Monthly Archives: February 2014

Fixing the Higher-Education Adjunct Crisis Lies in Truth-telling: Slate Opinion

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Fixing the higher-education adjunct crisis lies in truth-telling

By Rebecca Schuman

“Adjunct jobs aren’t nice, and many of us feel, in all frankness, that we have little to lose. But sympathy for the adjunct’s plight is limited. (Read any comments section, ever, on any article with the word “adjunct” in it.) We chose, after all, to devote our lives to something so stupid and useless. Supply and demand. Find another job. Bootstraps. I get it.

But here’s what they don’t get: It’s not that adjuncts deserve better. It’s that students deserve better than adjuncts. And the people who decide which colleges are the “best” should be telling you this, but they’re not. That’s why I’m calling on U.S. News, the leading college ranking service in the country, to track the percentage of classes taught by adjuncts in their rankings – and penalize schools that use too many.”

The Wal-Mart-ization of higher education: How young professors are getting screwed

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More and more faculty at America’s colleges and universities are underpaid and undervalued. Can that change?

Reblogged from: Solon.com

by Keith Hoeller.

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/16/the_wal_mart_ization_of_higher_education_how_young_professors_are_getting_screwed/

“Tenure is becoming extinct and nearly every week somebody publishes a story asking “Is College Worth It?” Still feeling the effects of the 2007–2009 recession, the answer appears increasingly to be “No!” It certainly isn’t worth it for the millions of students who forgo income and incur student debt to obtain a graduate degree in the humanities, only to find that there are no tenure-track jobs, and that their only options are one-year appointments or a lifetime of part-time teaching in the academic ghetto.”

Excerpted from “Equality for Contingent Faculty: Overcoming the Two-Tier System,” edited by Keith Hoeller. Copyright © 2014 Reprinted by arrangement with Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

Anthem: “Equal Pay for Equal Work Now”

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This Colorado legislation could be the model for the whole country.

Faculty at the community colleges have been enjoying this video that succinctly articulates the injustice of the two-tiered system that HB14-1154 will remedy. Thanks to the talented community college professor who created this gem.

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