As some of you might now, I am involved in trying to convince the local AAUP chapter to include adjuncts (not even all adjuncts, merely those who meet a minumum average teaching load over a couple year span). The process has taken all year and soon there will be a vote. It is exciting and frustrating at the same time. Because it is my nature I am skeptical that the Chapter will vote in favor of the measure, but I also hold out hope that there is (dare I say it?) a "silent majority" out there who are sympathetic to the position of adjuncts.
There is a lot I could comment on (and likely will in coming days), but for now I will limit it to the conservative critique. Conservative pundits and commentators commonly point to liberal elites who have "taken over" academia. Hogwash I say. It is amazing how conservative "liberals" get when it might affect their own wallet. Trotsky in the classroom, Pinkerton in practice. Ugh. I will leave it there.
3 comments:
Check out this insightful--and maddening--op-ed from the Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
There are some good points in the op-ed, but it does seem very based on pragmatic learning. Isn't there a value in learning about something which you will never use practically and could not easily fit in such categories?
Also . . . abolish tenure? Certainly some faculty abuse it, but having it is still vitally important to prevent administrative harassment, and may become even more so in the future.
For an example in the most recent issue of _Academe_, see the case of Prof. Ekow Hayford at Stillman College.
http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/protect/academicfreedom/investrep/2009/stillman.htm
This does not even consider national political issues.
A post over at Historiann about the contingent faculty situation:
http://www.historiann.com/2009/04/30/national-day-of-recognition-of-the-majority-of-faculty/#more-4668
The post reminds us too that, for a variety of reasons, women are disproportionately represented among contingent faculty.
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