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