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.

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.

...

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…”

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.

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 25^th (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 20^th 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 25^th 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

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.

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.