ARCHIVE: March 2008
March 26th 2008
"Striking Part-Timers in Canada"
Listen to my blog entry here.
Yesterday afternoon, I interviewed Dr. Judy Bates. She is the president of the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association. As you may know, the 366 part-time faculty represented by the WLUFA went out on strike a few days ago. Judy Bates is a pleasant woman with a British accent, and a talent for remembering her speaking points. We spoke for half an hour about why the university's part-timers are on strike, what the union ultimately hopes to gain for their part-timers, and why she thinks all part-time faculty should be expected to advise students and conduct research. This is the first strike ever at Wilfrid Laurier, and the union's leaders are stumped. There's a new president at the institution, and Bates posited that, perhaps, the institution's new leader is trying to let the union know who's in charge. Pushing faculty to strike doesn't seem like the best way to establish and cement one's leadership abilities.
The union's web page is full of the usual strike rhetoric. The university's web page displays a prominent "Labour Update." Both sides are accusing each other of encouraging students to drop courses taught by contract faculty on strike. The union has no idea why university officials aren't back at the bargaining table. University officials are "ready to resume bargaining anytime." The university's website provides "factually-based information." The implication is that the union's leaders are, maybe, stretching the truth? In some ways, it's like watching a familiar family fight. The tragedy, of course, is that thousands of students are missing classes.
I raised the "pay gap" issue with Dr. Bates, and at Wilfrid Laurier a typical contract faculty members earns just 30 percent of what a full-time faculty member earns for teaching the same five course load. The part-timers have been represented by the union since 1998, and Bates suggested that in that decade the pay gap has increased though this was a guess, and she promised to send along the actual numbers. If the gap is 70 percent, and it has increased, one could question the efficacy of the union's representation and the goals of its leadership. As much as I admire the leaders of CAUT and their commitment to organizing part-time faculty, as well as the current "It's Time" campaign underway throughout Ontario under the auspices of OPSEU, part-time faculty pay under union representation should not deteriorate.
The interview with Judy Bates will be posted later today as a part of the AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview Series. Here are links to our other Podcast Interviews:
Send comments and suggestions concerning our Podcast Interview Series directly to me. I look forward to your feedback.
Posted By Patricia L. at 8:00 AM
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March 20th 2008
I Never Said That!
Listen to my blog entry here.
I just finished meeting with Ryan Sexton, our web page programmer. He and I are working out the best way to display our new Podcast Interview Series. Ryan suggested that we offer a podcast player to visitors who may not have one. It's just saves a step in the process of listening to the Podcast Interviews. I saw the one he designed today, and it's easy to use. Magazine subscribers will have exclusive access to the Podcast Interviews for seven days, then the interviews will be available to everyone who's an AdjunctNation.com Family member.
Yesterday I interviewed author Marc Bousquet. We talked about his book How the University Works for almost an hour. I'll trim down the interview, and it will be posted later in the Spring. Something happened in the course of that interview that has happened to me only a handful of times in the almost 20 years I have been interviewing people for Adjunct Advocate. I asked a question about something Bousquet had written, and he replied that he never wrote it. When I read him the lines I'd highlighted in his book, he was clearly taken aback.
The text came from page 47: "That is, in re-creating jobs out of piece-work done by the contingent workforce, we address with one stroke the problems experienced by everyone else: tenure-stream faculty benefit because eliminating cheap teaching raises the price of experienced teaching and reinstalls the value of research in pedagogy; undergraduates benefit by receiving experienced, secure faculty (who "do knowledge" rather than "provide information") in the first two years, when they are most vulnerable." I asked him to comment on the notion that "secure faculty" i.e. full-time faculty "do knowledge," while nontenure-track faculty "provide information."
The note I made in my copy of the book was that the author was "struggling to find a difference between full-time and part-time faculty." I believe there are plenty of non-secure faculty who "do knowledge," and plenty of secure faculty for whom teaching is little more than providing information. I was curious to know what he thought. Unfortunately, claiming never to have written or said something is rarely the right answer, even if it's the truth. I have had the unpleasant experience of having been misquoted by journalists enough times to realize that when the misquotes come up later (journalists invariable use each other's work), I simply focus on the substance of the question, and not whether I said it or not. The strategy usually works pretty well.
There were plenty of places in Bousquet's book where I found myself muttering aloud as I read, and jotting in the margins. This is not necessarily a bad thing, in my opinion! He writes that students are likely to be taught by someone who started a "degree but never finished it...and who does not plan to be "working at your institution three years from now." Further, he writes that a "substantial majority" of contingent faculty are women, and that the majority of administrators are male. The facts are these (some come from the 2006 Education Digest put out by the Department of Education):
My next interview is with Julie Ivey. She is the co-president of the Palomar College faculty union. She is one of just a handful of women who lead faculty unions in the United States, and she shares her position with a full-time faculty colleague. It's an interesting arrangement, as the union local is unified. Look for my interview with her later in the Spring, as well.
Finally, I am sending writer Terri Hughes-Lazzall in search of campaign donation records. I'll tell you a bit more about the assignment as the story develops. Until then, thanks for stopping by and thanks to those who have left their comments!! I am always glad to hear what readers have to say.
Posted By Patricia L. at 8:00 AM
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March 17th 2008
Monday Morning Musings
Listen to my blog entry here.
I just spent a very lively hour or so chatting with the President of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Dr. Cary Nelson. We chatted about his previous term, re-election bid, AAUP's restructuring, tenure and, of course, part-time faculty. Look for the Podcast interview in April, shortly before AAUP election results are scheduled to be announced. His interview will be the fourth in our new Podcast Interview Series. Last week, I interviewed Adjunct Advocate cartoonist, and all-around funny guy, Matthew Henry Hall. Those snorting sounds you hear in the interview are me, of course, trying very, very not to laugh hysterically at Matt's jokes.
I am scheduled to go to the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) conference in Philadelphia at the beginning of April. We're displaying at the conference (Part-Time Press books). It will be the first time we've displayed at AAHE, and I am looking forward to going. It's always a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues. In addition, I enjoy Philadelphia. There's so much to see and do there; I always schedule some time for myself to wander around the city and visit a museum or two.
On Wednesday of this week, I am scheduled to interview author Marc Bousquet. I have been enjoying his shared blog postings on The Chronicle's website. He has an interesting piece about AAUP's current election, and the election's intersection with the issue of part-time faculty, on the Inside Higher Ed site today. I am looking forward to chatting with him.
I know this is going to make me look foolish, but I just can't get into Scott McLemee's writing at Inside Higher Ed. I've met McLemee, and he's an incredibly impassioned man about ideas and education--that passion comes out in his writing--but sometimes I wish he'd remember that writing about culture can be slightly less self-congratulatory. No matter, of course, he'll continue on to entertain those who enjoy his writing, and I'll continue on skipping his pieces, but wishing I could get into them.
Finally, leave it to our colleagues to the North to boil down the NCAA tournament to its essential elements. In a piece published in the Toronto Globe and Mail, picked up from the Associated Press wire, I read that "North Carolina was the only school among the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA men's tournament to graduate at least 50 per cent of its players. A report released Monday found 86 per cent of Tar Heels men's players earned diplomas during a six-year period. The other top seeds were far worse: 45 per cent at Kansas and 40 per cent at UCLA and Memphis." Closer to home, here in Ann Arbor, the local newspaper printed an expose that revealed that John Hagen, a veteran psychology professor, "has taught at least 294 independent studies from the fall of 2004 to the fall of 2007, and 85 percent of those courses, 251, were with athletes." Some of those athletes, needing an easy "A," were directed to study with Dr. Hagen. Some earned high marks for chatting about sports, how to take notes, and spending half an hour twice weekly with the good doctor.
When I studied for my undergrad and grad degrees at Michigan, I took as many independent study credits as I was allowed to elect. I studied astronomy, history and English with some truly inspirational faculty. What the Associated Press and the Ann Arbor News uncovered is an embarrassment to higher education, the individual institutions involved, and the presidents of those institutions. It's no shock that student athletes get short-changed educationally and exploited, but it's still incredibly disturbing.
Posted By Patricia L. at 12:09 PM
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March 11th 2008
Identity Theft & the AAUP Elections
Listen to my blog entry here.
Did your heart stop when you read the title of the blog entry? Mine would have stopped, as well, had it been the truth. Over at the American Association of University Professors, it's election season. The candidates for the presidency are Dr. Cary Nelson and Mr. Thomas E. Guild, J.D.. According to the candidate statement published by Guild on the AAUP website, Mr. Guild was a full-time tenure-line/tenured professor at the University of Central Oklahoma between 1979 and 2006. In 2006, he became Professor Emeritus. Dr. Nelson, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, advanced from Assistant Professor of English to Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences between 1970 and the present.
On his candidate statement, Mr. Guild writes, "As a contingent faculty member I have a
keen interest in protecting our contingent faculty colleagues’ interests." Mr. Guild is, of course, a retired, tenured faculty member. At Oklahoma City University, he is identified as a full-time faculty member (as opposed to an adjunct) in the directory, a Visiting Professor of Business Law. At the University of Central Oklahoma, he is not currently listed as a faculty member on the university website.
A colleague forwarded an email to me in which Dr. Nelson writes that "For what it's worth, I gave up tenure 7 years ago. I had argued that people should do that to help open up positions for others." Dr. Nelson, in another email message, said that he had worked as an adjunct "for the past seven years." On the very extensive website entry of the English Department in which Cary Nelson works, under the Faculty list he is identified as the:
Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 1991-
Professor, Center for Writing, 1991-
Professor of English and Criticism and Interpretive Theory, 1982-present
Associate Professor of English, 1975-82
Assistant Professor of English, 1970-75
He is nowhere identified as an adjunct faculty member. He is not included among the instructors and lecturers in their separate listing on the English Department's web page.
My sleuthing is in no way meant to denigrate the professional accomplishments of either candidate. Dr. Nelson has spoken out on behalf of part-time faculty, written books examining the working conditions of part-time faculty, and used his considerable energies to stand up for and beside his part-time faculty colleagues for over a decade. Thomas E. Guild has none of Nelson's "contingent cred," but according to his CV he has worked on behalf of AAUP over a long period of time. Be that as it may, Cary Nelson and Thomas Guild are not adjuncts any more than the whites, who marched beside Dr. Martin Luther King and spoke out on behalf of Civil Rights, were black. To claim to be an adjunct when one is clearly identified by one's employer as full-time faculty, after having enjoyed the benefits of having held a tenured position for decades, is a form of identity theft. Whether it's done for the purpose of solidarity, or simply out of the desire to be politic, it's misguided.
I said pretty much the same thing in a letter to the Editor, when AAUP's magazine Academe published "Crossing Class Lines." In that piece by Anne Cassebaum, a full-time faculty member, she "decided to try" life as an adjunct at the university where she had taught full-time for 30 years, then wrote about it.
Part-time faculty make up about 10 percent of AAUP's total 45,000 members. This number has remained steady over the past decade or so, while the numbers of temporary faculty have increased. As a result, it's very interesting that both of the candidates running for the presidency are self-identifying "contingents." Are they trying to woo the press, the professorate, or 10 percent of their organization's membership? Whatever the case may be, when a part-timer runs for the presidency of AAUP it will be big news. Until then, good luck to both Dr. Nelson and Mr. Guild. May the best of the two full-time faculty members running, win.
Posted By Patricia L. at 1:23 PM
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March 7th 2008
Why Haven't I Heard From You?
Listen to my blog entry here.
It's Friday. I am listening to Ella Fitzgerald, plowing through some old email, and reading news. Here's one to shake your heads at! According to an article fromThe SUNY New Paltz Oracle, '"One in Four Full-Time Professors Missing During Office Hours." The piece, by student Andrew Lipkowitz, contains this tidbit:
Attendance at office hours also varied by rank. The investigation indicated that the longer professors are at the college, the less likely they were to be in their office. Full professors were present during all three visits 41 percent of the time. Associate professors were present 55 percent of the time and assistant professors were present 67 percent.
SUNY New Paltz Provost and Academic Vice President David Lavallee responded that, “We know there’s been dissatisfaction on the student opinion survey. We’ve tried to make improvements on the academic advising side, maybe we need to improve on the faculty side.” Maybe? You think? Kinda, huh? Maybe someone should remind Dr. Lavallee that the New York State legislature just gave the SUNY system $20 million dollars to hire more full-time faculty based on the testimony of SUNY and union leaders, who told them that full-time faculty (unlike their part-time colleagues) are available to students both inside and outside of class.
I taught for ten years, and I missed holding office hours a handful of times. Faculty at New Paltz complained that students don't make use of faculty office hours. Of course, this is a lame excuse. If students don't make use of faculty office hours, that is the responsibility of the faculty member. When I taught, I knew which students needed to come and see me to avoid nasty conflicts at the semester's end. It was much easier to ask struggling students to come in and work with them, than to justify a C- to an embarrassed, defensive and disappointed student at the end of term. Faculty who don't invite students to come and chat are shirking their responsibilities. To then skip office hours because students don't just pop in and chat on their own is worse still.
Undergraduate students are learning how to make professional connections and network while they're in college. This is why faculty need to initiate meetings. If I had a student who participated in class infrequently, I scheduled a meeting. If I had a student who was obviously not keeping up with the work, I scheduled a meeting. If I had a student who was particularly motivated, I scheduled a meeting. I always saw office hours as a way to connect to students individually.
Unfortunately, the student reporters didn't include New Paltz's part-time faculty in their research. This was a mistake. Adjuncts at the college are expected to hold a single office hour each week. My guess is that many of them are holding more than a single hour. I would be interested to know, as well, whether more or fewer part-time faculty miss holding their scheduled office hour, post their office hour (20 percent of full-time faculty didn't even bother to post hours), and whether there was a similar correlation between length of adjunct employment and whether a part-timer held her/his hour.
Tellingly, according to the article, "Lavallee did not say whether he planned to investigate the office hours matter or to take it up with faculty. He did suggest that some changes could make sense, noting that if office hours were posted online it might improve the situation." What good posting the hours online would be when faculty didn't show up at their offices is unclear. What is clear is that New Paltz department chairs and administrators are loathe to supervise their full-time faculty, and tell them they must post and keep office hours or risk reprimand.
Posted By Patricia L. at 12:35 PM
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March 3rd 2008
Podcast Interview Series: Interview #2
Listen to my blog entry here.
Kip Lornell and Libby Smigel make a great couple. They're not romantically involved, but they have the give and take and spark of two people committed to an important relationship. Kip and Libby worked together to organize the part-time faculty at George Washington University. To hear them talk about their work together on the union organizing committee was a delight. Both are incredibly well-spoken and thoughtful individuals. They didn't get flustered when I asked pointed questions, nor did they refrain from discussing what the difficulties were in getting their colleagues to keep up the battle for recognition of the SEIU local. GW college administrators fought for eight years to keep about 1000 part-time faculty from organizing. I can only imagine how much money university officials spent on legal fees.
The AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview Series is shaping up to be a great new addition to the AdjunctNation.com website. In March, I am scheduled to interview Doug Lederman, editor of Inside Higher Ed and John Pawlowski, president of the new part-time faculty union at Pace University, in New York. I am also going to talk to author Marc Bousquet about his book How The University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation.
If you missed AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview #1 with Dr. Peter Brown, click here to listen to the 20 minute interview about full-timer Dr. Peter D. G. Brown and his work to bring equity to the 8,000 part-time faculty represented by the AFT in New York. My interview with Kip Lornell and Libby Smigel will be available in a week or so. When it is available, it will be announced in the e-Advocate email newsletter, as well as the AdjunctNation.com Family Newsletter.
On a completely different note. If you are the competitive type (what faculty member isn't just a bit competitive at heart, I ask you?), visit our HangProf and Pop Quiz pages. There, you will see a listing of the names of the faculty who have solved the most HangProf words, and gotten the most high scores on the Pop Quizzes. How can you get your name in lights, so to speak? First, join the AdjunctNation.com Family here, if you've not already registered on the site. Then, login using the "Manage my Account" link, and play HangProf and take the Pop Quizzes. When you have won enough to be included in the Top Ten List, you will be prompted to enter your name. If you're feeling shy, pick something clever! I want to thank my son, Lane, for the idea to add the Top Ten lists to the website's games pages. Lane is a fifth grader, and plays a mean game of HangProf.
In the meantime, I hope to see your name on our Top Ten Lists! No pressure, mind you. Just a little friendly challenge!
Posted By Patricia L. at 8:00 AM
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Book Source
Nation Blogs
Part-Time Thoughts
MLA Delegate Assembly Spends Six Hours on Debate Over Ward Churchill and 30 Minutes Discussing Use of Part-time Faculty
Super Adjunct
How To Be an Adjunct Love-Magnet!!!
Negotiating the Paradox: Adjuncts & Writing
The Tenure Track as Constraint (and minor updates)
Freeway Flyer
Frequent Flyers and a Different Slant on Job Security
Juggling 101
The Hot and Cold of Chili Peppers
The Mentor Is In
Geek Life: Getting Students Organized
Teaching In Pajamas
Should You Accept Every Online Teaching Assignment That Comes Your Way?
The New Adjunct
A Time to Reflect and Rejoice
The Union Army
Eastern Michigan U. Part-Timers Fight For Union
Blog Archives
• "Striking Part-Timers in Canada"
• Identity Theft & the AAUP Elections
Cartoon Time
Daily Excuse
My brother was stabbed in a bar fight.
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