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[plunkett]

You just can't keep a good man down:


http://chronicle.com/blogs/onhiring/i-wish-i-had-a-wall/28555?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en

[educator1]

More documentation to support the fact that I have learned on these fora that some institutions don't care about their student's learning. Not ALL institutions, mind you, but even one is too many!
Why would extremely intelligent folks with other options (I have to think that someone with enough persistence and intelligence to earn a Phd. has employment options) participate in working conditions that cause them to complain so bitterly? 

[plunkett]

More documentation to support the fact that I have learned on these fora that some institutions don't care about their student's learning. Not ALL institutions, mind you, but even one is too many!
Why would extremely intelligent folks with other options (I have to think that someone with enough persistence and intelligence to earn a Phd. has employment options) participate in working conditions that cause them to complain so bitterly?  

Educator---- I understand the first part of your comment.

But you lose me with your "Why would extremely intelligent folk with other options ...." bit.
Newsflash: The economy is horrendous and unemployment is very high.  No, there ARE no other options --- or very few.  Sure, some of these adjuncts could possibly get full-time jobs at big-box stores ........
There are no jobs!!!!
And not all adjuncts have (or want or need) doctorates.
I'm tired of people suggesting that adjuncts should get off their duffs, stop complaining, and get a "real" job.  There ARE no (or very, very few) REAL jobs at the moment.
And in many places, REAL jobs continue to disappear.  
Academic jobs, for example, are certainly not growing in number at the moment. (Duh.) 

[zharkov]

To me, the purpose of an adjunct office (or cubicle or shared space) is to meet with students, do some last minute class prep, and print out handouts.  It is not to take the place of one's "real" office, whether at home or elsewhere.

[palla]

Educator---- I understand the first part of your comment.

But you lose me with your "Why would extremely intelligent folk with other options ...." bit.
Newsflash: The economy is horrendous and unemployment is very high.  No, there ARE no other options --- or very few.  Sure, some of these adjuncts could possibly get full-time jobs at big-box stores ........
There are no jobs!!!!
And not all adjuncts have (or want or need) doctorates.
I'm tired of people suggesting that adjuncts should get off their duffs, stop complaining, and get a "real" job.  There ARE no (or very, very few) REAL jobs at the moment.
And in many places, REAL jobs continue to disappear.  
Academic jobs, for example, are certainly not growing in number at the moment. (Duh.) 

I don't think the suggestion was to “get a real job.”  But if someone is miserable in their job, then they have two options: figure out a way to change jobs or deal with it.  It is your choice to be in your job.  No one is holding a gun to your head. 

I don't understand people who stay in jobs they hate.  Yes, you may have to stay there for a short while before you can move to something you like, but if you are that miserable in your job, then leave.  Figure out another option and leave.  That might mean leaving academia.  If you don't want to leave academia, fine. But realize that academia has a crappy job market right now and you might have to adjunct for a while, which might result in a shared cubicle. Figure out if that is OK with you.  Is it better to be teaching and sharing a cubicle or leaving academia?  Decide what works for you and don't complain about things like office space.

[slinger]

This guy needs to get over himself.

[cranefly]

I'm curious why anyone educated who lives in the USA wouldn't know what Spanish sounds like when they hear it.

[plunkett]

Full disclosure:  I'm full-time with a nice lavish office and plenty of space and all the bells and whistles. I did, however, spend quite a few years adjuncting.

But my place of employ (like many) has adjuncts doing at least half the teaching.  This is not going to change anytime soon; in fact contingent one-year contracts are being offered now more than TT contracts, and (even lower on the totem pole) adjuncts continue to be hired apace and kept on if they are not egregiously awful.

Adjuncts are not assigned decent working space and/or decent space to meet with students, and thus they meet with students in the cafeteria or library, or they understandably blow off their required "office (sic) hours"  and are basically not very available to students. Why should they bend over backwards when they are being paid peanuts?

This miserable situation coarsens the entire institution.

Saying to adjuncts "leave and find a better job instead of complaining" is counter-productive, mean-spirited, and unrealistic.

[spectacle]

I'm curious why anyone educated who lives in the USA wouldn't know what Spanish sounds like when they hear it.

That was my favorite part.

Also, I'm TT at a CC and I share a large corral-style office with every single other full- and part-time prof in our department, including our TAs, adjuncts and my Chair.  Sometimes we have to switch off desks, or ask folks to leave if we need to have a private conversation with students.

Privacy's not always guaranteed with full-time employment, Sweeney-pal. 

[tinyzombie]

I'm curious why anyone educated who lives in the USA wouldn't know what Spanish sounds like when they hear it.

Yeah, that part made me sick.

I'm sympathetic to the issues adjuncts face; that one certainly ain't helping the cause any.

[aandsdean]

I've observed the considerable Sweeney-bashing both on this thread, on the previous one, and in the comment sections in his blog posts, and I now feel the need to step in to defend the man.

Well, yes, sometimes he seems naive and/or foolish, but aren't we all sometimes naive and/or foolish?  I have a better-than-grudging admiration for his willingness to go on the record on the issues he faces professionally.  He does sign his real name to his writings, and some of these writings are not without risk.

There's a huge amount of administrator-bashing here (vide the comments on Gary Olson's writing).  There's a huge amount of griping about the working conditions of adjuncts both w/r/t comments on Sweeney and in other places.  There's a great deal of complaining about the way states are taking the wood-chipper to university budgets.  But very few people are willing to take the actual, personal, professional risk to sign their real names to what they write, and take firm and explicit public positions on issues of academic management in a way that courts controversy and provides more than anodyne platitudes.

So perhaps we might consider cutting the dude a little break.  He's willing to put his thoughts on the record.  He has guts, and while guts aren't a transcendent quality, they're not exactly in plentiful supply in the academy, either, and as such a little honor to someone who's willing to put his name to his thoughts and take the consequences as they come is probably called for.  Isaac Sweeney is ahead of a lot of us in this respect, and while he's not exactly the Thomas Paine or Patrick Henry of adjuncthood, he's taken a couple of decent steps along that path.

[plunkett]

THANK YOU, Aandsdean. 

I was typing this as you were typing yours, and I'll just let mine stand.

Smithfield Muse:  My large office isn't private; however, I've got plenty of space completely and only mine inside that office.

Some of you are like chickens pecking another chicken to death because of a spot of blood: it's quite possible the noise Sweeney was unavoidably overhearing was so very garbled (or he was so very distracted and stressed with trying to get something done himself) that he couldn't concentrate on actually listening to the noise.

Cut the fellow some slack, people!  Have some kindness for adjuncts; we faculty who are not adjuncts are partly riding on their backs.  Their nominal pay basically subsidizes our more real pay.

Or are you just jealous because Sweeney publishes more than you do?

Really, the mean-spiritedness is not very attractive.

What's the point in bashing adjuncts?  

[tinyzombie]

My large office isn't private; however, I've got plenty of space completely and only mine inside that office.

You're like chickens pecking another chicken to death because of a spot of blood: it's quite possible the noise Sweeney was unavoidably overhearing was so very garbled (or he was so very distracted and stressed with trying to get something done himself) that he couldn't concentrate on actually listening to the noise.

Cut the fellow some slack, people!  Have some kindness for adjuncts; we faculty who are not adjuncts are partly riding on their backs.  Their nominal pay basically subsidizes our more real pay.

Or are you just jealous because Sweeney publishes more than you do?

Really, the mean-spiritedness is not very attractive.

What's the point in bashing adjuncts?  

If you don't like what people have to say, you ought not to have started the thread.

[plunkett]

My large office isn't private; however, I've got plenty of space completely and only mine inside that office.

You're like chickens pecking another chicken to death because of a spot of blood: it's quite possible the noise Sweeney was unavoidably overhearing was so very garbled (or he was so very distracted and stressed with trying to get something done himself) that he couldn't concentrate on actually listening to the noise.

Cut the fellow some slack, people!  Have some kindness for adjuncts; we faculty who are not adjuncts are partly riding on their backs.  Their nominal pay basically subsidizes our more real pay.

Or are you just jealous because Sweeney publishes more than you do?

Really, the mean-spiritedness is not very attractive.

What's the point in bashing adjuncts?  

If you don't like what people have to say, you ought not to have started the thread.

Tinyzombie, please! It's somewhat anti-intellectual of you to suggest I should "like" what people have to say merely because I started the thread.  Are we merely passing Hallmark card sentiments back and forth to each other here?  Re-read your comment; it's uncomfortably close to "if you've got nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all."

[wet_blanket]

Saying to adjuncts "leave and find a better job instead of complaining" is counter-productive, mean-spirited, and unrealistic.

Cut the fellow some slack, people!  ...

Really, the mean-spiritedness is not very attractive.

Re-read your comment; it's uncomfortably close to "if you've got nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all."