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Faculty Working Conditions Are Student Learning Conditions

January 30, 2012, 11:43 am

By Eliana Osborn

We’ve found a forum here and elsewhere online to finally open some conversations about contingent faculty issues. On individual campuses it is hard to find time or opportunity to talk through these things in any meaningful way. At the New Faculty Majority Summit this weekend we’ve tried to shy away from the airing of grievances, no matter how valid, and focus on ways to move forward. That’s where I’ve been stuck–knowing the problems is just the beginning and I haven’t known how to do more.

A theme for the NFM is the title of this post and something that I think we need to emphasize in any discussion with the broader public about why they should care about our problems; after all, jobs are tough to find all over. Why does contingent faculty even matter? It matters not just to me and you and the other 800,000 non-tenure-track faculty across America. It matters to everyone who will take a college course, pay for someone else to take courses, hire someone with any level of post-secondary training from certificates to graduate degrees, and more.

Massachusetts Congressman John Tierney opened the NFM session by video message, saying that contingent faculty concerns are important to every family and every student. We need to get that message out to students and parents and even those in academe who simply don’t know. Do people know who is teaching the majority of undergraduate courses? Do students know that most of their professors can’t be reached outside of class hours? Do parents know how little of tuition money is spent on faculty salaries? Do people in our own departments known the day-to-day ways that adjuncting makes us feel less than enough?

Getting this message across is the first step. We need to talk more to members of our communities. Of all the ways to move forward, this is the most crucial. Filmmaker and adjunct professor Debra Leigh Scott spoke at the summit, speaking of the power of art to make the truth of contingent faculty life clear to others. Whether that is through film, fiction, essay, or whatever your medium, we can use our individual talents to more effectively share our message.

I’ll split this up and give you a second look at some of the other things that really jumped out at me from the NFM summit.

This entry was posted in Adjunct Life, Faculty Hiring, Salary-and-benefits, The Two-Year Track and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

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  • bcbailey64

    Wow, how shortsighted on the part of the Japanese government. My Japanese wife just remarked to me yesterday that Taiwan was the largest sender of aid to Japan for earthquake/tsunami relief. This is how they get repaid for their help?! I lived in Japan for 6 years so I”ve seen how stupidly the Japanese government can act towards foreigners, but this really takes the cake.

  • theatheist

    Yes. Thank you. The average person on the street has almost no idea how their tax and tuition dollars are really being spent. When I ask “civilians” what they think graduate school is for, they almost always say that it qualifies a person to be a college teacher. That’s it. They know next to nothing about research, and when I give them representative examples, they typically ask, “Why would anyone want to know about that?” The same is probably true of a lot of legislators, especially in the small states where they serve part time. They really don’t know.

  • jranelli

    well…another lesson from the arts is one taught by a designer to his apprentices in a time long past when he said that the important thing was to decide just what it is that you are doing, trying to achieve, and then protect that from al the variables of budget, schedule, etc., and, as he put it “silliness.” (he was british, so adjust).

    maybe if we start defining (reiterating in large type) and protecting the same in the academy, which, from this chair, is the encounter between teacher and students in the classroom – perhaps by ensuring its support, enrichment and primacy at every turn, we can work our way through the underbrush of bureaucratic blather and, eventually up the mountains of commodification to the controlling corporate suites…what’s needed is for those faculty not yet co-opted by the lures of corporate citizenship, to stand firm and speak clearly in defense of the moment-by-moment truth of instruction (maybe an actor can explain that better) and (perhaps with the help of a director) transform those moments into a revival of the role of faculty in governance.

  • http://twitter.com/JohnACaseyJr John A Casey Jr

    The focus on educating the general public on Adjunct working conditions seems to me the major difference between the New Faculty Majority and the many other Adjunct labor groups formed in the past.  Once people know what it is really like inside the majority of college campuses, I can’t imagine them not wanting to change those conditions.  It was great to share a table with you on Saturday Eliana.  Sorry I didn’t get to chat with you more, but I look forward to your next post. 

  • http://mountainair-online.net VCVaile

    So exciting to see the post #newfac12 Summit blogs coming out. They & twitter stream tell the authentic story. The latest, “Reflections on the New Faculty Majority Foundation’s Summit on Contingent Faculty” from Justin Jory in Colorado just came out, 
    http://www.justinmjory.com/blog/?p=4

     It’s not just a matter of individuals getting the word out in our own “best medium.” Adjuncts have been doing that in isolation too long. It’s time to network those accounts, share them on a vast distributed network created by linking multiple networks.

  • spinnaker

    I hope this doesn’t sound like more venting, and I missed the convention, so this may already have been noted, but part of the reason the public doesn’t know much about the situation is they’re not told about it enough, because we’re afraid of being targeted, and part of the reason is the coverup. Administrators are still lying to the public about the numbers of adjuncts they use, how long they’ve used adjuncts (even the very same people) for “fluctuating or contingent” needs, and in some cases, even pay. This not only hampers progress, it contributes to adjunct despair, as we feel like the employer is regarding us an enemy. All this contributes to degradation of work conditions. 
    If there could be a way to dispute claims made to the press locally without being outed, it might help. For example, I would prefer to donate money to an organization that disseminates facts widely, including the most indicting information, to going public.

  • demisty

    Is there a way to learn of other steps the New Faculty Majority Summit came up with for resolving adjunct issues?  I’m rather new to this realm and was not aware of such a summit.  I do know of the MLA’s 2011 “Professional Employment Practices for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members: Recommendations and Evaluative Questions (http://www.mla.org/pdf/clip_stmt_final_may11.pdf), but I’ll be happy to learn of any other documents (manifestos, etc) that are out there.

    Also, I do wonder why we agree to such working conditions.  Are other adjuncts like me?  Idiots who like their discipline and who like to teach?

  • http://twitter.com/Exhaust_Fumes Vim, Ph.D.

    Just tweeted this! Important stuff!

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