Rolling higher education into the shitbin thread

The incentives I’m thinking of: adjuncts get paid less, can’t mobilize as readily, can be fired easily: all aspirations of the ruling class.

The working conditions and job security of tenured faculty in the USA are exceptional in that country, and those faculty should advocate for the extension of these conditions to every worker. I don’t think she’s making that argument.

Haha OK well MY argument is do this part of it and also convert p/t teaching positions into f/t gigs:

Fight for a smaller administration. Fight for reduced research requirements. Fight for a single pay scale that includes administrators, and, yes, coaches and top-flight surgeons. Fight for smaller class sizes, and for greater freedom in the classroom. Fight for greater faculty governance,

There is a lot of confusion in that article.

The one takeaway I can agree with is that tenured faculty often consider teaching to be grunt work. I can't count the number of times that people
with tenure I know and otherwise respect have said awful, demeaning things about their students and teaching loads. From my perspective, many tenured professors seem totally uninterested in teaching, or even scholarship. I've published more in the past two years than 90% of the tenured faculty in my department at my R1 school, yet I have little to no chance of ever getting a full time teaching job, despite years of fantastic evaluations from students and supervisors. I could go on and on, but some particular bits of that piece ring especially true.

OK, I actually have no idea what she is talking about here (which she has repeated a few times on Twitter, it seems):

I was addressing the people with power: tenured faculty. If I were addressing contingent faculty, I would tell them that their vast talent and dedication can be put to wonderful use in the grassroots intellectual enterprises that this country desperately needs.

— Zena Hitz (@zenahitz) June 30, 2020

ahh, the grassroots, didn't know they were hiring... how's their health insurance these days?

She seems confused

I'm not sure that she is confused tbh. Her point is not quite what I originally took it to be but I think she is actually pretty clear on what it is and is handwaving away the question of "what will the adjuncts do instead?", in part bc she seems to doubt it will be much worse than what they do now. She wants tenured faculty to take on heavier teaching, service, and admin loads; control administrative bloat; and, yep, she really does want mass layoffs of contingent faculty afaict:

Is lecturing 4/4 or 5/5 for peanuts and without security really the best use of your talent? Why are you doing this? Serious question.

— Zena Hitz (@zenahitz) June 30, 2020

Oh, OK, sorry j, I see you addressed a lot of this and think I found the tweets of yours you mentioned.

Agree this is the basic hole:

whether she wasn't just assuming that those with power should keep it and those without it now should keep on not having it

Her target is research university tenured faculty. Adjuncts are just collateral damage.

She's confused because she doesn't address some of the underlying reasons behind the meteoric rise of contingent faculty in the US, and also assumes that there are scads of jobs out there for those who aren't tenured. There are not. She is as delusional as an adjunct who thinks they can work their way up.

Also anyone who treats adjuncts as collateral damage can fuck right off.

Damning the people who are doing most of the actual work of the university to rescue the university is some next level dumb ass shit.

we had to destroy the village in order to save it

Damning the people who are doing most of the actual work of the university to rescue the university is some next level dumb ass shit.

Of course it's a story we all know. But it still is 100% stupid.

Faculty governance has been all but erased at my school. We have been fighting (hard! with many negative consequences!) for what seems like forever (almost a decade?). We are a young mission-based teaching institution and research/publishing has never been expected.

Is lecturing 4/4 or 5/5 for peanuts and without security really the best use of your talent? Why are you doing this? Serious question.

^^^ that hit home but the answer is "because there is no other outlet for my talent that will pay me." Teaching as a skill/talent is so chronically undervalued in this country (USA) and sadly I don't see that changing anytime soon. I will hang on as long as I can.

Ding ding ding! Like it's not like I ever expected to make a ton of money as a prof, but who else is going to pay me for my talent and knowledge base?

I started my own online workshops that are going well, but without scaling up significantly, one workshop is about 2 mortgage payments with nothing left over.

Yeah I’ve tossed around the idea of workshops but my parallel issue is a lifelong repulsion at branding, including (especially?) branding myself.

I’m working on getting a website together and I’m getting over it but all I really want in my perfect world is an institution to lend my skill to + the chance to reach students who benefit from my teaching + a life outside of work where I can be social and creative.

Instead I’m going to have to hustle to sell myself 😢 at least I can accept that now.

I definitely thrive in cooperative environments much more than competitive ones. That’s why my institution was such a good fit for me for so many years.

a lifelong repulsion at branding, including (especially?) branding myself

You and me both. Just thinking about it makes me want to retch, it's utterly visceral.

Higher ed: the sunk cost fallacy.

(holy shit)

Unless yours is the winning ticket.

every time i get an email from the administration about plans for the fall i have a panic attack. really excited to be at the top of my pedagogical game in seven weeks.

have they told you what game you'll be playing yet

omg maura super otm
i have not been told anything either

honestly i am sort of glad i taught over the summer bc it has given me time to better acclimate to the online environment and prepare at least one course that i can teach again in the fall without sweating the living shit out of it

seeing an email from our university president describing protocols for the return of students to campus in fall. re dorms, "beds in shared rooms will be separated by at least 6 feet" LOL GET THE FUCK OUT

Unbelievable. These people are living in a fantasy world

i don’t know what it’ll be like. i always have a hybrid class anyway but i do not feel good about going to campus. but if i don’t teach how can i afford my $500/month insurance premium, lol

meanwhile at purdue:

I feel safer already. This will most definitely be fine. pic.twitter.com/Ay99KyEvzH

— David Atkinson (@drdaveatkinson) July 9, 2020

Jeez Louise.

what the f

https://movie-fanatic-res.cloudinary.com/iu/s--qMWTMzeD--/t_full/cs_srgb,f_auto,fl_strip_profile.lossy,q_auto:420/v1408553550/naked-gun-full-body-condom.png

lol

i'm gonna miss all the radical left indoctrination training and meetings :(

Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education. Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2020

xpost - it's a good thing air stops circulating completely about 7 feet above the floor level. that's a foolproof plan!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/opinion/liberal-arts-college-covid.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Ctrl+F = "tuition" 0/0

ohio state had a meeting today. here are some notes. notable: if a student tests positive their classes have to quarantine for two weeks.

I took some notes. pic.twitter.com/sZGTfzCAtT

— Elena Cruz-López (@elenacruz_lopez) July 13, 2020

not even reading that, it will give me a panic attack
esp if the first sentences are "we don't really know..."

aggggghhhhhhhhh

Cool time today dealing with a Canvas issue that others have had in the past, and which hasn't been solved by Canvas. I go to the support chat, and am placed at the back of the queue. Fine. I leave the computer to do work and walk the dog, checking the queue all the while, etc.

Eventually, I am working and realize the laptop has gone to sleep. I log back on and lo and behold, my session has timed out, and I'm now at the back of the queue again...for a problem that shouldn't be a problem in the first place.

If this is the future, then fuck the future, let it all burn.

ugh fuck canvas

this week sucks so much

i hate everything

Also, a query: anyone here quit an adjunct job a few days into the semester?

These fucks have increased course caps due to some fuckery and I'm now at 45 students.....and getting paid $4500 for the semester. So my question is: do I make things easy on myself and just give everyone A's, collect the check, and never work for this school again? Or should I just quit? While it would be hard to take the hit, I am ready to take one suffering over another at this juncture.

ha ha I submitted my expression of interest in a voluntary redundancy last week

and table that is unacceptable, negotiate or quit!

So my question is: do I make things easy on myself and just give everyone A's, collect the check, and never work for this school again?

seems to me to be a win (you)/win (students)/lose (the school) which sounds cool

Yeah, talked with a number of people, including one of my childhood friends who is a union leader at the school, and I'm going to go with the making things easy on myself option. Also seems like some more major labor action might be in the works, so I'd like to stick around for that.

this roundup of covid reactions at universities made me feel both despondent and less alone


https://annehelen.substack.com/p/between-fked-and-a-hard-place

I’ve got 34 students in a comp 2 writing class which amounts to 8.5 hrs of grading (at a modest 15 min per paper) per draft per assignment. Adjuncts are paid $2,000 for this class.

This thread stresses me out in the absolute worst way.

I agree w the “giving everyone A” option provided that the material in the class is not going to be essential to their future jobs or classes. I feel differently about shorting developmental writing students than I do about music appreciation students. They’ll live without remembering what the elements of music are but it’s hard to make it when you can’t write a coherent paragraph.

It is a class on short fiction. Like can you read and talk about a New Yorker story? Okay? Cool.

(though only 30% of the stories I used were in the NYer, but the basic thrust of it is that)

Oh ok! A’s for everyone!! The lit class I’ve been assigned this semester is basically that only it’s called “American Literature and Culture”