am
writing you this letter though it might, easily, cost me my job. I say this because I am an adjunct professor
at Cleveland State University. Recently,
as I was reading the Facebook posts of my fellow adjuncts circulating after
February 25th (National Adjunct Walkout Day), I happened upon a
fellow adjunct professor who wondered whether you knew about adjunct professors
and our plight. I didn’t know. That’s why I’m writing you this letter.
Let me
begin by saying that my name is Dr. Brian Johnson. I have a doctorate in English from the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where I graduated five years ago. I have a $140,000 in student debt, two
children, and I make $14,000 a year.
While I’m on the subject of presenting important statistics, I belong to
a class of professors who generally make less than $15,000 a year and who make
up 75% of this nation’s teaching force in higher education. I will say that again, because it’s
important, 75% of college teachers make less than $15,000 a year.
At one
time, the adjunct work force was much smaller, and was made up almost entirely
of professionals who wanted to earn a little extra money on the side, but now
American colleges, all of them, are replacing retired faculty with adjuncts in
order to save money. The job I trained
to do for 9 years of my life, after graduating from college, has been replaced
by a low-paying doppelganger which requires the same amount of work, but pays
20% as much. Most of the rejection
letters I receive from tenure track job searches list between 300 and 800
candidates for the job: 300-800 people
with Ph.D.s in 20th Century American literature, and every year, the
universities around the country graduate more doomed souls into this dried up
labor pool.
Moreover,
my job has no security. Last year, I was
let go from Case Western Reserve University.
Nobody told me why. They didn’t
have to. The rumor is that it was
because I had to watch my children, and couldn’t, therefore, go to
non-mandatory meetings on Friday afternoons.
The rumor is that my contract was not renewed because I have children. I could sue for discrimination if I were
working in any other field, but because I am an adjunct, I don’t have those
basic rights despite the fact that I am a citizen of this country.
On the
25th of February, I walked off my job for a day with my fellow
adjuncts around the country to protest my treatment. My department seems to support me. Even my dean seems supportive, but let me be
blunt, my contract here will not be renewed.
I know this. I will be let
go. I won’t be told why. I won’t have a recourse against this
injustice. My only consolation is that I
will be let go from a job where I make less than minimum wage for my efforts.
The
result of the adjunctification of higher education is frightening. Adjuncts are working 250% of full loads at
multiple institutions just to make ends meet.
How much time can they honestly give to a single student when they’re
teaching 150 or more students a semester?
Fewer and fewer full time professors exist in departments and most of
those that remain are pulled into low level administrative positions over the
adjuncts. The adjuncts are removing
scholarly rigor from their class because they haven’t the time to do things
like grade essays or even to check in with students on whether or not they’re
reading. I will repeat, because of the
overworking of adjuncts, reading the course material has become optional in
many college campuses. The American
Education System, at its top, is toppling.
I cannot imagine what would happen if the 75% just decided one day,
rightly, that they could make more money working the counter at a fast food
restaurant.
What is
happening in this country is sickening, but it isn’t criminal. I have no legal recourse against whatever the
university does to me. I, an American
citizen with an advanced degree and an avalanche of student debt, am treated
like a second-class citizen. I have no
legal recourse for discrimination at my workplace. I cannot complain if I am let go without
explanation. I cannot even organize to
improve my situation. My only hope is to
either leave the job I love and for which I feel called into service, or to
change the system.
Mr.
President, I know that you are concerned with situations like mine. I also know that the adjunct problem remains
quiet because of a very real fear of reprisals, and so I know that this may be
the first time you’ve really heard the scope of the threat now facing American
colleges and universities. I ask you, in
the name of 75% of the higher education workforce, help us, please!
Thank you for your time and for your support,
Dr. Brian Johnson, an adjunct at Cleveland State University
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Things we can do, part 4 (New Hire)
It is my opinion that the only thing that the full timers are really going to get up in arms about is the problem that, because of the availability of adjuncts, their departments never get new hires to replace the people who retire.
Departments want new hires. Aside from the obvious advantages of having extra people around to do committee work, most disciplines also need a shot in the arm of new ideas from out there in the field. If they hope to be cutting edge, they need to bring in people who are on the cutting edge. Hiring adjuncts doesn't really fit the bill since we aren't winning any laurels for the department. If we were to write the top book in our field, we wouldn't stick around being adjuncts; we'd go somewhere else and become faculty.
Some faculty are sort of angry about this situation, and many, if the comments in The Chronicle of Higher Ed can be believed, blame the adjuncts for the low pay they're willing to take. It's screwed up logic, but even the worst of its espousers understands that, so long as the price for labor is pushed down, no one's going to foot the bill to bring on a new Assistant Professor.
This is an attitude we can exploit. Now, I know, some of you don't like the conversation when it turns to tenure, tenure track, etc., but the reality is, you are shoulder-to-shoulder with people for whom tenure track jobs ARE the goal. But until adjuncts get paid more, that goal cannot be achieved.
So, what I'm saying is that we are all in this together: the people with master's degrees who want more pay, the people with Ph.D.s who want a tenure track job, and the Tenure Trackers who want new hires and can't get them until the adjuncts get paid more money.
Because, when the price of an assistant professor new hire is $55,000 and the price of an adjunct who teaches that same number of classes is $14,000, the administration would be fools not to go the adjunct route. But, if the price of the adjunct was $45,000, it would become cost effective sometimes to hire on the TT faculty member.
In other words, the full professors should want you to get $45,000 a year so long as they know and believe this argument (which is, I think, a pretty good argument). They will support your efforts if they think, in the end, they will start getting the new hires to replace the members of their bare bones departments they have lost over the years.
National conversation time: this needs to be up on the Chronicle of Higher Ed. It needs to be shouted from the rooftops to any professional organization that defines your discipline (mine are MLA, CCC, and ASA). It needs to be at your ready for whenever you talk to full time faculty about the adjunct situation. Every faculty member should know why they should support you...besides, you know, human decency (which cannot, sadly, always be counted on).
Most of all, it needs to be in writing and published in every professional journal we can get into.
Departments want new hires. Aside from the obvious advantages of having extra people around to do committee work, most disciplines also need a shot in the arm of new ideas from out there in the field. If they hope to be cutting edge, they need to bring in people who are on the cutting edge. Hiring adjuncts doesn't really fit the bill since we aren't winning any laurels for the department. If we were to write the top book in our field, we wouldn't stick around being adjuncts; we'd go somewhere else and become faculty.
Some faculty are sort of angry about this situation, and many, if the comments in The Chronicle of Higher Ed can be believed, blame the adjuncts for the low pay they're willing to take. It's screwed up logic, but even the worst of its espousers understands that, so long as the price for labor is pushed down, no one's going to foot the bill to bring on a new Assistant Professor.
This is an attitude we can exploit. Now, I know, some of you don't like the conversation when it turns to tenure, tenure track, etc., but the reality is, you are shoulder-to-shoulder with people for whom tenure track jobs ARE the goal. But until adjuncts get paid more, that goal cannot be achieved.
So, what I'm saying is that we are all in this together: the people with master's degrees who want more pay, the people with Ph.D.s who want a tenure track job, and the Tenure Trackers who want new hires and can't get them until the adjuncts get paid more money.
Because, when the price of an assistant professor new hire is $55,000 and the price of an adjunct who teaches that same number of classes is $14,000, the administration would be fools not to go the adjunct route. But, if the price of the adjunct was $45,000, it would become cost effective sometimes to hire on the TT faculty member.
In other words, the full professors should want you to get $45,000 a year so long as they know and believe this argument (which is, I think, a pretty good argument). They will support your efforts if they think, in the end, they will start getting the new hires to replace the members of their bare bones departments they have lost over the years.
National conversation time: this needs to be up on the Chronicle of Higher Ed. It needs to be shouted from the rooftops to any professional organization that defines your discipline (mine are MLA, CCC, and ASA). It needs to be at your ready for whenever you talk to full time faculty about the adjunct situation. Every faculty member should know why they should support you...besides, you know, human decency (which cannot, sadly, always be counted on).
Most of all, it needs to be in writing and published in every professional journal we can get into.
Things We Can Do, part 3 (Contact the Teacher's Union)
Look, right now, I have 6 high schoolers in my classes. Six. Are they gifted? Are they prodigies or something? No. I'm not even sure they're all Seniors, and my guess is that they aren't.
Quick question: what do you think high school English teachers think about losing classes to a college professor. What do you think they think about their job markets getting smaller and smaller? I'm guessing that they wouldn't be too happy about it. Do they know the extent of it? Do they know, for instance, that the state's trying to get 7th-12th taught by college professors.
https://www.ohiohighered.org/content/college_credit_plus_resources_administrators
Do they know that the state is pushing for this because the college professors in question are adjuncts and are making 10k a year on average?
I'm guessing not. Something tells me though, that if their union was told about this, a pretty big stink might be made regarding the way the state is attempting to adjunctify primary education.
I'm calling a friend of mine tonight to see if he can help me determine who we should contact, but if any of you already know, or if anyone already has people who are at work in that union, I suggest you start making those phone calls. This smells like press coverage to me. In fact, if Ohio were accused of short changing it's students 7-12, it might easily become a national conversation.
Quick question: what do you think high school English teachers think about losing classes to a college professor. What do you think they think about their job markets getting smaller and smaller? I'm guessing that they wouldn't be too happy about it. Do they know the extent of it? Do they know, for instance, that the state's trying to get 7th-12th taught by college professors.
https://www.ohiohighered.org/content/college_credit_plus_resources_administrators
Do they know that the state is pushing for this because the college professors in question are adjuncts and are making 10k a year on average?
I'm guessing not. Something tells me though, that if their union was told about this, a pretty big stink might be made regarding the way the state is attempting to adjunctify primary education.
I'm calling a friend of mine tonight to see if he can help me determine who we should contact, but if any of you already know, or if anyone already has people who are at work in that union, I suggest you start making those phone calls. This smells like press coverage to me. In fact, if Ohio were accused of short changing it's students 7-12, it might easily become a national conversation.
Things we can do, part 2 (ACLU)
When my 3 years at Case Western Reserve were up, I was up for 3 more. I had to interview for my job, but to anyone you asked, it was all just a formality. Well....I didn't get the job again. What's more, they didn't tell me why.
I received an email explaining that my contract was being allowed to just run out and that if I had any questions, I could meet with the chair of my department. I declined to do so as I pretty much knew why I wasn't being re-upped. I have kids, and because I had to be at home when they got off the bus, I couldn't attend the writer's workshop group on Fridays (non-mandatory). The woman who was running the group was responsible for making decisions about whether or not I would be re-upped at Case. She was/is an adjunct and she knew that if people didn't go to her non-mandatory meeting, it would endanger her job and so...
This got me thinking though. How many adjuncts are let go because, like me, they have kids? How many are let go because they're gay or because they're women or because they're over 40? How many are let go because they are members of a minority? How many because they become pregnant or because they have a sick kid or because they have to take some emergency time off to care for a dying parent. Answer: none. No one's let go. Our contracts just don't get re-upped. And so we can't sue for wrongful termination or discrimination.
Ahem...that's ridiculous. We are Americans. We are guaranteed certain rights. Maybe one of us can't get the court case going, but what are the chances that the ACLU wouldn't want to pick up a major civil rights case for an entire industry of people who lose their jobs and whose bosses aren't under any obligation to tell them why.
If this describes you, or has EVER described you, you need to be telling the ACLU right now. Moreover, this is why we need to be part of the national Adjunct conversation, because the number of adjuncts at CSU who have been discriminated against during their careers may seem like quite a few, but I'm guessing that, nation wide, it is an epidemic of civil rights violations.
Here's the link.
https://www.aclu.org/contact-us
I received an email explaining that my contract was being allowed to just run out and that if I had any questions, I could meet with the chair of my department. I declined to do so as I pretty much knew why I wasn't being re-upped. I have kids, and because I had to be at home when they got off the bus, I couldn't attend the writer's workshop group on Fridays (non-mandatory). The woman who was running the group was responsible for making decisions about whether or not I would be re-upped at Case. She was/is an adjunct and she knew that if people didn't go to her non-mandatory meeting, it would endanger her job and so...
This got me thinking though. How many adjuncts are let go because, like me, they have kids? How many are let go because they're gay or because they're women or because they're over 40? How many are let go because they are members of a minority? How many because they become pregnant or because they have a sick kid or because they have to take some emergency time off to care for a dying parent. Answer: none. No one's let go. Our contracts just don't get re-upped. And so we can't sue for wrongful termination or discrimination.
Ahem...that's ridiculous. We are Americans. We are guaranteed certain rights. Maybe one of us can't get the court case going, but what are the chances that the ACLU wouldn't want to pick up a major civil rights case for an entire industry of people who lose their jobs and whose bosses aren't under any obligation to tell them why.
If this describes you, or has EVER described you, you need to be telling the ACLU right now. Moreover, this is why we need to be part of the national Adjunct conversation, because the number of adjuncts at CSU who have been discriminated against during their careers may seem like quite a few, but I'm guessing that, nation wide, it is an epidemic of civil rights violations.
Here's the link.
https://www.aclu.org/contact-us
Things we can do, part 1 (overview)
Don't get me wrong. I think we did a great job on adjunct walkout day. We should all pat ourselves on our backs for what we managed. We got the administration's attention, and given that the AAUP wants to set up a meeting with us, I think we also got the attention of the faculty.
But we aren't done by a long shot. So, here is what I think needs to happen now.
Generally speaking, I think we need to make noise on five separate fronts, all of which are equal in importance.
First, we need to meet in the real world. Second, we need to start making inroads with student groups. Third, we need to start forging alliances, wherever possible, between ourselves and the full timers. Fourth, we need to join the national conversation going on between adjuncts. Fifth, we need to generate a national conversation politically around the cause.
While all of this is going on, someone needs to enumerate the problems that we face as adjuncts. Somebody pointed out, for instance, that we are given the shrift when it comes to gaining permission for research. Clearly, also, parking is a problem. Clearly, also, semester long contracts are a problem. Clearly, office space in an asbestos laden half-abandoned building is a problem. I would add that we have no options when CSU stays open and our children's school closes. I would also add that we have no ability to file as independent contractors, that we often start work without contracts, that our contracts can be let go without much explanation, etc. See what I'm doing there? I need help from people in doing that.
Having said all of this, I'm proposing that the next few blog posts address things that can be done on our end to keep this fight going.
But we aren't done by a long shot. So, here is what I think needs to happen now.
Generally speaking, I think we need to make noise on five separate fronts, all of which are equal in importance.
First, we need to meet in the real world. Second, we need to start making inroads with student groups. Third, we need to start forging alliances, wherever possible, between ourselves and the full timers. Fourth, we need to join the national conversation going on between adjuncts. Fifth, we need to generate a national conversation politically around the cause.
While all of this is going on, someone needs to enumerate the problems that we face as adjuncts. Somebody pointed out, for instance, that we are given the shrift when it comes to gaining permission for research. Clearly, also, parking is a problem. Clearly, also, semester long contracts are a problem. Clearly, office space in an asbestos laden half-abandoned building is a problem. I would add that we have no options when CSU stays open and our children's school closes. I would also add that we have no ability to file as independent contractors, that we often start work without contracts, that our contracts can be let go without much explanation, etc. See what I'm doing there? I need help from people in doing that.
Having said all of this, I'm proposing that the next few blog posts address things that can be done on our end to keep this fight going.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Sharing: An Adjunct's Reading/Viewing List
This comes from Maria Maisto Lynch under the heading of an Adjunct's Reading/Viewing List, which I will peruse after grading the 40 essays I have waiting for me over on Blackboard.
http://optfa.com/resources/an-adjuncts-readingviewing-list/
http://optfa.com/resources/an-adjuncts-readingviewing-list/
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
What's Changed
One of the things I keep getting asked is what's changed in the world of academia such that the whole adjunct thing is now a problem. I think there are a few answers to that. Remembering that I'm no expert on the subject; I've just been an adjunct for 15 years, here are some thoughts.
It seems to me that the adjunct problem is getting attention now because it has recently become customary for people to try to make a career of adjuncting. I'm sure people have done that before, but not in these kinds of numbers. Basically, people are trying to make careers as college professors without actually going through the process of getting hired as college professors. We assume that a professor teaches a 3/3 courseload and makes $60,000. Therefore, we should make something like that kind of money for working the 3/3 courseload as well.
Clearly, the university doesn't (at present) feel the same way. Let's be fair about this. We are trying to slide into the position under the radar. We are not applying for the tenure track. We're not going to the national convention. Many of us are not doing what is needed to get the tenure track (going to conferences, becoming officers in professional organizations, publishing, etc.).
In fact, the only thing we're doing is the job...which is the job of a tenure track professor and that's obvious to everyone, including the tenure track professors. This is complicated, of course, by the fact that in the job market the trend has been going towards more education for the job, rather than less (nurses at one time, for instance, needed only a certificate; now the bachelor's degree is an absolute necessity and a master's degree couldn't hurt). So, for people with M.A.s or...heaven forbid, life experience to suggest that they can teach a class that would have, twenty years ago, been taught by a Ph.D. goes against the trend.
But, here's the thing (s). I think one reason that we are seeing the adjunct problem come to the forefront is because the professor job market (and by this I mean all the people who are trying to get professorial jobs) has utterly dried up. The problem is this. Professors, not wanting to teach low level classes, are creating graduate programs that train people to be professors so that those people will teach those classes, but they train so many that there just ends up being a surplus of people in the professorial job market. Where does this surplus go? They become adjuncts of course. And then the university hires them instead of tenure track professors.
The result, as I see it, is a sizable group of people who have entered the adjunct market with Ph.D.s. Now, that's not necessarily better or worse than any other kind of adjunct except that a Ph.D. was going for a tenure track position, not for an adjunct position. They aren't just upset about the pay...they're also upset that they were promised a job, which all but doesn't exist anymore. They're going to be pissed and they're going to want some damn answers. This is me.
Speaking of the tenure track position going the way of the dinosaur...the result has been that more and more classes are being taught by the adjuncts. This seems obvious to you, of course, if you're an adjunct, but most people who ask, "why now?" don't really know that departments are being run by four or five full time professors and an army of part-timers. Obviously, when we see that we are the university, it's just the way of the thing that we're going to wonder why we're the worst treated of the university's employees. Our population now demands that we take action...or if you prefer, we now have critical mass.
Another thing that I think really factors into this is that, because of Obamacare, the university doesn't want any of us to be full time. Thus, we have to cut our time between universities. This creates the 'road scholar' problem, where we, essentially, work two or three universities just to make ends meet. This is an obvious catalyst for anyone who finds, suddenly, that, between parking passes, time on the road, and gas prices, their check and free time has dwindled away to nothing.
Finally, I think you have to factor the internet into this equation. It simply wouldn't have been possible for adjuncts to get together and deal with all this without a Facebook page or without mass emails. Do you have any idea how many adjuncts are on our side? Neither do I. But here's the thing: neither does the university. You march 700 people in front of them and they know...700. Either they're impressed or they aren't. But right now, we have X number of people. X could mean 20. It could mean 650. They don't know how to deal with that so it forces them to take us seriously even though we didn't have the giant picket carrying march.
It seems to me that the adjunct problem is getting attention now because it has recently become customary for people to try to make a career of adjuncting. I'm sure people have done that before, but not in these kinds of numbers. Basically, people are trying to make careers as college professors without actually going through the process of getting hired as college professors. We assume that a professor teaches a 3/3 courseload and makes $60,000. Therefore, we should make something like that kind of money for working the 3/3 courseload as well.
Clearly, the university doesn't (at present) feel the same way. Let's be fair about this. We are trying to slide into the position under the radar. We are not applying for the tenure track. We're not going to the national convention. Many of us are not doing what is needed to get the tenure track (going to conferences, becoming officers in professional organizations, publishing, etc.).
In fact, the only thing we're doing is the job...which is the job of a tenure track professor and that's obvious to everyone, including the tenure track professors. This is complicated, of course, by the fact that in the job market the trend has been going towards more education for the job, rather than less (nurses at one time, for instance, needed only a certificate; now the bachelor's degree is an absolute necessity and a master's degree couldn't hurt). So, for people with M.A.s or...heaven forbid, life experience to suggest that they can teach a class that would have, twenty years ago, been taught by a Ph.D. goes against the trend.
But, here's the thing (s). I think one reason that we are seeing the adjunct problem come to the forefront is because the professor job market (and by this I mean all the people who are trying to get professorial jobs) has utterly dried up. The problem is this. Professors, not wanting to teach low level classes, are creating graduate programs that train people to be professors so that those people will teach those classes, but they train so many that there just ends up being a surplus of people in the professorial job market. Where does this surplus go? They become adjuncts of course. And then the university hires them instead of tenure track professors.
The result, as I see it, is a sizable group of people who have entered the adjunct market with Ph.D.s. Now, that's not necessarily better or worse than any other kind of adjunct except that a Ph.D. was going for a tenure track position, not for an adjunct position. They aren't just upset about the pay...they're also upset that they were promised a job, which all but doesn't exist anymore. They're going to be pissed and they're going to want some damn answers. This is me.
Speaking of the tenure track position going the way of the dinosaur...the result has been that more and more classes are being taught by the adjuncts. This seems obvious to you, of course, if you're an adjunct, but most people who ask, "why now?" don't really know that departments are being run by four or five full time professors and an army of part-timers. Obviously, when we see that we are the university, it's just the way of the thing that we're going to wonder why we're the worst treated of the university's employees. Our population now demands that we take action...or if you prefer, we now have critical mass.
Another thing that I think really factors into this is that, because of Obamacare, the university doesn't want any of us to be full time. Thus, we have to cut our time between universities. This creates the 'road scholar' problem, where we, essentially, work two or three universities just to make ends meet. This is an obvious catalyst for anyone who finds, suddenly, that, between parking passes, time on the road, and gas prices, their check and free time has dwindled away to nothing.
Finally, I think you have to factor the internet into this equation. It simply wouldn't have been possible for adjuncts to get together and deal with all this without a Facebook page or without mass emails. Do you have any idea how many adjuncts are on our side? Neither do I. But here's the thing: neither does the university. You march 700 people in front of them and they know...700. Either they're impressed or they aren't. But right now, we have X number of people. X could mean 20. It could mean 650. They don't know how to deal with that so it forces them to take us seriously even though we didn't have the giant picket carrying march.
Monday, March 2, 2015
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