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[olddocpossum]

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/12/adjunct

[tenured_feminist]

This is a sad story, to be sure. But should we be surprised that contingent faculty are contingent? People on the tenure track also often get little or no explanation when their contracts are not renewed or they don't get tenure. I wonder just what his letter to the administration said.

[kedves]

It's not surprising that he was fired, but not getting a contract renewal is not the same as receiving a hand-delivered letter a day later with no notice to the person's supervisor of the firing and security officers to observe the clearing-out of the office.  That's a dramatic firing for an academic setting (not for business settings).  It's not clear from the article if the firing occurred at the end or in the middle of a contract.

[aneumey]

So this guy was making 43K and claimed to be on the verge of homelessness?  Many TT faculty make that much or even less, and the median household income in america is 48K.  I know plenty of adjuncts subsisting on 18K.  There are great examples out there of the extreme exploitation of contingent faculty, but all I can say for him is what a whiner!

[kedves]

Yes, and the median home value in the city in which he was teaching is $611,000; a 2bdrm apt. for himself, partner, and son would average $2,000-$3,000/mo.  Income is meaningless without reference to cost of living.  "Whiner" seems a bit harsh.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

The real story here is not that contingent faculty are vulnerable or underpaid, but that HR people at some institutions have far too much power.  Had this person's department had an issue with him, or had he been just one of many victims of broad horizontal cuts within the campus, that would have been a different matter.  However, in this case it appears that something he said triggered some reaction in a HR person, who decided on their own to fire him.

I hope the tenured faculty take up his case and get to the truth. - DvF

[kedves]

The real story here is not that contingent faculty are vulnerable or underpaid, but that HR people at some institutions have far too much power.  Had this person's department had an issue with him, or had he been just one of many victims of broad horizontal cuts within the campus, that would have been a different matter.  However, in this case it appears that something he said triggered some reaction in a HR person, who decided on their own to fire him.

I hope the tenured faculty take up his case and get to the truth. - DvF

Because the letter of dismissal was signed by the VP of HR and the dean of the fired individual's college, I have to assume that this is not the work of a loose-cannon HR person.

[tenured_feminist]

Again, I wonder what his letter to the administration said. I'd be quite surprised if he got fired mid-term just for inquiring politely about the possibility of changing the pay scale. There has to be more to this story.

[jonesey]

That's a dramatic firing for an academic setting (not for business settings). 

I'm not sure there's much of a difference if one is an adjunct. 

In many colleges, like the majority of work places, employees are often "at will."

[yellowtractor]

Again, I wonder what his letter to the administration said. I'd be quite surprised if he got fired mid-term just for inquiring politely about the possibility of changing the pay scale. There has to be more to this story.

Agreed.  It smells all the way around, upside the back and down out the bottom.

I'm not defending the administration in any way.  But there's more here.

[tenured_feminist]

That's a dramatic firing for an academic setting (not for business settings). 

I'm not sure there's much of a difference if one is an adjunct. 

In many colleges, like the majority of work places, employees are often "at will."

Adjuncts are regularly not rehired at lots of places, but firing someone in the middle of the term is a different animal. Figure it this way: let's say you, admincritter, dislike a particular adjunct and want him out. What's easier? Just waiting until the end of the term and then not hiring him again or firing him in the middle of a class for which you then have to find an alternative instructor to pick up the slack?

I can't quite tell from the way the story is written, but it looks like the guy was told to get out while the term was still going on.

[jonesey]

Figure it this way: let's say you, admincritter, dislike a particular adjunct and want him out. What's easier? Just waiting until the end of the term and then not hiring him again or firing him in the middle of a class for which you then have to find an alternative instructor to pick up the slack?

I can't quite tell from the way the story is written, but it looks like the guy was told to get out while the term was still going on.

Agreed.  The only person I've ever seen fired mid-contract was due to a professor-student sexual harassment issue.

[onestep]

Fisher says that the school was scared about a union.  If his letter threatened starting a union, I can see how the admin would be scared enough to fire him mid-term (just so I'm not misread, I am in no way condoning what happened).

[jonesey]

I hate it when they post this sort of thing:

According to the latest data from the American Association for University Professors, the average salary for a full professor is more than $108,000 and the average for an assistant professor is more than $84,000

Then people think I'm lying when I tell them that I make less than $50,000/year after several years of teaching. 

If they didn't average in Business, Law and Medical folks we'd probably have a better idea of "average" salaries.

[polly_mer]

I hate it when they post this sort of thing:

According to the latest data from the American Association for University Professors, the average salary for a full professor is more than $108,000 and the average for an assistant professor is more than $84,000

Then people think I'm lying when I tell them that I make less than $50,000/year after several years of teaching. 

If they didn't average in Business, Law and Medical folks we'd probably have a better idea of "average" salaries.

Reporting a blanket average also fails to deal with the fact that assistant professor, while the lowest rung on the academic ladder, describes both the 26 year-old who is still writing an English dissertation and the mid-career engineer who spent 15 years post-Ph.D. at a government lab before switching this year to academia.