tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81342549132863301802024-03-12T21:39:19.307-07:00The Unarmed Education MercenaryMy life as a member of the Adjunct Majority who has decided to no longer remain silent.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-50349738747818621002017-12-13T11:41:00.001-08:002017-12-13T11:41:28.338-08:00If Sarcasm is Your Religion, You're Not Helping<div class="MsoNormal">
Wednesday, December 13, 2017</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">I have been thinking a bunch this morning about the glibness of what
passes for the main branch of the Democrats anymore. What I'm thinking of
includes things like <i>South Park</i> and <i>Team America</i>, Colbert and <i>The Daily Show</i>, including the punchy
memes that proliferate on social media. Sometimes these things can be funny. The more time passes and the worse the discourse in our country gets, I find them less and less amusing. When I was in my professional education
course titled Class Management to Dr. Taylor, (I think it was that class), he
said something like “Never use sarcasm to teach. Students don't get it and then
if they do, it seems mean in hindsight." I thought about that a lot that
day. In the music department we were a sarcastic, witty, too loud lot much of
the time. I remembered how I felt the first few days as a freshman, on the
outside and not knowing what the inside jokes were. I remembered fake laughing until I caught on,
until the inside jokes were ours and we lorded them over everyone else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ES9IrLk7hWc/WjGA2VqrZzI/AAAAAAAABYU/sh4U5zK4C-klj4kIYlufN5jLZd1qiaT3wCLcBGAs/s1600/Beware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ES9IrLk7hWc/WjGA2VqrZzI/AAAAAAAABYU/sh4U5zK4C-klj4kIYlufN5jLZd1qiaT3wCLcBGAs/s1600/Beware.jpg" /></a><span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s when I knew why two other students in the program had been
grating on me so badly. Since it was a small school we were not only together
for our music courses but often our general studies classes because there just
weren’t that many sections to choose from.
I was sick of hearing them repeating some catch phrase yet again at a
loud volume. If I’m not mistaken, the
professor’s comment that day was directed at one of those students who had done
the typical sarcasm routine in class and to him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Generally, in education and life, being mean to someone is not the way
to motivate them. The military is not educating but programming: it’s different. My male college percussion
instructor, accustomed to male students, thought that yelling and being sarcastic to me would . . .
what? Make me angry and therefore practice more? Make me embarrassed and
practice more? Wrong answer. What it <i>did </i>make
me do was despise my lessons. I would practice marimba for hours on my own, but
I got a friend to tutor me on snare once in a while since this was my weakest
area. Additionally, it became my goal to out sight read him every single
time. I was already good at it but I
started pulling songs from my piano books and playing them on marimba to
prepare. It steamed him. I never actually got better as a drummer. Eventually,
I left that program. People do not want to volunteer to deal with those who would
treat them like crap. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-imrZnBvfPc4/WjGA5Wh_oyI/AAAAAAAABYg/bWKd6yUMj6weXhkqaygZDHQTj3YL6rmXwCLcBGAs/s1600/Sheldon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-imrZnBvfPc4/WjGA5Wh_oyI/AAAAAAAABYg/bWKd6yUMj6weXhkqaygZDHQTj3YL6rmXwCLcBGAs/s1600/Sheldon.jpg" /></a><span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">This kind of damaging attitude extends to the non-verbal, as well. My
eldest son is a college-aged person. He is into politics and comedy, among
other things. It was no surprise that a family member bought him a parody MAGA
hat. It is red with white embroidered
letters, just like the originals; however, it says “Make America Great Britain
Again.” Immediately he put it on and wore it to the supermarket when we went
out. In theory, it’s just a funny hat. In reality, here’s what happens: other people don’t or maybe can’t read the
smallish print. This leaves the observer
with a few assumptions. 1. The person
wearing the hat supports Trump. Therefore, if you are a person of color, LGBTQ,
or simply not a fan of that person, you’re going to avoid my son because he
appears to be a supporter. 2. You think that my son is a supporter. You are too.
You come over to crow together about this and realize the hat is making fun
of you. You think he’s an ass for
tricking you. You might hurt him. 3.
None of this is funny.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">I said, “Walking around all comical in that hat is something that
indicates your privilege. You are over six feet tall. You look white. You are a man. What do you think people who
see the hat think about you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">If he were smaller, browner, queerer, wearing that hat where we live
would be dangerous. Yes, someone could still take a swing, or a shot, at him as
he is now, but those things are less likely.
Not everyone can wear that hat or similar paraphernalia randomly in the
supermarket without fear. I asked him if he saw the look a black woman gave him
and he said no. I reminded him that my eyesight isn’t so great and from a
distance, if I didn’t know him, I would avoid him because I would assume the
hat was an official one. I told him he
could keep the hat and wear it if he chose but not to wear it and hang around
with me anymore. </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">You can’t educate anyone with sarcasm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s why this “We make fun of everything so you can’t be offended
because nothing matters” culture is rotten. Some things do matter. People’s
feelings matter. People don’t listen to you when you make fun of them or treat
them badly. We have to accept bigotry and hatred, but I don’t
either see the value of calling everyone who lives below the Mason-Dixon line
prejudiced and stupid. That isn’t
true. Also, everyone who lives above it
isn’t non-biased and smart. I think that we have a very long way to go in this
country to get back to a place where we can work together to solve major
problems. The first part is that we have
to respect each other as human. <i>Both</i>
sides have to respect each other as human.
Those on the Right need to stop demonizing people while calling it
religion, and people on the Left need to lay off the condescending weaponizing
of intelligence via humor that is actually bullying. I don’t think this fixes
everything, but I do think it is a place to start. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We have to start somewhere because we have far more serious
issues facing us both nationally and internationally that are going to require lots of cooperation if we as humans
are going to continue to live on this planet for any length of time. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-42659932697670966582017-10-19T10:56:00.003-07:002017-10-19T10:56:58.882-07:00Guest Speakers on Campus: Stop Playing Fact or Crap with Students<div class="MsoNormal">
I vaguely recall this game surfacing in the early 2000s, 2001
according to copyright. The box was red
and yellow: “FACT OR CRAP?” its title
challenged the buyer. I never purchased
it but it gave me a chuckle in the game aisle. However, we are a long road from
2001. I don’t feel much like playing any games. I also don’t appreciate all the
articles maligning Millennials or “young people today” as lazy, useless, and
responsible for the deaths of mediocre pop culture holdovers from the 1990s. I
see teacherly friends responsible for all grade levels from elementary to
post-secondary exchanging ideas and resources for helping students learn how to
discern the quality and veracity of sources. Correction, I see the best of the
teachers doing this. We have a slick
surface of reality problem in the U.S. right now and teachers, among all the
other work they already had to do, are amping up the efforts in this area to
provide young people with the skills needed to avoid getting hoodwinked on any
number of topics. We have students genuinely interested in research skills and
using their tech talents for good. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GPIU8QQashI/WejnPklswjI/AAAAAAAABXo/XkyNkwNmeMMKBPEQapSKJqYWfRzPgTfQwCLcBGAs/s1600/pic266529_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GPIU8QQashI/WejnPklswjI/AAAAAAAABXo/XkyNkwNmeMMKBPEQapSKJqYWfRzPgTfQwCLcBGAs/s320/pic266529_md.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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We also have a “Well, we need to hear all sides” chorus
simultaneously. Which brings me to the crap portion of this post: Why are charlatan speakers<a href="file:///C:/Users/mgg246/Desktop/Guest%20Speakers%20on%20Campus.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
being paid large speaking fees and given a legitimate stage at institutions of
higher learning in this country right now? We have faculty in classrooms doing
difficult work regarding untrustworthy sources and at the same time,
administrators approving the purveyors of junk history, junk science, and just
plain junk to appear on campus. What the
actual hell? It is today’s version of the traveling snake oil salesman<a href="file:///C:/Users/mgg246/Desktop/Guest%20Speakers%20on%20Campus.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
and universities are footing huge bills for security of fools when the money is
greatly needed somewhere else. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Most of these speakers are not people without a platform to freely
espouse their crap. They have the
internet, books they wrote (or ghost wrote), and certain TV and radio spaces
that are more than happy to have them spout their trash. Why are we giving them a prime space at an
institution of higher learning where what they are doing is antithetical to the
mission of education in the first place? It’s crap and most of them know
it. They’re making a fortune on it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And that’s a fact. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
</span></span></span></div>
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<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/mgg246/Desktop/Guest%20Speakers%20on%20Campus.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>Yes, I am aware of the First Amendment, and
here’s a nice higher education-focused summary of that: </i><a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2017/04/20/do-controversial-figures-have-a-right-to-speak-at-public-universities/"><i>http://college.usatoday.com/2017/04/20/do-controversial-figures-have-a-right-to-speak-at-public-universities/</i></a><i> However, I think that speakers should have
to actually know something and be presenting information in good faith, backed
by sound research or intelligence, if they are going to come to a campus. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/mgg246/Desktop/Guest%20Speakers%20on%20Campus.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<i>Some historical background on snake oil,mainly because it's pretty cool and interesting:
<a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/26/215761377/a-history-of-snake-oil-salesmen">http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/26/215761377/a-history-of-snake-oil-salesmen</a><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><i><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[</span></span></i></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-60181851569165927642015-08-18T05:27:00.002-07:002015-08-18T05:27:38.662-07:00Adjunct Summer Stories, Part I: What is Your Labor Worth?Adjunct Summer is an ugly time. So ugly, in fact, that this will be a three-part post as the end of the season draws nigh. Some of us--the lucky ones that got contracts--will return to work. Eventually, our schools will pay us. Some of us have found other work, may all the gods be praised. Some are trying to navigate unemployment or figuring out what to sell to make ends meet. That last is no exaggeration. I have no real jewelry left. I sold it one summer. <br />
<br />
My current position was full time when I took it but moved to part time for the upcoming year unrelated to anything that I did or did not do. Thus, I began looking for other places to work. I did not want to be a two-school adjunct again, but it looked as though that would be my life. Again. I applied to a Very Large University in need of both full and part-time contingent faculty. I immediately got an interview. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hvzvz9iNRX0/VdMkC1t3aOI/AAAAAAAABTM/ja0bwCtu7cU/s1600/IMG_2989.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hvzvz9iNRX0/VdMkC1t3aOI/AAAAAAAABTM/ja0bwCtu7cU/s320/IMG_2989.JPG" width="320" /></a>I don't know if I've just done this so much that I'm immune to interview butterflies or what, but I went in with a No Fucks Given attitude. I am an excellent teacher. I missed teaching this past term because my position didn't involve any courses for that time period. I knew I could do the job and that this school might be suitably impressed with my teaching history and service. Then things got weird.<br />
<br />
It seems that the school is so large and in need of workers that their job applicants for both the full and part-time positions had become mixed. When I arrived, they assumed I was looking for full-time work and addressed me as such for the entirety of the interview. Wait. I used "they" but I did not mean plural they. I only meant to be ambiguous, for I was interviewed alone by only one person. Person kept talking about how great the full-time job's salary and benefits were. In my head, I began to berate myself for not applying. Surely I should have thought of myself first. I really need health care. I'm still limping on days where I walk or stand too much. I should probably at least have a check-up. I knew that I could do my part time work and also teach full time. I had done such before. At the end, the interviewer asked me which I had applied for an<br />
d I said the part-time, but I did say that if they needed full-timers, I might be able to do that. <br />
<br />
Person was interested in my story. Before I left, curiosity got the best of me. I'd heard this great salary touted without specifics, and benefits are nothing to discount, so I asked, "Exactly how much <i>do</i> your full-time contract employees make?" Sitting here on this famous, flagship campus, I was prepared to be staggered and heartily sick that I had not applied. I knew full-timers at other systems in the same state could make at least $50,000 a year plus benefits depending on degree. <br />
<br />
"$32,000! I couldn't sleep at night otherwise!" said my host.<br />
<br />
"I see," I shook my head sagely, thanked my interviewer and tried to find my vehicle again. <br />
<br />
That isn't enough money compared to cost of living in that town or the smaller one I'm near. It was barely over my part-time salary. In fact, if I added that amount to my part-time salary, I'd be near my full-time pay but doing much more work and wasting far more money in travel expenses. <br />
<br />
I started driving home. Then I got angry. I already knew that this school's president was a bank breaker nationally. I'll say in the top five in pay, but it's closer to the top. My friend, who knew about my interview, curious about the adventure, registered surprise I'd only been interviewed by one person. She was shocked to find that the salary was less than what she herself made working at the same place more than five years ago. <br />
<br />
"Person kept talking about it like they were giving out the Holy Grail!"<br />
<br />
Again, that curiosity thing got the better of me. What exactly was this interviewer's area of expertise? Person looked around my age, so must have had some inkling of the wretched job market. <br />
<br />
The person was a labor writing scholar.<br />
<br />
I'm done. I'm done with folks making a name off labor while upholding practices that exploit labor.<br />
<br />
News Flash: You're not actually helping! Not at all. I know that the salary is better than what many adjuncts get. My issue is that this particular school certainly spends a lot on other things (like presidents), charges a substantial tuition to its very large student body, and yet is looking to hire many, many contingent faculty to do THE WORK OF TEACHING WHICH IS ONE OF THE MAIN POINTS OF BEING A SCHOOL IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE. <br />
<br />
Eventually, the place did offer me full-time work. However, in addition to the salary, I would have had to attend a mandatory week-long orientation (unclear if that was paid or unpaid) and also a class during the term, in addition to teaching four courses for them. Thankfully, my situation at what is now my home school went back to full for fall. Bullet dodged. One more time. <br />
<br />
Labor scholars? Give me labor activists any day. That's who has my back.<br />
<br />
<br />
(Parts II & III of Adjunct Summer Stories will focus on the fallout of labor activism on my former colleagues and forever brothers and sisters in solidarity.)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-62230749786481560202015-05-06T08:59:00.002-07:002015-05-06T08:59:42.441-07:00Adjunct Summer is a Comin' InIt is now the end of my second academic season since beginning this blog. I'm happy to report that much has changed since this time last year. I've taken a writing education-related position at a university. I moved my family a few hours away from our former area for this opportunity and it has proved to be a good choice. I'm able to help students who need and appreciate assistance in navigating all the things about college life. This is work with meaning located at a beautiful campus where I feel that I belong. <br />
<br />
For the first time in many years, I already have signed summer contracts. I'm not heading into June with my last paydate circled on my checkbook register and already a tightness in my chest about finances. This summer, my family will not be living in what I've come to refer to as "The Scrape" -- that horrid period of time when all checks have stopped and even though I've begun working again, the new ones haven't started coming in. That can be anywhere from one to two months depending on various institutions' pay schedules. Even writing about it makes my stomach feel queasy, which brings me to this request:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uwl7W8UXpTA/VUo2nmENXFI/AAAAAAAABLA/ilmZP7GNsh0/s1600/precaricorpshomepage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="PrecariCorps: Agents for Higher Ed" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uwl7W8UXpTA/VUo2nmENXFI/AAAAAAAABLA/ilmZP7GNsh0/s1600/precaricorpshomepage.jpg" height="224" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Need more persuasion to help? Get the tenure track ally point of view <a href="http://precaricorps.org/about/for-immediate-release-may-2015/" target="_blank">here</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If my readers can afford to help adjuncts, please consider donating to <a href="http://precaricorps.org/" target="_blank">PrecariCorps</a>. This is the adjunct 501(C)(3) non-profit trolled by the same wonderful clods who went after me. This <a href="http://precaricorps.org/about/for-immediate-release-may-2015/" target="_blank">link</a> goes directly to their page where more information and the opportunity to give can be found. Nothing would please me more than to have PrecariCorps' coffers overflow as a response to the ugliness of the past couple of weeks. Really, paying it forward is far more useful and productive than an extended internet battle with people who will only hide behind their keyboards and laugh with like-minded buddies. This will indeed make an immediate difference to the lives of real teachers.<br />
<br />
This academic year started out at the ebb tide for me--I felt as though the old things were falling away and rushing off. I admit I wondered if I were in fact going to be left standing on an empty beach or crushed by an incoming wave of awful. However, now I am working with a great team to prepare exciting new programming for our students in the upcoming year. My child who was quite ill is doing well again. The trees suddenly all burst into leaf and spring returned to our cold corner of the planet. Now is the time to plant seeds of all kinds. Make them those that bear good harvest in time.<br />
<br />
In Solidarity with Contingent/Casual Faculty Everywhere,<br />
<br />
The Unarmed Education MercenaryAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-22128367429851426552015-05-01T10:51:00.002-07:002015-05-01T10:51:58.240-07:00I'm NOT your Thought-ExerciseRecently, some libertarian legend in his own mind decided that attacking adjuncts from the safety of his tenure-track, but not yet tenured job would be a good idea. Obviously this is all the fault of adjuncts for their poor life choices, he wrote as if no one had said this before. There is no need for me to excoriate that post further because former adjunct and always witty writer Gordon Haber gave it the satirical treatment in <a href="http://www.gordonhaber.net/that-arrogant-libertarian-troll-is-absolutely-right/" target="_blank">"Adjuncts! It's Your Own Damn Fault! That Arrogant Libertarian Troll is Absolutely Right!"</a> and Kevin Carson, contributor at C4SS went directly after it in <a href="https://c4ss.org/content/37447" target="_blank">"Brennan to Adjuncts: F*** You, Jack! I'm Doing All Right!"</a> If you want to see all the hubbub, check out those two writers, for I won't be linking the original piece.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pNIyks5Z_RU/VUO6bm2GaYI/AAAAAAAABKc/vjue-7LCxwM/s1600/imgres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pNIyks5Z_RU/VUO6bm2GaYI/AAAAAAAABKc/vjue-7LCxwM/s1600/imgres.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>When a Stranger Calls</i> (2006)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Some time late yesterday, while I was busy working at my new job, those fun libertarian fellows decided that they should google me and proceed to drag my entire life. Or at least, as much of my life as they can learn from a simple internet search. It seems that I definitely should have known better than to try to get into the academic world. (Spoiler alert, suckers: I'm already here. <i>The calls</i> <i>are coming from inside the house.</i>) They couldn't find any of my published research. I do have a publication and I have four that I need to revise and resubmit. My book needs a more suitable publisher. I have an essay also under consideration for a collection. Sorry that my timeline isn't moving fast enough for the white dude crowd at the elite academic levels.<br />
<br />
Here's the thing, though. It's pretty easy to reduce me or any other person to a set of data points extracted by the most basic of browsers. Myself, I generally run three or four if I'm in search of anything. What none of these searches can turn up are the circumstances of my life because those things are not available. I'm assuming that these adept researchers must have found my Rate My Professor scores because they decided that I 've put too much time into teaching and I must be a horrible teacher.<br />
<br />
Enter this fallacy, which I heard espoused by a graduate professor once who was a terrible teacher himself: If the faculty member has high evaluations then they aren't asking the students to do anything and are just making friends.<br />
<br />
It could not possibly be because the faculty member is, wait for it,<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ACTUALLY EXCELLENT AT THEIR JOB.</div>
<br />
Things that are true about me that their paltry search likely did not turn up:<br />
<br />
1. I attended an undergraduate school renowned for its education programs at the time. Schools that needed teachers called the education department directly to staff their classes when I was there--big, fancy new schools out of state wanted their education graduates. I also won several awards for my teaching even as a student teacher.<br />
<br />
2. My on-paper evaluations by both peers and students are exemplary. Are there negative ones? Yes. Do some folks think my class is easy? Sure. Do people fail? Yes. People also usually color in the bubble that my class is more work than most of their classes, but they still like it anyway. My first teaching mentor told me that my Comp I syllabus was too difficult for the student population. I used a permutation of that syllabus from that day on because it worked well and continues to do so. I change the readings and assignments as needed, but it is built on a solid pedagogical framework. My goal is not to fail half of each class but to teach them to write better no matter where they start. I teach the workhorse courses of higher education. I'm not there to berate upperclassmen who like Foucault more than <span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Žižek</span>. <br />
<br />
3. My past chair called me "the best teacher she knows." Coming from her, that is no small compliment. That woman ripped my writing to shreds. She doesn't hand out idle pretty words. <br />
<br />
4. I have not presented much lately or yet gotten my writing published. Most of this is due to my workload and my family responsibilities. Other writers have handled the academic mom subject matter recently <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/06/female_academics_pay_a_heavy_baby_penalty.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/07/08/should-women-delay-motherhood/what-you-need-to-know-if-youre-an-academic-and-want-to-be-a-mom" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/09/authors-discuss-new-book-academic-motherhood" target="_blank">here</a>. It can be difficult to travel on an adjunct salary or write while grading five to six sections of writing composition. It is also difficult when one's partner is a Veteran with PTSD whom the government turned down for disability. But hey: do more research!<br />
<br />
5. Both my Masters degree and my Doctoral one were covered by tuition waivers. So why then did I take out loans, which libertarians think I should not have done? I had a son. Had I been alone I could've lived in squalor and eaten junk every other day. When a child is factored in, the parent must provide a safe home, food, clothing, and care. Graduate stipends do not pay for any of that. Where was that child's father? Oh, he went away, drained the bank account and disappeared without paying child support. <br />
<br />
6. Since I was a first generation graduate school student, I had no idea what I was doing. The faculty when I enrolled in my program were older and nearing retirement. That's where the "Good people get good jobs" line came from. Additionally, no one encouraged publication. No one offered to co-author or proofread submissions. Should I have known? I guess I could've googled it.<br />
<br />
7. According to my stalkers, I searched in too geographically a narrow area. I'm not sure how they figured this out, especially when it isn't true. Perhaps I should post my Interfolio receipts. For several years, I did remain at one school that paid a living wage and gave me benefits. This allowed me to live a good life. What happened to that situation is chronicled by this blog. <br />
<br />
<br />
What I feel may be at the center--I was going to say heart, but there isn't one--of these trolls' argument is that they feel we adjuncts don't deserve their highly paid, cushy two-course load positions. What they are completely missing is that most of the adjuncts who are speaking up and fighting back against these wage theft, un-student centered processes simply want fair compensation for their work. I would not care to teach six writing courses were I paid the money that amount of work is worth. For the record, my time on those is not spent in prep but in grading and providing feedback. However, this requires a person to understand that teaching is a valuable profession and that students are worth more focus than some esoteric article every couple of years that five people will read. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1QzxoszvA4A/VUO5ITnWvhI/AAAAAAAABKM/ErIJTwBb5iQ/s1600/imgres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="wrong side of the glass" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1QzxoszvA4A/VUO5ITnWvhI/AAAAAAAABKM/ErIJTwBb5iQ/s1600/imgres.jpg" title="" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dudley finds himself on the wrong side of the glass</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I do not aspire to be a resident of the ivory tower such as my attackers are. That is not representative of me or where I am from. It is also not related to the lives of my students, for the most part. To continually denigrate the profession of teaching as less than researching is to give the powers that be even more excuse to cut faculty lines, overload courses, and pay all faculty less. If teaching is mundane then no training is needed and no extra time consideration matters. Those folks sitting on their haunches throwing slime at adjuncts and teachers from behind the perceived safety glass of tenure may soon find that their situations have changed for the worse. <br />
<br />
After all of this, I realize that I would not trade my family, friends, comrades in activism, students, or life as it is for that of one of my hecklers. I'll still be here fighting for fair treatment of adjuncts and all teachers, as well as a better future version of education for students when these silly ghosts fade into the internet ether to harass someone else for a few laughs. <br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
The Unarmed Education Mercenary<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-3140430245099373032015-04-03T07:36:00.001-07:002015-04-03T07:36:16.508-07:00Academic Parent: Some of Both, Not Winning at EitherRecently, I was hired full time. In the past, I have worked full time and then some as an instructor at one school and then at two. I know what it's like to run myself ragged. However, in the past I always had at least one day off during the week. Even the semester that I had six classes, I had Fridays off. It made far more of a difference than I knew. This is my first full term back with three children and I work all five days a week. To say that I am exhausted would be a massive understatement.<br />
<br />
Then the worst happened: the child whose illness is mentioned in <a href="http://theunarmededucationmercenary.blogspot.com/2014/10/no-rest-for-wicked-or-academic-parent.html" target="_blank">"No Rest for the Wicked, or an Academic Parent"</a> got much sicker. Very. Much. Ever since we moved this child was unwell in some way. Conjunctivitis, unhealed surgical wound, a cold, horrifically chapped lips. It worsened: low-grade fever, mild diarrhea, no eating. Then, whatever was wrong doubled down frighteningly fast with high fevers that popped right back up as soon as the medication wore off, worsening diarrhea, and increased sleeping. <br />
<br />
During this time we went to one ER twice, another once, had a follow-up procedure about the unhealed surgery wound from October, and he was cared for as much as possible by a mother who had raised another child to his late teens without killing him. I wailed to my own mother, five hours away, "I don't know what to do now. I don't know!" I was falling apart but surely <i>she</i> would know. <br />
<br />
She had no answer. That was the night of the second local ER visit. I could feel that something was deeply awry with this child, already small, who was wasting away before me eyes. He refused to sleep alone. I would pull clean pajamas on his bone-thin legs and arms. I would rock him and snuggle him in the night hoping to pour my own strength into this small person who no one seemed to be able to fix. He didn't even smell right.<br />
<br />
It's at this point I should mention that my new place of employment chose to not give me health care though I am currently full time. They like people to be full-time for <i>two</i> terms before giving that prize. For this job we moved to a different county and though I'd made a million calls and spent at least 24 hours on hold, I still did not have everything transferred. I kept trying to enroll the children in CHIP but something was blocking it. I was tired. I was worried. And I was the mercy of the broke-ass American healthcare system. With the assurance, finally, that this child was covered by the state, I found a pediatrician. That man likely saved my three-year old's life. He actually listened to what I said and he helped us.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4OOfelu_M98/VR6h9BCQYcI/AAAAAAAABGU/KHTXOo3gSyQ/s1600/fountain.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Children's Hospital Fountain at Night" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4OOfelu_M98/VR6h9BCQYcI/AAAAAAAABGU/KHTXOo3gSyQ/s1600/fountain.JPG" height="320" title="" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Children's Hospital Fountain at night</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In less than five hours we were en route to a different major hospital than we had been working with to this point. There, after five very frightening days of testing, waiting, and watching that little person lie listlessly in a bed with IVs, monitors, and a feeding tube all hooked to him, we finally had an answer: at the age of three, my child was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. All of his life, unless a cure is found, he will deal with this. As horrible as the diagnosis was, I felt relief. I had a name for all these things that were wrecking him and it could be lived with. When words like cancer are being quietly put out there as possibilities, Crohn's doesn't seem so terrible. My father died of cancer and it is an ugly way to go. <br />
<br />
Have you forgotten that I'm in a new job yet? For two of the long hospital trips previously, my Dean did approve leave for me. However, for this visit we were in the hospital for more than a week. Holy of holies, it was Spring Break. What if it hadn't been? What then?<br />
<br />
I can't answer that. I don't want to. <br />
<br />
We are settling into our new lives as a family of a child with a chronic illness. I read about it. I think about where all the bathrooms are if needed when we go out. I know about medicine logs and keeping track of doses of things. I think harder about what foods I will put on the table at the end of my day. But then my life as an academic tugs at me: What about those conferences? What about committee meetings that run late? What about research and publishing? <br />
<br />
Those are the times that I want to scream and never stop. I want to break all the things and set stuff on fire. I can't be the best me there and the best me at home. I can neither stop working nor count on help regularly at the needed levels at home. I know why so many women leave academia now. No matter what we do and are capable of doing at our jobs, everyone expects us to also do the very best at home and with our children. Well, it's too much. I'm doing the best I can do. Everyone is still alive and for now, I still have a job. When that's my mantra to keep going, I worry about myself and all the others out there under conditions I can't even imagine.<br />
<br />
It shouldn't be like this. It should not. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-91278754536633251172015-02-24T08:07:00.002-08:002015-02-24T08:28:43.884-08:00National Adjunct Walkout Day<b style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Castellar","serif"; font-size: 100.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bevel-capbot-bevelstyle: 0; mso-bevel-capbot-dpiheight: 0pt; mso-bevel-capbot-dpiwidth: 0pt; mso-bevel-captop-bevelstyle: 2; mso-bevel-captop-dpiheight: 2.5pt; mso-bevel-captop-dpiwidth: 3.0pt; mso-bevel-colorcontour-alpha: 100.0%; mso-bevel-colorcontour-color: #A94543; mso-bevel-colorcontour-colortransforms: shade=75000; mso-bevel-colorcontour-themecolor: accent2; mso-bevel-dpicontour: .7pt; mso-bevel-dpiextrusion: 2.0pt; mso-bevel-material: 8; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arabic Typesetting"; mso-effects-shadow-align: topleft; mso-effects-shadow-alpha: 38.0%; mso-effects-shadow-angledirection: 5460000; mso-effects-shadow-anglekx: 0; mso-effects-shadow-angleky: 0; mso-effects-shadow-color: black; mso-effects-shadow-dpidistance: 3.071pt; mso-effects-shadow-dpiradius: 4.0pt; mso-effects-shadow-pctsx: 100.0%; mso-effects-shadow-pctsy: 100.0%; mso-fareast-font-family: BatangChe; mso-style-textfill-fill-gradientfill-shade-linearshade-angle: 5400000; mso-style-textfill-fill-gradientfill-shade-linearshade-fscaled: no; mso-style-textfill-fill-gradientfill-shadetype: linear; mso-style-textfill-fill-gradientfill-stoplist: "0 \#FC7B79 5 100000 tint=70000 satm=245000\,75000 \#CF2C28 5 100000 tint=90000 shade=60000 satm=240000\,100000 \#C90000 5 100000 tint=100000 shade=50000 satm=240000"; mso-style-textfill-type: gradient; mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-align: center; mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-compound: simple; mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-dash: solid; mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-dpiwidth: .9pt; mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-join: round; mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-linecap: flat; mso-style-textoutline-outlinestyle-pctmiterlimit: 0%; mso-style-textoutline-type: none;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-voM3vFr7EMY/VOymjHf6RsI/AAAAAAAAA7s/mw3wpO0VN7E/s1600/WSCL1_A_FIRE-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A on fire" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-voM3vFr7EMY/VOymjHf6RsI/AAAAAAAAA7s/mw3wpO0VN7E/s1600/WSCL1_A_FIRE-01.jpg" height="142" title="" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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</span></b>lthough tomorrow, Wednesday, February 25th is officially National Adjunct Walkout Day, many folks are using this entire week to get the message across: Without Adjuncts, Your Schools Cannot Function. Ideally, this day would shut most of higher education down, making clear the 75% reliance on contract workers that keeps the system lurching along.<br />
<br />
I know that many adjunct and contract workers out there support this idea wholeheartedly but they cannot walk out. Some of them have planned teach-ins, alternate activities that include viewing documentaries or hearing speakers on the adjunct issue, some will wear badges, maybe some will wear red. There will be many who will outwardly do nothing at all. <br />
<br />
Do not judge those adjuncts. Every action, every word we speak against this crisis is taking a risk and some cannot afford to do that. As the sole breadwinner for my family, I know what that feeling is like. Speaking up and also fighting an abuse of contract has cost me work. Activism is not without penalty. That person who appears to be avoiding any contact with Walkout Activities may be deeply grateful for what is being done but they're too scared to say so. I have received anonymous messages of similar content thanking me for what I do and say. Some of these people have even said that they wish they could help. That's okay. I'm fighting for them as much as for myself and the rest of us. <br />
<br />
Tomorrow many adjuncts will take a risk. If you can, join them. Look for events in your area. An on-line search should produce results.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
A better system for adjuncts is a better system for students.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
Part-time work should be a choice, but it should not be the default position for academic jobs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
Together we can make something different. Something better.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
Join the adjuncts and work for the students.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
Here's your A. Wear it proudly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 150.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arabic Typesetting"; mso-fareast-font-family: BatangChe;">A<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-5410544224610811742015-02-16T09:02:00.003-08:002015-02-16T09:02:26.184-08:00When Everyone is Contingent, Then What?<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6uqSWTZHtY/VOIhlZ042TI/AAAAAAAAA7M/84DmABqBG7U/s1600/Winter%2BWindow.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="winter window" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6uqSWTZHtY/VOIhlZ042TI/AAAAAAAAA7M/84DmABqBG7U/s1600/Winter%2BWindow.JPG" height="320" title="" width="240" /></a>I find myself in the strangest situations. Recently, I was hired through a national search for a grant funded full-time position. "Hurray!" say the readers of the blog. Well, that's what I said, too, even though I knew that I would have to reapply for my position every year. This situation was not unlike another full time temporary gig I held for many years. Reapplying is nothing more than an another added annoyance to many adjuncts. We do it so much that we're really good at it. I'm not going to say that I never worry that I won't get rehired because that would be lying, but I'm reasonably assured that I do a great job and will likely be back. At least, that was the case at my old, really well-paying gig before I became The Unarmed Education Mercenary and complained about what they did to us.<br />
<br />
After signing and mailing my contract back, I found a place for my family to live, began forwarding mail and changing addresses on important things like car registrations and my driver's license, I got A Very Disturbing Email from my new boss. This person was letting me know that the Dean-who-is-not-my-Dean (not the Dean who interviewed me and offered me this job) only wanted to allot 50% for my position in the new iteration of the grant. <br />
<br />
Well then.<br />
<br />
What did I want to do? Cancel the move. Throw a giant, apocalyptic fit. Burn things.<br />
<br />
My friends said not to go. Some of them were more colorful in their choices of words to reject the position they had just got done congratulating me for getting. On the whole, it was Not A Good Day. My eldest child, whose life I just upended by announcing this move to another county said, "Well, we might as well go because I am NOT unpacking those boxes unless we take them to another house. There's too much tape on them. Besides, everyone already feels sorry for me for moving and it would be kind of weird if I didn't go." Then there's the matter of my employment. If we stayed I would have only one class at the lower paying school furthest away. That wasn't enough to live on. We could, I suppose, have gone on all the assistance programs because I'm sure we would've qualified. At least at the new place, the income would be good for a semester. Son the Eldest was correct: it was time to jump.<br />
<br />
So jump we did and in the middle of a winter storm. It has snowed at least three times a week since then. I work in a department with some of the best people who care deeply about the students they serve and guess what? None of us are permanent. Each one of us has to reapply for our jobs. We are still expected to do service and scholarly work, and we do. What we do not have is any kind of security in our lives. Will our grants be refunded? Will we be the ones rehired? Can I find 50% more work to do on this campus now that I've dragged everyone here? I would be lying if I said this is good for my morale. I love it here. I would gladly spend my career here serving the students of this school. I can do good things here, and yet, every single day I worry about next fall. And next spring. And the semester after that. This is what it is like when everyone is contingent and everyone is worried: it is a major distraction. Will we say or do something that will keep us from being renewed? Will someone more qualified than us apply and take away our jobs?<br />
<br />
Is this any way to run an education system?<br />
<br />
No. No it isn't. If anyone out there making decisions about education would first please ask the question "Is this best for the students and the students' learning conditions?" I wonder how that would change things. What are we here to do in higher education? Do we even know anymore?<br />
<br />
As for me, I'm here to serve the students and thereby make a living to provide for my family. <br />
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What about you?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-2410928032117530922015-01-30T10:24:00.000-08:002015-01-30T10:24:05.159-08:00Rocking the Economic Boats of Higher EducationIn his essay "Why the Rich are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer," Robert B. Reich discusses the changing composition of the American workforce, groups it into three categories--routine producers, in-person servers, and symbolic analysts--and describes their past and possibly future trajectories as three boats; the first two categories are falling and the third rising. It is within this essay that he visits the decline of unions and the subsequent rise of executive salaries. These factors are not unrelated and I believe the second labor uprising in America may be the only way to overturn the boats of Reich's apt metaphor and construct a new and better way forward.<br />
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Reich reports the steady decline in union membership by young working men without college degrees from "more than 40%" in the 1950s to "less than 20%" by the end of the 1980s. More recently, according to <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm" target="_blank">The Bureau of Labor and Statistics</a>, the rate of union membership in 2013 was 11.3%. This total includes workers regardless of gender while Reich's data is for males only. However, even with the added boost of all workers counted the percentage still has fallen drastically. Growing up as a child in West Virginia and listening to presentations about Mary Harris "Mother" Jones and the dramatic battles to unionize the coal fields, I never dreamed I would live to see these struggles rejoined. Jobs disappear, salaries dwindle, and American workers either suffer from underpayment or unemployment. <br />
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Now we witness the<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> corporatization</span> of nearly every institution in America. (For a multi-decade breakdown of the economic and political assault on American higher education, check out this fine post from The Homeless Adjunct: <a href="http://junctrebellion.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/how-the-american-university-was-killed-in-five-easy-steps/" target="_blank">"How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps."</a>) Instead of seeing college and university students as, well, students, they are being considered, marketed to and sometimes referred to as consumers. Colleges and universities pay big bucks to develop a marketable "brand" that can be easily packaged and sold at recruitment fairs to the eager high school seniors and their families, as well as non-traditional students via on-line, streaming, and even television ads. Higher education administrators schmooze like corporate <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">CEOs. </span> Amenities get top billing along with sometimes faked diversity in mailers. Where does education and the working conditions of faculty providing the educational product fall in the budget? Where do the people who keep those glossy magazine spaces glowing and livable get allotted a place? I'm afraid we've fallen out of contention. We are not, for the most part, trendy and ad-worthy. We are, however, all key factors in why students stay. The kind custodian who cleaned my freshman dorm floor had far more interaction with me and much more impact on my living conditions, checking on my friends and I, striking up conversations, than any administrator. Plus she cleaned the toilets. I do not mean that derogatorily. She was a more highly visible face of the institution than a president I saw only at formal functions, photo ops, and in the school paper. The professors who called me when I suddenly disappeared from class during a sudden and vile bout of flu didn't just teach me English and music history, but that I was a person who mattered to them. Were any of us visible to those at the higher echelons other than as props to marketability and good PR when we achieved sports, artistic, or academic accolades worth headlines?<br />
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Reich returns to the history of industry and compensation: "A<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">t midcentury</span>, the compensation awarded to top executives and advisers of the largest of America's core corporations could not be grossly out of proportion to that of low-level production workers. It would be unseemly for executives who engaged in highly visible rounds of bargaining with labor unions, and who routinely responded to government requests to moderate prices, to take home wages and benefits wildly in excess of what other Americans earned." While his essay is written specifically about industry, it can be applied also to higher education. How many college and university presidents walk the halls and sidewalks of their campuses, getting to know the students, staff, and faculty who comprise their domain? How many students would recognize their administrators? These mythical <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">folk seem to move in a sphere beyond the average campus citizen. Once I received an invitation for the Homecoming Ball. The ticket price was $100+ --I laughed and tossed it in the recycle bin. Who sends their alumni and adjuncts mailers like that in this economy? One example of being completely out of touch. When the people in charge have little to no idea of the day-to-day reality of those working for them, when they do not have to deal with all those groups face-to-face on a regular basis, these people, WE, become objects, mere factors in a budget to be treated as numbers to tug and arrange. We cease to be people with lives, families, and futures. This is what, I feel, Reich was getting at in the previous quote: without a constant reminder of how a CEO's life and salary compares to and affects those under them, the distortion becomes not only possible, but highly likely.</span><br />
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Reich closes the essay with the following statement - "The salaries and benefits of America's top executives, and many of their advisers and consultants, have soared to what years before would have been unimaginable heights, even as those of other Americans have declined." We now live this reality.<br />
This chart, produced from a survey by The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources in 2012-13 shows the incredible MEDIAN amounts for administrative salaries in American higher education: <a href="http://www.higheredjobs.com/salary/salaryDisplay.cfm?SurveyID=22" target="_blank">"Administrators in Higher Education Salaries."</a> The highest median salary, with a PhD is for a CEO with $431,575 per year. While the <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Adjunct-Project-Shows-Wide/136439/" target="_blank">Adjunct Project</a> shows a wide range of salaries based on location and degree, the median per class is $2, 987. Multiply this by the number of courses taught and it would take roughly ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR, that's 144, classes to equal the median pay of the highest administrator. Four to five classes, if combined across schools is a lot of work for one term! I taught six in the fall for two schools. I have five now because some did not run and were cancelled. To be slightly more realistic, approximately thirteen courses per year would give an adjunct a $40,000 income IF that adjunct could secure the median adjunct rate of $2,987. <br />
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This is where we have come to in most of American higher education. Across the country, interest in unions surges among adjuncts. We have no other recourse on our own. Alone we are expendable, vulnerable. Together we can stand up to this tide of disparity. We can begin the wave that upsets the boats. We can create an alternative to the untenable future before us, and if we can do it, this can spread to other fields and professions. We can create a new metaphor for work, perhaps a sustainable one that considers quality of life for everyone, not just those at the top.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-25936540066806070052015-01-23T15:13:00.001-08:002015-01-30T10:17:37.268-08:00Flipping Some TablesA few weeks ago, I worked myself into a proper outraged adjunct state to sit down and write a blog post. It would've been a good one, too, and I already had much of it mapped out in my head as I normally do before I ever sit down at the computer. Then something happened that made my adjunct anger and the issues I was thinking about seem mightily insignificant: Eric Garner's killer was not charged though the medical examiner ruled that choking caused that man's death. This set off a wave of protests worldwide and brought attention back to the Ferguson protests that had never ceased, only slipped from the front pages. The hashtags signifying #BlackLivesMatter and #HandsUpDontShoot blazed into the public consciousness. Social media filled with shots of marches, die-ins, and public displays of many kinds by folks who could no longer bear in silence the state brutality against black people in America. College and university students walked out and sounded off--this time no one needed to ask where America's youth were.<br />
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From my rural location I watched millions take to the streets. Then the criticism began. So very many people hurt and hurting. I felt there was nothing for me to do. I wondered about my students from fall who had needed time every class to speak about Mike Brown. Would someone let them talk now? Were they shouting yet? I wanted to. However, I became acutely aware of speaking FOR others instead of letting them speak. I did not know what to say and so I simply said nothing here in this space until now. I used my social media accounts to boost information for demonstrators, to provide facts and figures to rebut those determined to discredit the movement. I stand with the people in the streets for this cause. For my students. For my friends. For Black Lives.<br />
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So much seems wrong in America right now. I watched citizens get tear-gassed with canisters made in the state where I live. I saw a child gunned down by police in seconds as he played in a park with a toy. I saw shooting victims denied care and left to die in the streets. I saw passersby heckle the demonstrations and hurl hate at them verbally. This has always been here in America, but now it is out in the open. The question has become, "What then shall we do about it?" <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-62Cb3M0hLdA/VMLT7UKPNwI/AAAAAAAAA60/_XnQ4mlgSKM/s1600/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Keane Badmin Table" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-62Cb3M0hLdA/VMLT7UKPNwI/AAAAAAAAA60/_XnQ4mlgSKM/s1600/images-1.jpeg" title="" /></a>I say that all of us, activists especially, are called to stand together. I do not mean that I want to take over any other cause, but that many of our causes are interrelated. The Fight for 15 living wage crew, the Adjunct Activists, the Black Lives Matter movement, transgender rights, immigrant issues, the missing and murdered students in Mexico, the healthcare workers fighting for rights, the besieged public school teachers--all of these things are the causes of the people NOT the 1%. We should be side by side. Together is our strength. I have seen it shut down the mighty bridges of New York City and the wide, busy highways of Southern California. We live in a world where someone at <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/n-university-faces-critics-ordering-219-000-table-article-1.2022608" target="_blank">Keane University thinks that buying a table for $219,000</a> for a select few administrative uses instead of spending money to hire permanent faculty <a href="http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/kean-university/academic-life/faculty-composition/#" target="_blank">(only 257 out of 1,472 are tenure track)</a> or student support staff is perfectly fine. We live in the world where most of our lives are disposable, with some, such as Black lives, being viewed as even less than others. Those of us fighting all these separate fights, some of which intersect and compound the difficulties of involved individuals, need each other's support and care. Together we can make something different, something better than we have ever had. <br />
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That is my New Year's challenge: not to go back to some romanticized past, but to think in new ways and create new things that harm less and benefit more. It will not be easy but it will be worth it in the end. The power is with the people, if only we realize it in time. <br />
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If anyone gives demonstrators any grief over their revolutionary activities and asks them to calm down and only be peaceful, the following picture is more than useful. Justified outrage has its place.<br />
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I say revive the practice. Maybe even start at Keane, but bring some friends because that one looks heavy.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-73739983951354371722014-11-14T22:19:00.000-08:002015-01-30T10:18:26.944-08:00#NotALLTenureTrackFaculty Rarely does a week go by now that I do not see an article or a tweet about another campus of adjuncts joining a union or organizing in some way to fight for a living wage. Considering we are the bulk of higher education faculty and on the whole are not paid very well, that should not be a surprise. However, what continues to surprise me are the reactions to adjunct organizing efforts by many tenure track faculty. A few folks' reaction is to stand up for us, while others warn us. Some want to silence us, and others avoid us and our efforts. Not all these responses are optimal. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--543BGz9QZg/VGbitzXalqI/AAAAAAAAA4Q/pV7fnj6uNuo/s1600/gold%2Bstar.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Gold Star" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--543BGz9QZg/VGbitzXalqI/AAAAAAAAA4Q/pV7fnj6uNuo/s1600/gold%2Bstar.jpeg" title="" /></a>I did discuss some of these issues before in my post <a href="http://theunarmededucationmercenary.blogspot.com/2014/01/adjuncts-assumptions-and-activism.html" target="_blank">"Adjuncts, Assumptions, and Activism,"</a> but I think there are things worth reiterating. First of all, I do know and have met some very strong tenure track adjunct allies. These are people who not only talk and write on our behalf, but actively work on their own campuses and in higher education as a whole to assist adjuncts. In fact, if you would like to join this group of friends and don't know where to start or what to do, check out ally Seth Kahn who just posted <a href="http://sethkahn.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/a-response-to-martin-kichs-response-to-dear-whining-adjuncts-some-notes-about-trust/" target="_blank">this entry</a> on his <i>Here Comes Trouble</i> blog, that, while a direct response to a specific person, is also very good advice to anyone looking to get into the effective adjunct ally category. Additionally, adjunct badass Miranda Merklein, over at the <i>Fugitive Faculty</i> blog posted <a href="http://mirandamerklein.blogspot.com/2014_04_01_archive.html" target="_blank">"Ten Steps to Becoming an Adjunct Ally."</a> I think that these readings are very helpful to those looking to get involved or step up their activist ally game. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-47TTBHa7qwU/VGbit7pErYI/AAAAAAAAA4M/47thXUUprlk/s1600/cookie.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Ally Cookie" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-47TTBHa7qwU/VGbit7pErYI/AAAAAAAAA4M/47thXUUprlk/s1600/cookie.jpeg" title="" /></a>Now, here are some words about allies in general. Please, please do not go looking for what some like to call "ally cookies." Basically, that is a reward expected to be given out by whatever group the self-professed ally has chosen to assist. Groups suffering from any type of disparity do not have time to be baking cookies and handing out accolades to allies. Also, please do not presume to speak FOR the group, professing to know just how they feel or what their situation is like without actually consulting the group in question, especially if you yourself have not ever experienced the world in their way. That Ally Spokespersona was an impetus for me to start this blog. I was so damn tired of seeing posts about adjuncts and our situation by people who were not adjuncts and had never been! When I complained to a friend about this, he said that an organizer suggested using any platform to draw attention to the cause was good. I countered that letting people speak for themselves was better. That being said, people are afraid. Afraid to speak out and lose their jobs. Afraid to get harassed by trolls. Afraid to be shamed by the public for the truths they have revealed. Thus, this blog was born. Do I still worry about those things? Sometimes. Especially right before I hit "Publish." So ask yourself, Ally: "Am I speaking up on behalf appropriately by amplifying their side authentically or am I speaking when I should be making space for someone of that group to speak safely?" <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EIxPTt4cgLM/VGbit-0nnSI/AAAAAAAAA4I/CpMncGw6EhM/s1600/velvet%2Brope.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Velvet Ropes" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EIxPTt4cgLM/VGbit-0nnSI/AAAAAAAAA4I/CpMncGw6EhM/s1600/velvet%2Brope.jpeg" title="" /></a>Tenure track people, those solidly safe behind the velvet rope of tenure (perhaps not those still in their probationary period): please use your positions to make a difference. The more permanent people that teach, the larger the faculty percentage to stand up for teaching and learning. Please speak up for those who are not able to do so, whether that is because they fear for their jobs or simply they are not invited to the meetings. Those are good places to practice good allyship: adjuncts might not be at the meetings, or they might be there but feel unwelcome to add to the conversations. You could talk to some beforehand and agree to take their statements or concerns and read them at the meeting, keeping them anonymous, if need be. You could petition to have adjuncts attend the meetings or be invited to workshops and trainings, if they are not. Once, temporary faculty were excluded from the free lunch at faculty orientation day. Only new tenure track people were allowed to eat on the President's dime. Tenure track allies who helped plan the day were angry that we adjuncts were left out. They found another group on campus who was sponsoring the day to provide us lunch. That might seem like a small gesture, but it has stuck with me over the years. One small step to erasing disparity may start an avalanche.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z0yG85aDwVE/VGbjyTadOtI/AAAAAAAAA4k/1SJXdSr_TXA/s1600/police%2Bbadge.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Police Badge" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z0yG85aDwVE/VGbjyTadOtI/AAAAAAAAA4k/1SJXdSr_TXA/s1600/police%2Bbadge.jpeg" title="" /></a>Then we have a few varieties of unhelpful vocalizers. Recently, I was part of a successful adjunct unionizing effort. Because of my open support, as well as my speaking and writing about the adjunct exploitation crisis, I catalogued some interesting encounters. More than one permanent faculty member said to me, whilst sagely shaking their heads, "Oh, its a <i>good</i> idea, but it won't <i>work</i>. <i>We</i> tried and couldn't do it. They'll stop you, too. Be careful." They didn't. We won. Honestly, many of us had little to lose and very much to gain, therefore, we could not be frightened away from organization in large enough numbers to affect the vote. These folks were not really against us and they weren't actively standing in our way, yet they weren't making it any easier either. This group belongs with the larger demographic who would like to tone-police adjuncts:<br />
We aren't being careful. <br />
We are too angry.<br />
We are too whiny. <br />
We are too loud. <br />
Stop this. Stop telling adjuncts, or anyone experiencing some sort of adverse situation to express themselves in a way that makes you more comfortable. Seriously, it isn't about you. It isn't. Let the person talk, cry, rant, or rave. Maybe they have never gotten the chance to speak up. Maybe their concerns deserve to be shouted. I observed the other day that what I dubbed the Cult of Happiness is a real thing and its missionaries are relentless with their inspirational posts, verses, and maxims. The true goal of this sect, I believe, is to prevent everyone everywhere from ever experiencing and expressing the full range of human emotions. These folks have not only taken their Soma, they are pickled in it. They will not stop until everyone is as blissfully happy and unaware of anything remotely upsetting. These are the handmaidens of disaster. They'll be throwing flowers at the the mushroom clouds. Trust me. The opposite of the Shh... Just be Happy Crew are the Shh...You're Giving Higher Ed a Bad Image Squad. They do not want to hear our critique, because quite frankly, they've got theirs and by golly, they deserve it more than we do. Or something. Reasons. These are the ones who will barge <br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5lRM4LDFZA/VGbs5K-byPI/AAAAAAAAA40/cStRn6kCrRw/s1600/hashtag.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hashtag" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5lRM4LDFZA/VGbs5K-byPI/AAAAAAAAA40/cStRn6kCrRw/s1600/hashtag.jpeg" title="" /></a>into a discussion and shout "Not ALL tenure track people act this way"--thus the title of this piece. On-line, just about any time someone makes a statement about how one group, as a whole, treats another, there is a vast rush by someone to be first to say Not ALL: men, white people, gamers, police, etc. It's true. Log onto any social media site and watch. It happens in real life, too. Stop this. Why are you defensive? If you feel the urge to "Not ALL" anyone, use that as a cue to stop, think, and then refocus. Stop yourself from saying those words. Think about what you might do to NOT be one of those people. Refocus your response in a positive way to assist the person or group that felt oppressed, offended, or demeaned--the appropriate response might be silence while really hearing, planning what you can do to make this bad thing never happen again in your presence, or even giving the less privileged group a way to safely present their side: all without expecting to be rewarded at all. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-81Rp5h_e2NE/VGbcBFn51EI/AAAAAAAAA34/GLf0XvL-ZgU/s1600/ostrich%2Bpillow.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Ostrich Pillow" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-81Rp5h_e2NE/VGbcBFn51EI/AAAAAAAAA34/GLf0XvL-ZgU/s1600/ostrich%2Bpillow.jpeg" height="132" title="" width="200" /></a>However, the most dangerous reaction is to act as though ignoring the adjunctification of higher education will make it go away, or at least make it not exist for you. It is not going anywhere. It is going to get worse if we do not collectively make a stand and stop this disease from taking over every inch of education. Please stop hiding your heads under your desks, in books, or the very appropriately named Ostrich Pillow. This position not only looks hilarious, but it directly supports the administrative directive to liquidate all protections, such as tenure, due process, or freedom of speech. This is really one of those "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" moments. Kindly wake up and read those posts I linked to above. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-30771513972662258192014-10-12T23:31:00.001-07:002015-01-30T10:18:46.594-08:00No Rest for the Wicked, or an Academic ParentAre you tired? I am. My accelerated course just ended. Many of my colleagues are probably in midterms. Another group of us who still hold out hope, or perhaps just out of habit, are also applying for the sparse crop of permanent jobs. In the middle of all this, two of my children got sick. The eldest threw up at school and I had to go get him. Never mind that throwing up is something he has always done a lot, if a student upchucks at school, someone must go get that person. That was my Wednesday morning. Already my middle child, who is still a preschooler was feeling poorly. Since both of those kiddos had a checkup scheduled for Thursday, I thought "Hey, we'll make it to that and get it all taken care of at once."<br />
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No. No that was not to be. Instead my Wednesday evening included a trip to the local ER and then one to the children's hospital in the city. The preschooler was not well. It was one of those things that happens. It just happens. No reason. No nothing the child did wrong. No nothing we did wrong. He just got very sick very fast. We returned home again a little after 4 a.m. on Thursday. Ever since then, I have been following a care routine that the child is not a fan of. I have been giving him very sticky medicine that he is not a fan of. For three days he seemed to be getting better, but then this evening, as I hoped to settle him in early for some rest, he complained of being too hot. He was. The nagging worry I have carried in my stomach over him for about a week chomped harder. I took a temperature and sure enough it was elevated. I checked the discharge instructions but it was, thankfully, not high enough to call the doctor. Some Advil was given and I decided to stay up and check him every little bit. So here I am up, writing some things and thinking.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l2IxJcxw_To/VDt0A9JOPSI/AAAAAAAAA3Y/bsaMbYqQZOI/s1600/shoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Little Shoes" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l2IxJcxw_To/VDt0A9JOPSI/AAAAAAAAA3Y/bsaMbYqQZOI/s1600/shoes.jpg" height="200" title="" width="150" /></a>He's small. I had forgotten really, how very small. As I tailed the ambulance to the city I could see his car seat strapped to the stretcher with him on board. I could not make out his little face nor his hair that's too long and needs to be cut but hasn't been because I need more hours in my day and another me to get him to the stylist that doesn't make him cry. So very small in his greenish hospital gown lying on a big gurney-type bed in the examination room. So small that we had come all that long way to specialists who could work on, sedate and employ the right tools for little folks. <br />
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I wanted to scoop him up and pour all the energy and light that I had left into him. And even though I'm supposed to be the grown up and know that the hurt caused by the treatment would make him better, I wanted to hide him from their hands and instruments that were making him cry out in pain. "MOMMY!"<br />
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And after it was over, I sat stroking his fluffy hair, watching him sleep the sleep of the drugged, I thought, "Oh my god, I have five papers left to grade and they're due Friday and I'm an adjunct and what if I don't get them done and they're at home and I'm not and who knows when I'll get back there?!" That is what ran through my mind. I was fairly certain that the child would be fine. I was waiting for him to awaken, and my work intruded. Here I was, miles from home for who knew how long, and my grades were undone. Accelerated term students need their grades quickly before the second round begins. I doubted I could get an extension. I wondered how that would make me look. I wondered if it would cost me my job. At a time when all I really should be able to focus on was my kids, I was worried if our emergency would be a problem. Perhaps my employer would've been understanding, but I don't know, nor do I have any protection as of yet. Just one more wobble as I walk the precarious line of adjunct faculty life. <br />
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Now, it's time to go check my small patient's temperature and hope it stays down. We have another checkup scheduled Tuesday and I hope we can just go there without further adventures. The oldest one is fine after the barfing. The papers got graded and the final grades submitted. As always. <br />
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This is how you eat the Adjunct Elephant: one giant bite at a time.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-85744726657413489172014-09-29T21:14:00.001-07:002015-01-30T10:19:14.744-08:00One Year Later: Margaret Mary, Burning It Down, and What Comes Next<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today, September 29, is the remembrance day for Margaret Mary Vojtko. <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2013/09/18/Death-of-an-adjunct/stories/201309180224" target="_blank">Dan Kovalik's piece</a> broke the story on the 19th and by the month's end, her sorrowful tale resounded worldwide. Here we are on the day dedicated to her: one year later, one year louder. The death of Margaret Mary stands as a lightning strike in the midst of the drab chaos adjuncting can be. It was her death that shook so many into realizing that the story could end the same for them. It was her death that made many who do care about teaching and learning conditions realize the situation was indeed dire. It was her death that put many of us on the path to activism. When we win any victory, any recognition, it also belongs to Margaret Mary. <br />
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When I drive into the City of Pittsburgh and past Duquesne, I imagine her spirit there. When I waiver on publishing a post, or speaking to a reporter and using my name, I think of Margaret Mary. I remember how cold, so very cold I felt inside though the day was blistering hot when I read Kovalik's article. <i>This could be me. Oh god, this could be me</i>, my brain whispered as I stood at the start of my first multiple-school teaching year. That feeling has driven me ever since. I will not let an entire generation of scholars go down in flames. I will not let students be deprived of the educations they are paying large sums of money for. I will use my words and time to work for better. If I have to, I will also use actions. <br />
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This weekend, Twitter citizen @downwardlymobilePhD, with the help of others, planned and carried out an adjunct online forum that allowed for truth telling and airing of grievances, and I also participated in the event. Given the marker #BurnItDown, the hashtag raged much of Saturday afternoon and into Monday was still garnering new hits. Anyone with a Twitter account can, of course, search the hashtag and see the full stream of tweets. <i>Raging Chicken Press</i> created a Storify of some tweets called <a href="http://www.ragingchickenpress.org/2014/09/29/burnitdown-ripping-back-the-veil-of-exploitation-in-higher-ed-2/" target="_blank">"Ripping Back the Veil of Exploitation in Higher Ed"</a> that gives a good summary of the tone and the truth many adjuncts face. I just wrapped up my Saturday class as this event began and was still amazed, as I scrolled to catch up and join the fray, how similar to my own experience total strangers' adjunct lives are no matter where they call home. This is indeed a worldwide crisis at this point and adjunct issues often garner hits not only from the US, but Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. <br />
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Certainly, these fiery tweets will be read as complaining and whining by some. That happens nearly every time an adjunct speaks out. However, for many of us, our scholarly community--the people who understand exactly what this life is--are our on-line adjunct colleagues and we need these moments of shared experiences to affirm our solidarity. Make no mistake about it: solidarity amongst adjuncts exists not only on campuses as we unionize, but now it extends across state lines and country borders. One success at a small school is a victory for everyone. It is a slice of light seeping in. Our cause now regularly appears in publication and news venues. We are not whining so much as standing up for ourselves at last. We dare to challenge the current state of higher education with our BurnItDown mentality. We care about the workpain of adjuncts and other downgraded--both in salaries and hours-- and entirely necessary campus employees. We care about our students and do not like that they pay for educations but are given climbing walls and waterfalls. It is this last part, this care for our students, for the art and craft of teaching that has lead many adjuncts to ponder, "What next? What can we do to start again? To create something better that meets the needs of students and teachers without exploitation and unnecessary expense." That answer will come and it will be beautiful and varied as the people who now fall under the term "contingent labor." Make no mistake, we may take a day to air our grievances, but we never stop working towards the ultimate goal of better for all who want to take part. <br />
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Strength is in numbers, as Margaret Mary knew when she sought out the union. I hope our efforts would make her proud. If she knew how many her life inspired to speak up, to challenge the system in quieter and equally effective ways, I think she would be pleasantly surprised. Thus, today after Burning It Down, we remember her and are renewed in our quest to find a better way. <br />
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(Oh, and Happy First Payday to those of us who've been waiting until the 30th of Sept. to get some much needed monies for our labor.)<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-1251115546435827222014-09-05T12:43:00.002-07:002015-01-30T10:19:28.083-08:00Form-ing Dissent<br />
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At any time when a group starts to make enough noise and get enough attention for their cause, someone vocal will arise to oppose and deride them. Adjuncts have been making lots of good noise, getting press from many sources, and generally raising awareness of the plight of approximately 76% of faculty in the United States. It is not surprising, then, that this past week--the week preceding Labor Day, no less--I reeled in a nice big clownfish on another platform and we saw the publication of a particularly odious anti-adjunct piece. <br />
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It may come as a surprise to readers, and even some adjuncts, that many of us do have a community of comrades. With all the social media platforms, this is easy to do. In fact it is almost essential for some of us, who need community to work smarter, commiserate, and celebrate with, just as any worker would. While many adjuncts lack offices and communities at their schools because they either are not granted the courtesy of office space or they cannot use any given space since they must run to another school, these communities exist nonetheless. It was in one such community, discussing all the things adjuncts do that are not really covered by our pay and the hours allotted on our contracts that someone suggested we itemize these essential-to-higher-education tasks. Important things, such as letters of recommendation for students, office hours, answering and composing email, and attending meetings, for example. Jokingly, I said someone should humor me with a form for this. <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fn4gkUQeIgU/VAoN3j70ZrI/AAAAAAAAA1E/iFRh-N6aHJc/s1600/adjunct%2Bform.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Adjunct Consulting Form" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fn4gkUQeIgU/VAoN3j70ZrI/AAAAAAAAA1E/iFRh-N6aHJc/s1600/adjunct%2Bform.jpg" height="320" title="" width="247" /></a><a href="webkit-fake-url://7B5E9A39-283C-4BD5-91DC-FD1B58C7B3C1/application.pdf" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Since I had some time and needed the laugh, I made a very rough draft. This was much improved and beautified by Bri Bolin. It was an instant Twitter hit and even I was surprised at its popularity; to date it has 92 retweets and 99 favorites. All afternoon and into the evening folks enjoyed and shared it. Invariably, it made someone unhappy: I was admonished that we adjuncts should just be glad with what we were getting because submitting this would cost us our jobs. <br />
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Yes, someone thought that we were plotting a nationwide paperwork-based rebellion. Would that that were true. Into my microcosm of adjunct-land otherwise known as my twitter feed came a presence to speak to me of my folly. As other adjuncts could not resist chiming in, we were all told that if we had skills and diligence, we would find a place in the world of work that valued us. We were also told that teachers in Tanzania have it much worse. I have no doubt that many places in the world have terrible conditions, but I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about right here in the US of A! It isn't as though there are not plenty of classes to be taught; it isn't as if upper level administrators aren't raking in six figures at many schools; it isn't as though the administrative class hasn't grown exponentially in the past 20 years. I was addressing a specific disparity in the country where I live and work. I'm actually surprised I didn't get told to move if I wasn't happy because that's another nice piece of advice anyone who ever disagrees about anything in the country is given.<br />
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Later, <a href="http://www.donotlink.com/bcel" target="_blank">an entirely awful article</a> was published in <i>The Chronicle of Higher Education</i>. Note that I am providing a link via a nice service called donotlink because it will not up the page count of whatever odious article a person would like to share. I am not going to deconstruct this article here because enough people already have, and there is no more I can say that wouldn't involve angry swearing: <a href="http://www.compositionist.net/blog/dear-tenured-faculty-retweeting-isnt-enough" target="_blank">Amy Lynch-Biniek's "Dear Tenured Faculty: Retweeting Isn't Enough";</a> <a href="http://sethkahn.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/yeah-but/" target="_blank">Seth Kahn's "Yeah, but..."</a> which builds on Lynch-Biniek's piece; <a href="http://m.chronicle.com/article/Offensive-Letter-Justifies/148551/" target="_blank">Marc Bosquet's "Offensive Letter Justifies Oppressive System that Hurts Both Faculty and Students"</a>, hilariously published in the same venue as the original; <a href="http://str2att.roon.io/the-big-boy-boxer-shorts-27-8-2014" target="_blank">Andrew Robinson's "The Big Boy Boxer Shorts</a>"; and finally Nathaniel Oliver's masterful takedown <a href="http://nathanielcoliver.com/2014/08/30/grading-stukel/" target="_blank">"Grading Stukel."</a> The short of it is that a tenure track person thought it was necessary to state that adjuncts asking for a living wage and benefits were "whining" and furthermore, if we had only worked as hard as this author had, we would not have this problem. Because we are whiners and not willing to face the facts that not everyone lands their dream job, among other sins, we had no business teaching students. Additionally, the author chose to drag Margaret Mary Vojtko just days before the anniversary of her death actually saying that this dead woman should've put on "her big girl panties," which I'm certain would have definitely helped her beat both cancer and the lack of decent pay. Arg. Macrocosm. This article, published in a major higher education venue, received many views and even comments agreeing with the author, though I am starting to believe all these folks who rail against every pro-adjunct piece and support the anti ones are either Badmin, Badmin Handmaidens (my term for anyone who aids and abets badmin), or spooked tenure track faculty who still don't get it.<br />
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So, adjuncts, the detractors will say work harder: bootstraps; don't whine: i.e. ask for fair compensation for services provided; remember it could be worse: Tanzania, I am told (my apologies to Tanzania); and meritocracy: your skills will save you in the end.<br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8134254913286330180" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>More realistically: organize with colleagues or even a union, if you can. The bloated administrative beast that is American higher education cannot grind on without us. We can stop this. Look at the fast food and home health workers! The criticisms leveled at them are the same directed at us. Many of them also work multiple jobs with disastrous results, such as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/28/maria-fernandes_n_5732230.html" target="_blank">the recent death of Maria Fernandes</a>. Are we ready to take to the streets and face down our critics? Are we ready to be that brave or does our tenuous tie to white collar, aspiring to the middle class mentality being a college teacher confers constrain us? We have the majority. If we all walk out, we bring the juggernaut of corporate higher education to a halt. Think about the form above. How much work have you done and for how many years that has been basically volunteer labor for the academy? Isn't it time we were properly compensated? Isn't it time that every worker was?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-79166780905799912802014-08-24T21:37:00.001-07:002015-01-30T10:19:41.152-08:00Adjunct Architecture <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QEwzCKqqKH4/U_q52JcRbYI/AAAAAAAAAyI/_S1ryHI1Gxw/s1600/4-Pillars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Distressed Columns" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QEwzCKqqKH4/U_q52JcRbYI/AAAAAAAAAyI/_S1ryHI1Gxw/s1600/4-Pillars.jpg" height="213" title="" width="320" /></a>For most of my adjunct colleagues, school has either already begun or will do so in the next few days. I would like to sincerely wish everyone the best of luck: may your classes fill and run, may they not be stolen by anyone, may your commutes be traffic-free, and may your vehicles/bus passes stay running and valid. If I could wave a wand and make all those things so, it is the very least I would do for the battalions of adjuncts returning to service. In a session at the recent COCAL (Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor) conference in New York City, adjuncts were labeled "Pillars of the University." This is the truth. With some estimates of our numbers nationwide at 76% of faculty, indeed the superstructure of the corporate higher education cannot stand without us. <br />
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Columns exist all over the world in buildings that have stood for hundreds of years. Some are plain looking, some are fluted, some are inscribed. Some, like the ones in this picture, have grime from years of exposure to the elements, they have fissures, they are in the shadows, but still they stand. Adjuncts, this is an appropriate metaphor for many of us. I feel this even more keenly than I did last year.<br />
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I no longer work for what I referred to here on this blog as School One. This week, as the students return to my town, I feel left out of that energy for the first time in four years. I <i>feel</i> it. I have to drive past the school nearly every time I go out because it dominates the landscape. At School Two I have one class this term. This was not retaliation for anything, but it was a choice I was forced to make. Without the larger salary from School One, I could not afford the childcare, gas, bus, and other expenses of a 120+ mile round trip commute twice a week. I could not afford to work. I kept one weekend class because my family can handle the childcare, saving that money. This is simply to keep my foot in the teaching door, and, in a sense, to keep my sanity. I'm one of those cracked pillars. I have been caught in my calling. <br />
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So that is where Year Two of being The Unarmed Education Mercenary begins: one class and they are already mine. I am a pillar. I am still standing. I am still working to get adjuncts doing the important work of teaching the nation's students more reward for their mostly underpaid labor. Join the battle. Stand with the Pillars. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-70609798900496715392014-07-17T21:51:00.000-07:002015-01-30T10:19:53.358-08:00Signal Boost: Petition to Investigate Higher Ed Labor Practices RE: Contingent FacultyThe Unarmed Education Mercenary has been taking it easy lately, trying to get well and spending some time with the family. Soon the day will come to make decisions and construct syllabi, but the adjunct battle never ceases, thus I am here to bring an important petition to the attention of any readers who might have missed it on social media this week. <br />
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Several adjunct activists and allies from across the country composed this petition to David Weil, Director of the Wage and Hour Division at the US Department of Labor, to open an inquiry into the use and abuse of contingent and non-tenure track instructors by colleges and universities nationwide. Titled <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/david-weil-dir-wage-and-hour-div-u-s-dept-of-labor-open-an-investigation-into-the-labor-practices-of-our-colleges-and-universities-in-the-employment-of-contingent-faculty?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_mobile" target="_blank">"Open an Investigation into the Labor Practices of our Colleges and Universities in the Employment of Contingent Faculty</a>," it quickly reached its original goal of 500 signatures, which was raised to 1,000. That mark, too, was surpassed in less than 24 hours and signatures continue to be added.<br />
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Already two articles highlighting the petition exist. <i>Inside Higher Education's</i> <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/07/16/adjuncts-urge-labor-dept-inquiry-working-conditions#sthash.Zi5V4n7F.Emv2xgm9.dpbs" target="_blank">"Adjuncts Urge Labor Dept. Inquiry into Working Conditions" </a>from July 16th gives a brief look, but Justin Peligri's article for <i>USA Today</i>,<a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2014/07/17/underpaid-and-overworked-adjunct-professors-share-their-stories/" target="_blank"> "Underpaid and Overworked: Adjunct Professors Share their Stories,"</a> goes further. In this July 17th piece Peligri interviews two of the petition's authors, Joseph Fruscione and Ann Kottner, as well as three students who have been taught by adjunct professors. <br />
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Please read the articles and especially the petition. Sign and share. Let's see how many signatures that we can get. The adjunct crisis will only be solved with action. The more publicity we can garner, the more light we can throw on the situation, the better our chances become. Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions, thus the exploitation of adjunct labor is a cause for faculty, students, parents, and anyone who cares about the state of higher education in America.<br />
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Thanks everyone! Even at rest, I'm ready to rejoin the fray!<br />
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UPDATE 12:37 pm 7/18: Petition co-author and blogger Joe Fruscione provides an update on the signature count as well as more insight into what the authors and signers hope to accomplish in "<a href="http://jfruscione.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/that-petition-youve-been-hearing-so-much-about/" target="_blank">That Petition You've Been Hearing so Much About."</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-64772833291544226322014-06-11T13:50:00.002-07:002015-01-30T10:20:11.074-08:00One Year of AdjunctingLast summer I began this blog upon receiving the "Good News," which was the email subject line, that my hours at my formerly full-time temporary faculty position were to be cut. It was late in the summer to be looking for piecemeal work, but I managed to find some classes over 60 miles away, thanks to a friend. It was either that or find a cheaper rental place for my family in a town that has neither loads of safe, cheaper rental places for families or other teaching jobs. Though I truly had been an adjunct all those years of full-time work, I had not ever considered myself one until that moment I took on two schools. I was wrong. I was always disposable to the system. Now I was to find out just how precariously many of the nation's 76% of higher education faculty truly do live.<br />
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I started the fall term with an abundance of optimism -- really what choice did I have? I could either teach six composition classes for two schools or children would not eat and bills would not be paid. An added bonus was that the fall breaks for both schools lined up, giving me real and much needed rests. For the most part, the fall was okay if not absolutely maddening in the amount of work that I did. It was during this never-ending onslaught of grading that I became more involved with adjunct activism, and it was quite likely that involvement that kept me from losing my mind entirely. Even the sometimes two hour plus commute--of which it sometimes took over an hour to go about three miles--gave me time to think, plan, and compose in my head. My smartphone became my best work tool, giving me a place to take notes down on the fly, check all of my email accounts, do research, keep track of my to-do lists, and about four million other things that would have been impossible even six years ago. Without constant access to my files and the internet, my work would have been twice as difficult. <br />
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Then winter came. On the last Tuesday of fall term I fell on the ice outside my house as I took off to walk to School One. I fell straight down. This resulted in the destruction of my trusty old laptop that was in my backpack on that day and, worse, I injured my hip joints and continue to limp even now. This was the beginning of the no-insurance-health-meltdown. Though I only missed one class all Fall term due to illness, the Spring term was disastrous. It should be noted that School Two provides no real sick leave.<br />
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Any of my US readers know that this past winter was utterly deplorable. Once I cancelled classes on my commute day for a complete whiteout. Once I cancelled it for an ice storm that left roads impassable. A third time, when I was within an hour of my destination, a large truckload tiedown hook was launched from the road and through my radiator. Luckily, I'd kept my AAA membership and my vehicle insurance covered almost all the costs. If I hadn't had these safety nets, I likely would not have been able to get home that day or to afford the repairs. Despite any other scrimping and saving an adjunct must do, from experience if I'm going to drive anywhere for this job, those two things are worth every penny to have. <br />
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In February, my smaller son brought home a cold from daycare. After a week of coughing on me, I became ill. This was no minor cold when set loose in my system. For two weeks it raged and then, just as I began to feel better, some upper respiratory flu attacked me. All of February and March were miserable. I coughed so hard I either cracked a rib or pulled something important in my side. Sleep? Not lying down. So here I was, dragging about two schools separated by 60+ miles, limping, coughing, and teaching. I traded my trusty backpack for a small wheeled bag marketed as a mobile office. Another good investment. This bag even has a padded pocket for my new-to-me laptop that should protect it better than the sleeve did and I wouldn't be as much at risk for dropping it from on high. The only drawback is that when I ride the bus downtown to School Two (parking is so expensive it is more cost efficient for me to park on my friends' street for free and take the bus), it can be a pain to heft it up the step and then keep it out of everyone's way. However, I can take all the things I need, as well as heavy textbooks and papers, more easily than before all without hurting myself. <br />
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For most of February, March, and April, while the weather in my area was less than optimal--snow, ice, whiteouts, more snow, freezing cold temperatures--I coughed and snuffled my way through the five classes. My spring breaks did not line up, but this at least provided two "easy" weeks; therefore, I only had to work at one school each week. I thought that I would get some insurance help straightened out during this time, but instead I got much sicker and spent the off days of the one week in bed and then the off days of the break two weeks later trying desperately to stay awake long enough to grade the monster stack of writing that accumulated during the worst of the illness. There were things students needed back in order to continue, so those were prioritized. I took the honesty approach with the students. They already knew I taught at two schools because I made that clear from the start of term as part of my introduction, and they knew I was very ill. I promised work would be back when needed. I offered extended rewrite deadlines. I used email services routed to my smartphone to keep up with everyone, having instructed them that was the best way to reach me and get quicker answers to any questions or any needed help. The students also suffered with the wretched sickness at both campuses. The weather and flu took their tolls on us all. Somehow we made it to the end. <br />
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By the end of April for one school and the middle of May for the other, we completed the spring term. Students wrote some great things. Some of their reflective portfolio letters were fabulously specific in the things they learned and how they would apply them in other classes and writings. I did not lose too many from my rosters and most of those were folks who withdrew from the universities fully early in the term. I did lose a few more in one of my developmental classes than I would like, but that is not uncommon. I cannot help but think that if I only worked at that one school I would have had more opportunity to chase them down and keep them in the course. Teaching developmental sections takes more care, more effort, to retain students who struggle for a various intersection of reasons. They are courses I've been entrusted with in the past, just never as a two-school adjunct. That isn't doing the best for the students. <br />
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So now it is June. I have finally stopped coughing. I do not always feel very good. I still have trouble with my left hip. I am in a battle with assistance agencies over medical, food, and income help as I enter summer with no work. I've been applying to jobs inside and outside academia. Would I do this two school adjunct thing again? I would really prefer not to, but it may once again be the only option available. My position at School One, the original job that I had and the one that paid the best is now gone. All of the adjuncts in my department there were replaced with graduate students. Fifteen folks lost their jobs. The other adjunct options in this area pay far less and are term-to-term contracts whereas this one at least provided an entire academic year's guaranteed amount of pay. Losing this is the next level down: term by term work only. <br />
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This is one year as a two-school adjunct in short. It does not address the good things: the fun of classes; the great things students said, created, and wrote; and working with other adjuncts to organize, unionize, and draw attention to the cause. This is my truth of one year. This is the state of American higher education for many of the 76% of adjuncts teaching at our colleges and universities.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-3443734274031099302014-05-06T20:34:00.004-07:002015-01-30T10:21:47.153-08:00Adjunct Verses/Versus Badmin<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<h3>
<i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8134254913286330180" name="_GoBack">First Badmin came for the retired tenure track lines,
and I did not speak out</a></i></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i> Because I had a tenure track job.</i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><o:p><i> </i></o:p></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i><br /></i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i>Then they came for the liberal
studies jobs, and I did not speak out—</i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i> Because I did not teach much liberal
studies anyway.</i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><o:p><i> </i></o:p></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i><br /></i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i>Then they came for the adjuncts’
jobs, and I did not speak out—</i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i> Because I was not an adjunct.</i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><o:p><i> </i></o:p></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i><br /></i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><i>Then they came for my tenure track
job—and there was no one left to speak for me.</i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><o:p><i> </i></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;">My apologies to Martin Niem</span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">ӧ</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;">ller: This is
in no way meant to belittle his original and very powerful quote on the dangers
of not standing up for the right thing when one should, nor is it meant to equate the adjunct crisis with the Holocaust--that would be inane and inappropriate. This is only to remind people how we
got in this current situation and just how far it could still go. Too often we are complacent until the crisis knocks on our own front door. If you feel alone and powerless, it is much easier to stay safe and quiet. I can understand that because I have been that person. Doing the right thing is often not easy and entails risk. Across the nation I watch my adjunct family lose classes through cuts or tenured faculty poaching of already filled contingent faculty sections. I see policies implemented in the name of "the greater good" that cost current teachers their livelihoods. If the adjunctification of the professoriate is allowed to reach its endgame, there will be no tenure track by default. When the tenured become the minority on every single campus, who will balance votes and the job of shared governance? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;">We can either take a stand or continue to watch American higher education succumb to corporatization. The current rise in adjunct unionization efforts countrywide is no mere trend. People are drawing the line and beginning to fight back. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;">Where will you stand? Beside us or against us? </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-402027007647463752014-04-30T21:46:00.002-07:002015-01-30T10:22:02.152-08:00Let' s Make this as Painful as Possible!This is my last week at School Two. I'm nearly finished grading all the papers and portfolios for those two classes. Today was my last day there and it started out pretty well. It was nice that more than one person in my Composition II class thanked me for the course and said they enjoyed it. My day should've stopped there.<br />
<br />
Then I checked my email.<br />
<br />
From School One, the one that has dismissed all the current adjuncts, came an email request. This missive went out to the entire department, but it could just as easily have been sent to a list of only the permanent faculty members. Instead, every single one of us was asked to do a big favor for the new horde of incoming TAs--our replacements: would all faculty be so kind as to submit their assignments and prompts to be stored electronically for these students to access?<br />
<br />
<i>Excuse me?</i><br />
<br />
I've just been told that I'm no longer needed. It is then implied that I am not good enough to go through the existent conversion to permanent faculty member process that is part of our contract, but my ASSIGNMENTS would be APPRECIATED?!<br />
<br />
Nope.<br />
<br />
So very much nope that if nope had a tonnage measurement this would break the scales of Nope-i-ness.<br />
<br />
My years of professional education courses, of teaching experience, of trial-and-error--->reflection--->reconfiguration ARE MOST CERTAINLY NOT going to go to the people who will be paid less money to do my job. <br />
<br />
Would I share ideas with a colleague? Yes. Have I done this in the past? Yes. This is what makes a community of teacher/scholars function well. Should I leave my hard work to be vampirishly siphoned off by those with no context or knowledge of me and my methodology? Hell no.<br />
<br />
This was an absurd and highly offensive request. A parting blow with just over a week to go. A reminder that we are not wanted, just our products that are beneficial to others. If that isn't greasing the wheels of the corporate education machine with our own bodies and minds, I don't know what is. <br />
<br />
I sincerely hope that any other adjunct or TA who is not returning ignores that request and doesn't submit a damn thing. I do admit that one friend's suggestion of turning in a syllabus with a theme of adjunctification amused me, but I don't have the time or the patience to even make a satirical stab at an assignment for this. <br />
<br />
A request such as this takes the cake. This cake, to be precise: <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Smdo8I34D6g/U2HQvcGHRnI/AAAAAAAAAsc/eCDFk8TRtW8/s1600/cake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Misspelled Adjunct Cake" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Smdo8I34D6g/U2HQvcGHRnI/AAAAAAAAAsc/eCDFk8TRtW8/s1600/cake.jpg" height="180" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
P.S. Adjuncts, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-5725340971255705712014-04-23T15:03:00.000-07:002015-01-30T10:22:36.321-08:00Earlier Optimistism Probably Erroneous: Farewell to Fifteen Adjunct PositionsThere was a time a few short weeks ago when I believed that the outrage over what could happen to adjuncts was going to make a difference in the department at School One--this is the place where our very own department reduced our workload down to 3/3 from our former 4/4 full time, year-long schedules, thus making me a two-school Unarmed Education Mercenary. Several tenure track folks got angry enough to speak out publicly and also called for the issue of our cut hours, ridiculously unaffordable heath care situation, and part time status to be discussed at full department meetings both in the fall term and this spring. Readers of the blog already know that I went to a portion of that first meeting, but I never really wrote fully what the fallout was from that day. I think that it has taken me this long to comprehend it all myself. It has not been a mentally easy few months and the last few weeks have been especially discouraging. From trusted reports, it is probably better that I did not attend the last meeting. It sounded like an ugly scene between colleagues that likely has deepened the divide between undergraduate and graduate faculty. A divide as apparent to an outside assessment committee as it is to those working there. Instead, I taught my classes, which are scheduled the same time as the departmental meetings, <br />
<br />
Aside from a disinterested disregard for what happened to the adjuncts by many people who spoke up at the first meeting--a lot of people didn't speak up at all, so I don't know what to say about that other than maybe they agreed with those who did--was an utter lack of respect for liberal/general studies courses, both the people who teach them, and the students who must take these required classes. Underscored by reports from the latest meeting, it seems to be the view that the overly large doctoral program students deserve these formerly adjunct courses as places to gain teaching experience. It is already a practice that there are Teaching Associates granted a few courses and nominally supervised by mentors, but these positions have been highly competitive. How that competition plays out is, perhaps, a story for another blog or even another writer, but these positions do exist. The competition is supposed to ensure the best qualified candidates get the positions. This also should guarantee, by extension, that undergraduates aren't exposed to educated fools who have no idea how to construct, direct, or assess learning. I'm fairly certain no chairperson or dean wants to be inundated with grade or unprofessional conduct complaints, and having once covered classes for a TA who could not take the pressure and left unexpectedly, I was told that "avoidance of all grade complaints" was the goal as I covered the last four weeks and finals while trying to salvage some shred of learning for those students. Art Linkletter used to say that "Old age isn't for sissies," and I would revise that to "Contemporary teaching isn't for them either." Education is an art and a skill that can be learned, but it should not come at the expense of undergraduate students paying full price. <br />
<br />
When I think of how many times undergraduate non-English majors have told me that my class has been the first English class they've ever enjoyed or felt the freedom to really write in, I am very pleased. I also neither appreciated or followed the advice of tenure track faculty who told me, when I was a TA and an adjunct finsihing a dissertation, to let the classes languish in favor of my own work or I would "never get done" with my degree. Do what now? I'm supposed to give a class of students who have paid the same amount as everyone else a sub-par experience because my writing is more important? I guess that makes sense to certain people, but most likely not those from professional education backgrounds. I neither compromised my classes or my work and, TA-DA, degree in hand, for what good it does me. Is that what those advice-givers did? Did they sacrifice the quality of their undergraduate teaching in favor of their own work? Doing a dissertation is not dissimilar from working on a scholarly book, so teaching while writing should be the norm and not something to get past. <br />
<br />
This move to gift all the former adjunct positions to less qualified teaching associates seems a direct disservice to the many highly qualified adjuncts who do a great job AND an equally bad move for undergraduate students. It also furthers the rift between graduate and undergraduate faculty as in, dear undergrad profs, your classes are not really worthy of anything but a learning experience for our doctoral programs. W. O. W. Way to undercut morale while missing the boat for on-campus recruitment and retention of majors, which seems to always be a concern we are to keep in mind. Additionally, this particular campus likes to claim, both in PR materials and in on-campus recruitment tours, that "At mega-universities, students might catch a glimpse of the professor; too busy doing research to be in the classroom, he or she passes the class off to a graduate assistant. Not at _(Insert name of PA State System School)___, where the professors who conduct the important research also teach the class." Furthermore, according to projected course offering data and current coverage statistics, Professor "Staff" will cover over 50% of undergraduate liberal studies required courses. This is based only on currently scheduled courses and does not take into account those invariably added during summer orientation sessions as required courses fill to the maximum and new ones are approved for the overflow. <br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To compound the situation further, readers of the blog may recall that there is indeed a faculty union at this school--one that is for tenure track faculty AND adjuncts alike! Ah but herein lies a terrible conundrum that has led me to an answer I pondered earlier: can a union represent both tenure track and adjuncts equally? The answer in this case is a resounding NO. The union failed us utterly. In the fall our concerns were treated as no major issue. A union member sympathetic to our cause told me at one point that a policy grievance on behalf of all 15/16 of us was being filed. It disappeared. My contact could not discover what became of it. I guess this place has one of Winston of <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> fame's memory holes. This spring, when our chair summarily dismissed us with the notice of a policy change in fact giving all the classes to graduate students, our grievance chair went from reportedly outraged, to wishy-washy in a meeting with some adjuncts, to nothing happening again as the short clock on our window to file ticked away. What happened here? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the latest round of contract negotiations between this union of PA state system faculty and the state powers that be, our team stood up for adjuncts when the state wanted to reduce us all to part timers to ostensibly save a few bucks. No, said the union. This is wrong. However, I believe that the union team did not go far enough to protect us. Perhaps, being union members, they could not fathom that our very own union members, faculty themselves would then turn and do to adjuncts exactly what administration wanted in the first place! With no explicit language in place to protect adjuncts, the wonderful conversion to tenure track option for long term temp facutly can be subverted by any department willing to flout solidarity and the spirit of the contract. In my opinion, either this contract, voted for and approved by a statewide membership covers EVERYONE who is a member or it is a useless document fit for the bottom of birdcages. If our nominal protections can be subverted for the will of this department or that, then why should anyone abide by the articles of it at all? That is not solidarity, it is pick-and-choose, not unlike those people who use one verse from Leviticus to denounce their favorite sin while shoveling in likewise forbidden shellfish as they sport polyblend clothing! </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dMolhR1RUcY/U5p4K5Q9wkI/AAAAAAAAAtc/m9pd6kGm4GE/s640/blogger-image-1609045680.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Torn Union Sign" border="0" height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dMolhR1RUcY/U5p4K5Q9wkI/AAAAAAAAAtc/m9pd6kGm4GE/s320/blogger-image-1609045680.jpg" title="" width="240" /></a>Adjuncts, I think that if we are going to successfully work for better working conditions for us and better learning conditions for our students, we should trust ourselves and our OWN unions. This situation has made it clear to me that very few people still clinging to the tenure track dream are truly concerned with the reality of the situation that their very own programs are complicit in creating. When job searches nationwide generate 200-300+ candidates per posting, the reason so many PhDs remain jobless in the academic field is not the incompetence of those candidates, but rather the dearth of positions for which we have been trained. It is not a case of not trying hard enough or being good enough; instead it is entirely because full time positions have been systematically reduced and divided until there is the appearance of only part time work. The classes are there. The money is being diverted elsewhere. It is time to fight a system bent on perpetuating itself on the backs of adjucnt faculty and out of the pockets of parents and students. </div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-79675240340565551522014-04-06T21:23:00.003-07:002015-01-30T10:22:44.985-08:00Still Among the LivingIf there were ever a time in my college teaching career that I needed Spring Break, this was that year. Unfortunately, the breaks for my two schools did not align this term and I just had a lighter teaching load for two weeks. I also had a bad cold followed by the flu and those compounded by a recurrent health condition I've had since a child. If I had a dollar for every person who told me to get to the doctor, I could've afforded to actually GO to the doctor! <br />
<br />
Here in the United States we recently hit the deadline to enroll in the ACA, or Affordable Care Act---known to many of us as the Not So Affordable Care Act. A couple of other adjuncts, both in person and on-line discussed with me their frustrations about not being able to enroll. Most of them work at more than one school. Some of the schools, like my School Two, explicitly will not give us adjuncts more than nine credit hours per term to avoid the new government requirement to provide full time employees healthcare. I suppose since in America that corporations are people, and often more valued than the actual people living in America, they can get away with this. Therefore, though I work more than a full time person, I have no healthcare covered by my employers--School One cut our hours to avoid having to convert any of us to full time permanent employees due to our long term work histories (this was told to us out loud and in person, it was not related to ACA avoidance as some presume). This made our once affordable coverage coming from living wage checks impossible to afford on our drastically reduced pay. <br />
<br />
Like my adjunct colleagues, I enthusiastically checked into the ACA early on. Though it is somewhat situation-based, the lowest price plan has horrendously high deductibles. The second one was too much a month. The next one up was absurdly too much. Other folks like me had the same basic assessment. To make matters worse, many states including the one in which I live, refused to expand low income programs, thus leaving a big gap between who gets coverage by the state and those who can afford to pay for their own. A great deal of adjuncts are caught in that gap. <br />
<br />
However, onward we drag ourselves to get to work. I worry about canceling classes at either place, unwilling to be seen as someone neglecting my duties. I don't want to give any place any reason to fire me. The fact that I speak up for adjunct issues is probably enough to land me on some sort of hit list, if anyone has been paying attention. Additionally, one of my classes only meets once a week and to call that off would be a nightmare to reschedule and still get the students all they need for the term. The very worst part has been my severely reduced lack of energy. Energy is a valuable commodity when teaching five writing-heavy classes at two schools 58 miles apart! <br />
<br />
During this time I calculated midterm grades for around 97 students and graded approximately 327 papers. This doesn't count quizzes and small in-class work. I still have a backlog of about forty rewrites and some on-line discussions to score. I hope to finally get these off my conscious this weekend. I do not like hold work more than two weeks, but I found myself forced to prioritize those assignments needed to continue other projects and let these sort of terminal ones wait. It bothers me anyway. It isn't doing my usual best. At one of the schools for certain there is a question on the end of term survey that asks about my promptness in returning work: I will get hammered on that, and rightly so. It isn't like me to be so sick or slow. There's some shame in that. <br />
<br />
I hope to get back to my regular posting schedule. I've missed this and there have been strange and not always wondrous developments to report. <br />
<br />
Now, it's time to sleep.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-88751399495060736952014-03-16T21:18:00.001-07:002014-03-16T21:18:08.515-07:00My ApologiesThe Unarmed Education Mercenary apologizes for her lack of posts. This is the beginning the fourth week of some illness that will not let go. <div><br></div><div>Hopefully this coming week will be better. Hang in there, adjuncts. </div><div>I haven't forgotten you, given up the fight, or been silenced. I've just been very sick. </div><div><br></div><div>-TUEM </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-86409441296750134342014-03-03T13:57:00.002-08:002015-01-30T10:23:10.385-08:00Tough Questions Parents and Students [potential customers *cringe*] Should Ask Potential CollegesAt a banquet for my elder son's high school band this past weekend, many of the other parents at my table were the proud moms and dads of seniors or juniors. This particular son who I was there with is still two years from graduation. I listened to these parents discuss the trials and tribulations of multitudinous campus visits, logistics, choosing majors, and all the senior activities still to come in the school year. As I kept my smaller child from either forking himself or me in the eye and also occupied for the program, I considered some thoughts I have on the choosing a college process as it relates to the best interest of students and getting the best education for their parents' or their own money. I will probably be the most unwelcome prospective parent on several campuses in a few years!<br />
<br />
A cursory look at several websites with handy--and some not so handy but instead rather lengthy--lists revealed that the list-makers consider things like difficulty of classes, roommates, safety, and food to be the biggest concerns. <br />
<br />
Several lists suggested asking who teaches first-year courses, but mainly these were worded in such a way as to preclude the existence of adjuncts: "Who teaches the first year courses I will be taking? Professors or teaching assistants?" The generic title of "professor" means, to most students and parents, anyone with degree in hand teaching the class. The "teaching assistant" designation is offered as a less-than-desirable choice because supposedly that person will be working on their own degree, thus spending less time and effort on the class, or they may not have the knowledge or experience of a professor. Missing from this simple binary are the thousands of adjunct faculty, many with terminal degrees and years of experience in the classroom: by omission we are not considered. <br />
<br />
The title of professor comes at the top of tenure heap. For those not aware, in the United States, in descending order they are professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor/lecturer, then adjunct. The teaching or graduate assistant is not officially considered since many are still classed as students themselves, however, they too are need-based employees. I understand the term "professor" is meant generically but it is this ease of use factor that prevents parents from asking a tougher question: "If my student is taught by mainly adjunct faculty, then where does the tuition money go?" <br />
<br />
Where, indeed. One site listed seeing construction projects on campus as a "good sign" that the school keeps its facilities up to date. A better question might be "Why is this building being constructed now and what is it replacing?" Are funds being directed to unnecessary projects--rock climbing walls, waterfalls, more lounge/meeting space--that could have been spent on education via creating full-time permanent positions for faculty? Further, what is the rate of administrative growth compared to permanent faculty hires in the past five or ten years? Why has this trend toward a top-heavy system emerged? <br />
<br />
Most schools suffer from a contemporary marketing trend of expressing their values. I've heard this same obfuscation used recently in regards to the corporate health care employment area, i.e. employees lauded for going "above and beyond," which a friend of the blog pointed out are both prepositions requiring an object: above and beyond WHAT are they going?! One of my own alma maters used "Beyond Expectations" for a number of years. At least we received an object for our preposition, as indeterminate as it was; however, at no time were we given exactly whose expectations the place was going beyond. As can be imagined, this is quite subjective. Was the money spent on new banners, letterhead designs, website layouts, and other official insignia worth it in the end? I forgot it entirely and had to ask others. <br />
<br />
However, pointed questions picking away at the economic <i>values</i> of the college or university would most likely fall to people perhaps not as well equipped to answer them. Many campus tours are given by college students paid work study wages. Some staff serving as campus recruiters also may not be paid large salaries and would perhaps be placed in precarious positions in regards to reprimands or even their employment status if they answered. I would not want to cause trouble for these folks. Perhaps if, on a tour, a more honored guest gives a question and answer session, that would be the best forum for these. A parent's letter to the school being considered might also bring interesting results without putting anyone tenuous in peril. <br />
<br />
Among all the other pertinent questions students, parents, and guardians might be considering when selecting a college, might I suggest tacking on some, if not all, of the following should they be given an opportunity? Better yet, make an opportunity and ask:<br />
<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-za_vP9DpQ1U/U5p4AIfOJSI/AAAAAAAAAtU/rn9Ae2E-IFw/s640/blogger-image--1409494829.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Data fortune cookie" border="0" height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-za_vP9DpQ1U/U5p4AIfOJSI/AAAAAAAAAtU/rn9Ae2E-IFw/s320/blogger-image--1409494829.jpg" title="" width="240" /></a><br />
<ul>
<li>What is your campus's percentage of contingent (adjunct) faculty?</li>
<li>What are they paid per course?</li>
<li>What percentage of employees at this school are classed as administrative?</li>
<li>What is the salary of the president?</li>
<li>Does he or she live on campus?</li>
<li>How many vice presidents work here?</li>
<li>What construction projects are going on? Why were they needed? How are they funded?</li>
<li>What percentage of grounds staff is full time? What is seasonal?</li>
<li>What does the lowest paid administrative assistant make per year? </li>
<li>What is the average semester's cost for textbooks? Are there options for renting or lending of books?</li>
</ul>
<br />
Certainly more could be added to this list, but it past time to challenge the hierarchy of wages at the post-secondary level: whose work is vital to the success, safety, and well-being of students and how are these employees being treated?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-83307619570693780492014-02-21T20:12:00.001-08:002015-01-30T10:23:41.246-08:00Life Intervenes and "Silly Season" EnsuesIf my readers were looking for a blog post this week just past, there was not one. It was one of <i>those </i>weeks: The weather was worrisome for the big drive commute and the walk commute, and more importantly, the smaller child was very sick. Also, I had a good deal of papers to grade and return because the students needed the feedback to continue with their projects. I even began the week getting observed at School Two. And I had to chase down an observer at School One to get last term's observation report signed. And, and, and, and....<i>ad infinitum</i>.<br />
<br />
The funny thing is, as I sat evaluating papers, planning classes, and working on all the things either late at night or very early in the morning when the small, clingy sick one was asleep, I missed this. I felt somewhat guilty about not posting this week. To say there is A LOT going on with the #AdjunctUprising would be an understatement. University of Illinois at Chicago's adjuncts staged a planned work stoppage, or strike if you will, to bring attention to their cause despite the insane weather the midwest is getting pummeled by. Lecturers at the University of New Hampshire voted to unionize while many others work towards this goal for their own campuses. Media coverage of adjunct issues continues on Al Jazeera America, NPR, Inside Higher Ed, and The Chronicle, not to mention in brave student papers at campuses across the nation.<br />
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As schools edge towards Spring Break and the halfway point of the semester, many of us search frantically for our next paying gig(s). In NASCAR they have a part of the year called "silly season," which involves drivers changing teams, drivers losing their rides or sponsors, or teams try to lock in drivers and/or sponsors for the upcoming season in an effort to win the most races. I believe we adjuncts also have a "silly season," but it is much more serious than the name implies. Just as a driver could end up without a ride and thus a livelihood, so too could any of us in adjunct land. People get frantic, then desperate. <br />
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Those of us whose full time adjunct positions were cut at School One, which necessitated my employment at School Two and was the impetus for beginning this blog, were told in a meeting that we would not be rehired. At this point, it looks as though the union there, which I have belonged to since 2006 and is for all faculty, will not protect us. They failed to write explicit terms for our situation into the last contract though they fended off an attack on adjuncts from management during negotiations. I suppose they did not foresee their own departments in turn meting out the same abhorrent treatment that was deemed abominable when suggested by those on the opposite side: cut hours to avoid paying benefits or good salaries. I still do not know what will happen with the job posting there and am in a wait-and-see-while-plotting-other-routes kind of mood. Clearly, adjuncts need their own union, and not one that inevitably puts tenure track faculty first whether on purpose or by default. <br />
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In the ongoing effort to remain relevant to the academic field, I've been busy submitting some award applications, publications, and sketching out some new article ideas during all this as well. Oh, and even doing some service work. Winston Churchill said, "If you're going through hell, keep going." Some days it feels like that. The danger in stopping is inaction, apathy, and defeat. Even if I end up going in entirely another direction, I don't think I can stop moving yet. Maybe it means creeping only inches forward in a week or a month, but it is motion towards some goal though I'm not sure what that is. <br />
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What will happen to the intrepid adjunct population? I guess that's a story for a later post. My Magic 8 Ball still isn't working very well.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HVEMEsWPmeI/Uwgc3AfDHqI/AAAAAAAAArs/WvjgKL_uuQI/s1600/chaos+clouds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Chaos Clouds" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HVEMEsWPmeI/Uwgc3AfDHqI/AAAAAAAAArs/WvjgKL_uuQI/s1600/chaos+clouds.jpg" height="240" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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Chaos Clouds, photo by me</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134254913286330180.post-27347841024680661412014-02-04T22:34:00.001-08:002015-01-30T10:24:28.716-08:00A Day in the Life of an AdjunctMany of my posts lately have stuck to issues or events related to adjuncts nationwide. This one is what an average day is like for this particular adjunct, in case some of my readers do not live this life. This is based on my Wednesday last week with some added aspects for perspective. It is all true. <br />
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On the days that I commute to work at School Two, I get up at 6:15 am. My first class is not until 11:20, but to get everything done, arrive with time to gather my thoughts and/or make any copies needed, and get to the right floor of the right building I must leave then. This is a one-hour improvement from last term when 5:15 was my wake-up call. I must get up on the first ring and go. I can't really think about what all must be done or I wouldn't get up. I'd pull up the covers and hide. </div>
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If I'm lucky, the small child does not wake up during the first thirty minutes when I'm getting ready thudding around in the dark trying not to disturb anyone else until it's time. At 6:45 I wake up my elder son to get ready for school. I have to be done in our one bathroom by then to let him in. On my commute days he must walk no matter what the weather and, outside of our block, few people bother to clear their walks. That's just the way it is. </div>
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I pack the lunches for the little guy and myself that sometimes I've managed to half prepare ahead of time, and I put the kettle on for tea/coffee/breakfast. I check my two bags and the little guy's bag, grab the lunches, then put everything in my vehicle. If it's cold I start it up, clear the snow and/or ice. If the walks need to be cleared I start them and my elder son takes over. One of us salts if needed and he's gone. Depending on traffic, sometimes he is tardy just from waiting to cross the streets. </div>
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I go in, make the tea and oatmeal, then eat as fast as possible. By at least five after seven, I have to be getting the little fellow into clothes. Usually he doesn't wake up for this and I stuff him into pants, shirts, coats, and hats. We make it out the door with my keys, my tea, and at least one stuffed toy. The sitter's isn't far and I lug him, the stuffed menagerie, a lunch bag, and his bag inside. I have gotten trapped in my vehicle due to the cold jamming the door lock and the sitter kindly came out to get him then. I must be on the road by 7:30. </div>
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Depending on luck, weather conditions, and the lack of police cruisers in the way, I usually get three miles from my parking area and hit the traffic wall. If I'm lucky it's 8:30 at this time. This past Monday, it was 9:30 because none of the major highways I travel had been cleared. For about thirty minutes I creep along in traffic: a spectacular 10 minutes per mile. Finally, I make it to my exit but even then the journey is not done. I am only going to park on my friend's street because that is free and it puts me in the cheapest bus fare zone: $2.50 gets me dropped off right on campus but it's $12.50 to park all day downtown. On a good day, I catch the 9:00 am bus, but it's more likely I get the one twenty minutes later. </div>
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I wait in cold that seems to only get colder for a nice, warm bus. The ride doesn't take long and soon I'm waiting for an elevator to go to our department's office. Then, I can grade, make copies, or fill out orders for large copy jobs. At twenty minutes 'til class I make my way to another building. I set up and get ready. The teaching is the best part and that flies by. Soon I'm telling them goodbye. I use the time after that class to update my on-line course system with any info for that day because only one of the shared computers in the adjunct office sort of works and the wifi there is so scattered it's impossible to use my own things. The classroom computer is a good one and no other class comes in, so I use it for about twenty mintues. Depending on my level of hunger, I sometimes eat there. </div>
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Some days I return to the department to eat and others I sit in a commons area. On Wednesday, my long day, I have another class at night. The middle of the day is mine to meet with students (somewhere), do prep work for the next week, grade, or run errands. Last week I did some work for the adjunct cause, then practically ran to the transit station because my bus pass was low on funds. I made it with ten minutes to go until closing. </div>
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Around 4 pm I have to think about catching a bus to go get my vehicle. The bus doesn't run at a time near the end of my night class, therefore I must bring my own wheels back downtown so that I don't have to wait 50 minutes in the dark for the last bus of the day. Parking gets cheaper at night anyway and is even free after 6 if I can luck into a space. It is usually about this time that I realize I haven't eaten anything that counts as supper. That is followed by at least seventeen texts and eight calls from home because the world is ending for various reasons.</div>
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ljogN75I1XU/U5qMbirP6xI/AAAAAAAAAvI/OcoCASfX9Do/s640/blogger-image--2013241085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pittsburgh Evening" border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ljogN75I1XU/U5qMbirP6xI/AAAAAAAAAvI/OcoCASfX9Do/s640/blogger-image--2013241085.jpg" title="" /></a>By the time I am back in my vehicle, I crank the music as loudly as possible to drown out the phone and my guilt. So long as no one is seriously hurt or injured, I figure they'll be okay. Also, I have to have some sort of order in my head before teaching a three hour class. If traffic is light and I'm lucky, I get a space with fifteen to twenty minutes to spare. This equals coffee. </div>
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Finally, I make it to my room way high in the sky. Again, class time flies by with my talkative students. By fifteen or twenty after nine, I'm safely back in my car with all my assorted bags of weight. The commute home takes less time because there is little traffic. By 10:15 I'm home again. I can expect that things will be at some level of disaster. The small child, who has fallen asleep waiting for me to come back, will wake up and be glad to see me. He will not want to go back to bed at all. I'll chase the older one to sleep after having missed his concert, forcing him to get rides there and back because it's dark and not necessarily the best plan to walk. </div>
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I'll eat something left from dinner and check my messages. If I'm lucky, no one needs any problems solved or questions answered. By 12:30 it's possible I get to go to sleep. The next morning, I will take the older one to school then fall back into bed for a couple extra hours. My School One classes begin later in the day and run in a row. </div>
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But that's another story.<br />
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(N.B. I do all my prep work early in the week so that during this part I only am concerned with adjusting things or making copies. This does not take into account the time spent doing that or the marathon grading sessions necessitated by teaching five composition classes.)<br />
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*Friend of the blog caught my misspelling of adjuncts in the first sentence. I even proofread! Thus the life of the bleary-eyed adjunct.)</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06953145559944648536noreply@blogger.com0