tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post4846741180243029574..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: "Beyond Neoliberal Miseducation"Dale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-48258544332740683632014-03-19T12:11:14.231-07:002014-03-19T12:11:14.231-07:00> As universities turn toward corporate managem...> As universities turn toward corporate management models, they<br />> increasingly use and exploit cheap faculty labor while expanding<br />> the ranks of their managerial class... "[A]dministrators now outnumber<br />> faculty on every campus across the country." ... colleges<br />> and universities are drawing more and more upon adjunct and<br />> nontenured faculty. . . many of whom occupy the status of<br />> indentured servants who are overworked, lack benefits,<br />> receive little or no administrative support and are paid salaries<br />> that increasingly qualify them for food stamps. . .<br /><br />http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/03/14/are-you-visiting-colleges-here-are-some-questions-you-should-ask/<br />----------------------<br />Are you visiting colleges? Here are some questions you should ask <br />by PZ Myers <br />Mar 14 2014<br /><br />One more story of academic inside baseball — I’ve been following<br />John Wilkins, a brilliant philosopher of science who just can’t<br />get a job, and I’ve been sensing waves of resentment at the<br />rotten state of academia. . .<br /><br />It is becoming increasingly difficult to get any kind of academic job at all,<br />[ http://www.slate.com/articles/life/inside_higher_ed/2014/03/quitting_the_academic_job_market_should_i_give_up_on_trying_to_be_a_professor.html ]<br />other than the miserable, harrowing, exploitive position sometimes called<br />“adjunct”, or sometimes “lecturer” — temporary positions in which the<br />instructor is hired on a per course basis. Bad jobs are driving out the<br />good as university administrations cut corners, and somehow, it’s always<br />the faculty who suffer the first painful snips. . .<br /><br />[P]erhaps you’re a parent of a prospective student? You’ve got some power.<br />Universities may be courting you, because they want your tuition dollars. . .<br />Use your clout. Ask questions.<br /> <br />Here are some questions I wish more prospective students were knowledgeable<br />enough to ask. . .<br /><br />-- Ask, “Who teaches your introductory or service classes?” You may be<br />thinking ahead to those lovely upper-level courses with the big names<br />teaching them and the shiny lab equipment, but before you get there<br />you’ll be expected to take courses outside your major — service courses<br />in disciplines like math and English — that have big enrollments.<br />At some universities, those will be taught by an ever-rotating set<br />of temporary faculty called adjuncts. They are often treated like dirt,<br />poorly paid, and given overloads. Often they’re so poorly paid they<br />have to take adjunct positions at multiple colleges to make ends meet. . .<br /><br />-- Ask, “Can I talk to some of the other instructors?” I know the runaround.<br />You’ll go to the university, they’ll have a lovely canned presentation<br />of all the benefits, and you might get to sit in on a course or meet<br />for half an hour with Professor So-and-So, who will show off their lab<br />and talk about the great things about being in their profession.<br />Ask to talk to any of the people who teach that first year course<br />in your major; if you’re lucky, Professor So-and-So will say,<br />“That’s me!” and you’re off to a good start. If you’re not so<br />lucky, you’ll be led to a cramped office divided into cubicles with<br />a group of temporary faculty crammed into it.<br /> <br />They’ll probably still say nice things about being at the university.<br />Partly because they do love their job, but also partly because they’re<br />in terror of losing it.<br /><br />It would be very nice if more students and their parents paid attention<br />to the growing inequity within academic ranks, and if the tuition-paying<br />people would regard that as important, and that the voting citizens<br />would recognize that their state legislators are all conspiring to<br />strangle higher education. It would be especially nice if students<br />refused to support universities that were happily screwing over<br />their teachers.<br /> <br />But I’m a realist. I know what university PR departments do and<br />emphasize and tell prospective students is important: will your<br />education get you a job after graduation, and how is the football<br />team doing? Those are great smokescreens to hide the decay behind<br />the scenes. . .<br />====<br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com