[Marxism] Adjunct abuse

[Jay Moore]

Very true.  I'm an adjunct myself and know all kinds of horror stories.  
The best remedy: Get together with the other adjuncts (if you can locate 
them -- that's always a problem with "contingent" workers of any sort in 
this post-Fordist just-in-time economy), share stories, raise 
consciousness and organize a union.  That's what we did.  We won a pay 
raise and a few other benies (alas not health insurance) and just as 
importantly visibility and respect from not only the college 
administration but from the other faculty and staff.  We're negotiating 
our second contract now.  If anybody wants advice on how to go about 
doing the above, feel free to contact me.

jay


Louis Proyect wrote:
> http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/03/adjunct.
> Breadth of Adjunct Use and Abuse
>
> The use of adjuncts is well known among academics, but many believe that 
> these instructors are utilized primarily in certain areas (such as the 
> humanities) or certain types of institutions (such as community 
> colleges). But a report being released today by the American Federation 
> of Teachers suggests that the breadth and depth of adjunct use is 
> greater than many realize — such that they are teaching a majority of 
> public college and university courses, and are a major force in a wide 
> range of disciplines.
>
> The report — “Reversing Course: The Troubled State of Academic Staffing 
> and a Path Forward” — is designed to publicize the extent of adjunct use 
> with a mind toward encouraging more colleges to either improve the pay 
> they offer adjuncts or shift more of their positions to the tenure 
> track. Along those lines, the AFT is releasing a new tool that allows 
> colleges to calculate the costs of changing staffing policies. The goal 
> is to show that modest changes may be possible — even in tight budget 
> years like this one — and that over time, such changes could have a 
> meaningful impact on the makeup of faculties and the compensation of 
> adjuncts.
>
> It has been too easy for administrators to ignore the issue of adjunct 
> use as something other than widespread, and this study “debunks” that 
> view by focusing not only on numbers of individuals, but courses taught, 
> said Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress, the 
> AFT union at the City University of New York, at a briefing on the 
> report. Part timers are being used nationwide “in all disciplines” and 
> in many cases at “completely non-professional salaries,” Bowen said.
>
> “Most people don’t know the situation,” said Lawrence N. Gold, director 
> of higher education at the AFT. He acknowledged that there will be no 
> immediate shift from relying on adjuncts to creating tenure-track 
> positions. But he said that, if more of the public comes to understand 
> what has happened to public higher education, progress can be made. The 
> AFT and other faculty groups have argued that while many adjunct 
> instructors are great classroom teachers, their working conditions — 
> such as lack of office hours, being cut off from curricular decisions, 
> being forced to move from campus to campus — result in a reduced quality 
> of education, and erode the job security vital for academic freedom.
>
>
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