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[rear_view_mirror]

RVM, the article says he was fired for blogging. The title of this thread echoes that. So that is what we are talking about. No one is justifying the abusive treatment of adjuncts.

Thank you. I just wanted to make the point that a when a person's work is less than it should be, it may be for reasons that are beyond his control. Obviously this can be argued, but it is a question.

[totoro]

So, Isaac Sweeney may not be a stellar educator. Therefore, the point he makes about the consequences of relying on poorly compensated teachers for important work having consequences for students can be ignored. That was easy.

What happens when William Pannapacker or James Lang says the same thing? Don't we need to cut them down to size so the problem can be swept under the rug? Or is it that the validity of the message varies according to who states it?

Note that Pannapacker was anonymous until he got tenure.

[rear_view_mirror]

I'm sorry.  I sympathize with the guy but I don't see anything to suggest that his blogging led to his non-renewal, other than his say-so.  He had great teaching evals etc..., but on these very fora there are scads of similar stories.

Right, there's no smoking gun. In the stories I usually see the people know they were suddenly fired for other reasons, e.g. smaller enrollment, their course is being given to a full timer, budget slashing etc. I suspect their employer is telling them the reason in many cases, even though he is not required to. The firing was seen as unavoidable, and the chair or dean wouldn't prefer for anyone to think he would fire them if it could be helped. This is also what I have seen where I work. In addition, where I have worked, people have been told that their work wasn't cutting it and this led to the firing.
James Madison did not tell him why they fired him. Almost everyone hates criticism and negative publicity and no one would tell you if they fired you out of spite. So yes, I see a strong suggestion that that was the reason.
I also wonder that Professor Sweeney didn't suspect he would be fired, but wrote anyway because he felt compelled to.

[lubbler]

I sympathize as well but am not surprised.  First, never underestimate the pettiness of people.  The feeling of being insulted will usually take priority over the substance of the insult. 

Also, colleges have a tremendous amount of applicants to choose from anymore.  There's no reason to keep somone who's ruffling feathers.  One of the schools for whom I teach pays terribly even by adjunct standards ($1900/class), and the person who does the hiring for Comp. classes has a stack of adjunct applications next to his desk about two feet high.

[rear_view_mirror]

Why on earth did he write this article (the one to which Anthroid has linked) under his real name? Being chronically unprepared? Spacing out in class? Oy.

Because things are more compelling when you stand out in the open and say them.
After you have tenure, you can be a bigshot, you can be brilliant, poignant, humanistic, dazzling, everything except brave.
That's why I love this man even if he's not sure he's doing the right thing, even if his wife leaves him, even if his writing isn't wonderful.
Here's the blog that got him ditched.
http://chronicle.com/article/Value-Students-Then-Value/48881/

[mended_drum]

Hmmm...maybe he's right about why he wasn't rehired:  he admitted to not being prepared for class and to being too exhausted to even pay attention to the class discussion.  While I sympathize with his point, he told those he works for that sometimes he's shortchanging his students. 

[rear_view_mirror]

Hmmm...maybe he's right about why he wasn't rehired:  he admitted to not being prepared for class and to being too exhausted to even pay attention to the class discussion.  While I sympathize with his point, he told those he works for that sometimes he's shortchanging his students. 

This would be new information?

[fiona]

If I were in charge of anything (tremble), I would fire someone who can't pay attention while teaching and whines about it in a public blog.

Who needs such a person in the classroom?

I don't care why he's tired and can't concentrate. It's his job to be a teacher. The show has to go on. We've all taught (or will) after learning that a close friend has died, or gotten awful medical news, or been otherwise terribly and seriously stressed in our lives (not just dishes piled up in the sink). We still go in there and teach, because that's what we're supposed to do.

Now that I've read what he wrote, he deserves to be fired.

The Fiona

[rear_view_mirror]

I don't care why he's tired and can't concentrate. It's his job to be a teacher. The show has to go on. We've all taught (or will) after learning that a close friend has died, or gotten awful medical news, or been otherwise terribly and seriously stressed in our lives
The Fiona

These things (bolded) also happen to the Isaac Sweeneys of the world, on top of the background, everyday squalor.

[history_grrrl]

Actually that piece he wrote appeared in the fall of 2009, and he's only just now been non-renewed, for the spring 2011 semester. So it seems unlikely that he got canned for writing that, unless it just appeared on somebody's radar.

[rear_view_mirror]

Actually that piece he wrote appeared in the fall of 2009, and he's only just now been non-renewed, for the spring 2011 semester. So it seems unlikely that he got canned for writing that, unless it just appeared on somebody's radar.

This is explained by procrastination.

If I were in charge of anything (tremble), I would fire someone who can't pay attention while teaching and whines about it in a public blog.
Now that I've read what he wrote, he deserves to be fired.

The Fiona

Another option would have been to demand that Sweeney immediately remove the blog and STFU in the future. There are tips for those who seriously need to cut corners in order to keep fatigue and burnout to manageable levels, for example 
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,75851.0.html

He doesn't mean any harm; he's just undereducated and underinvested in the system. If Sweeney had a PhD instead of just a masters degree he would have learned more about STFU.

[gsawpenny]

Not by any means would I advocate eliminating experienced faculty (not even by alien invasion), and I agree with The Finoa that quality matters.  I am just fascinated at the multitude of forces that have put higher education in the US in a place where, at least in the humanities, there are so many available people who have the "qualifications" to teach that administrations can increasingly ignore the full time faculty.  I don't have any real facts, but I imagine that in much of the US many undergrads don't hear from a tenured professor until their third year of college.

[rear_view_mirror]

Not by any means would I advocate eliminating experienced faculty (not even by alien invasion), and I agree with The Finoa that quality matters.  I am just fascinated at the multitude of forces that have put higher education in the US in a place where, at least in the humanities, there are so many available people who have the "qualifications" to teach that administrations can increasingly ignore the full time faculty.  I don't have any real facts, but I imagine that in much of the US many undergrads don't hear from a tenured professor until their third year of college.

Which of the following will Sweeney's successor be thinking?
1. Better do a first-rate job. These people run a tight ship.
2. STFU

[fiona]

Not by any means would I advocate eliminating experienced faculty (not even by alien invasion), and I agree with The Finoa that quality matters.  I am just fascinated at the multitude of forces that have put higher education in the US in a place where, at least in the humanities, there are so many available people who have the "qualifications" to teach that administrations can increasingly ignore the full time faculty.  I don't have any real facts, but I imagine that in much of the US many undergrads don't hear from a tenured professor until their third year of college.

There was a lawsuit filed about this a few years ago, but of course I don't remember the particulars. It was about a psych department where students didn't meet a full-time professor until their senior years. So students who wanted to go to grad school, for instance, had no one entrenched enough to write them recommendations or, most likely, to help them get in the research arena. Sorry I don't recall any more of the specifics.

And while I have the floor: teaching in the public schools is far more tiring than even 4-5 courses a day at the college level. I've done both, and I'd take the college level anytime. But at either level, there's no point in hiring anyone who can't keep up with the work load.

The Fiona

[rear_view_mirror]

Fiona, thank you for starting this thread.

OK, Isaac deserved to be fired. Does the title of his article, "If Colleges Valued Students, They'd Value Adjuncts" add anything to our discussion of contemporary trends and outcomes? I think it does.