10/13 Discussion

Tara: M. Jolly study in 2011: # adjuncts exceeded FT faculty. number is growing.

Jeff W: hofstra has nearly 80% staff is adjuncts [check this first! VCP]; it's happening here.

Becca: article from 1999 Midwestern university decline in adjunct applications; few qualified professors applying. Obviously been going on for a long time. 

  

Kate: Why is this a problem? They are effective teachers and they are giving higher grades, so aside from their pay, why is it wrong/bad?

Bethe: grades aren't meaningful especially if there's no continuation with instructors

Ashley: article on 83 year old adjunct at Duquesne arguing that adjuncts are the "new working poor"

Megan: adjuncts can be dropped from the payroll by administrators; administrator hiring is up. the lack of job security will affect scholarship.[cites writer who says she can't do the kind of writing she wants/needs to do]

Jeff W: so how did we get to this point?

Chase: Article by Tressie Mcmillan Cottom on "new old" labor problem: gov't appropriations have been cut and it causes lower pay for instructors

Megan: notes shift in blame from institutions to government

Anders: cites friend at another university: people don't know about the status of faculty (or what adjuncts are)

Kat: increase in [] economy crashing in 2008-ish contributing factor in universities search for cheap labor

Jeff L:education no longer for everybody; profit motive in all sectors means cheap labor

Becca: glut in labor market makes people accept poor conditions

Kate: look who's hiring (mentions size of large public universities); private Catholic college with small community. 

Tara: lack of terminal degree/PhD can  make for tension in hiring decisions 

Mel: adjuncts w/multiple jobs can't do additional professional development and can't be part of the community at any one place

Megan: article on numbers: says adjuncts shouldn't be core of teachers nor outnumber FT faculty. They can be useful in rounding out curriculum.

Ashley: main thing that the articles aren't touching on is the fact that there's no one solution to this problem, and some solutions will cause new problems. 

Bethe: then the question is why is our tuition going up still? what are they spending it on, if not for professors? why are we in school?

Mel: talking about lowering quality can imply blame on adjuncts, so we should be careful in how we phrase things without being unfair to them

Ashley: that comment is related to public perception. cites article that takes on the quality arguments and notes that FT faculty can be poor teachers and not give students time.

Bethe: at least FT faculty are given opportunities to be there for students, but adjuncts lose out when they give over extra time.

Mel: there's no excuse for FT faculty for being unavailable

Tia: adjuncts may be traveling a lot \

Kyle: adjuncts can have professional experience in a field to bring to a class. 

Jen: article deals with the perception that adjuncts are worse teachers than FT

Kate: health sciences: care instruction requires work experience 

Jeff W: Santa Clara university posted an adjunct job for somebody with 25 books published, etc. 

Kat: if these people are aware of how poor the system is, why are so many people trying/desiring to be a professor?

Megan: people really want to do something with their lives and if we weren't able to do it, it's sad if we work our way up.

Becca: history: original intent to supplement curriculum. earlier circumstances made that a stepping stone to getting a full time job, get experience and then get hired on for full time work. 

Bethe: we're learning to do jobs that don't exist yet...so the fields are growing quickly so we can't predict how to prepare

Tia: fewer students going to college but also fewer jobs [check on this--some studies show more people than ever are getting college degrees! VCP] Is it necessary to even pursue certain fields given the possibility that the market will be disappearing? (cites law as industry hit hard recently)

Jeff W:  freelance broadcasting as an example similar to adjuncting 

Chase: mentions philosophy prof w/Phd who's long-term but not tenure track