{"id":4726,"date":"2008-08-29T14:20:57","date_gmt":"2008-08-29T21:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/08\/29\/dispatches-from-academia\/"},"modified":"2008-08-29T14:20:57","modified_gmt":"2008-08-29T21:40:45","slug":"dispatches-from-academia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4726","title":{"rendered":"Dispatches from Academia"},"content":{"rendered":"

From How the University Works<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I started my semester at one of my campuses this week (the other started last week). Upon checking my mail for the first time this semester, I found a letter stating that due to a lack of cash flow at the state level, all part-timers are receiving a pay cut. Or, well, not exactly. The money’s just held up, is all, and we’ll get it right after the school year’s over. Except, okay, well, they’re not entirely certain they’ll get the money. You know how state budgets are! So why don’t we just work the school year, especially since they told us after it was too late to find other jobs, and once we’ve done the work, mayyybe we’ll get paid for it!<\/p>\n

What’s funny is that only part-timers’ salaries<\/em> are affected by the state budget crisis. As far as I know, full-timers and administrators are fine. Funny, how that worked out. The union will be taking action, of course. But I refuse to get my hopes up.<\/p>\n

This semester, the walls of both my classes were lined with students trying to add the course because so many sections were canceled after registration. These students were desperate; one looked ready to cry when I told her I didn’t know if there was room, and another pumped her fist when I did a head count and announced that I could add a few people. (Right now I’m violating the fire code by allowing students to sit on the floor. There aren’t enough desks. Oh, god, the first batch of papers is coming in a couple of weeks.) My suspicion is that many part-time faculty members saw the pay cut, realized they couldn’t pay their bills, and decided to try their luck elsewhere – either at other colleges (although most semesters have started) or in different fields. I don’t think this is the whole reason why we turned away so many students; enrollment is up because the economy is sending many people back to school, and I also wonder if the administration cut entire classes to save money. But whatever’s going on, it’s hurting both educators and students. And if a system is hurting both the people serving it and the people being served, then what’s the point of that system?<\/p>\n

Part-time faculty members make up more than 70% of all college educators – and that’s before you count “visiting” professors, who can spend years going from campus to campus, city to city, state to state, before they find a school willing to keep them for more than a year. As other part-timers have pointed out, we’re no longer “adjunct” to higher education – we are<\/em> higher education. The system would fall apart without us. We have to use our numbers to do something.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I got my second job, I was really excited because I’d finally be making 30K a year. I’d been teaching college for three years, but I’d never made 30K before. I’d never known how it felt not to be worried about money, not to feel guilty about eating out or buying something frivolous. Now I’m working more and making the same amount.<\/p>\n

When I called HR to ask about the pay cut, they did the calculation, told me my new salary, and then assured me that it was “no big deal.”<\/p>\n

Phew! That’s a relief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From How the University Works: I started my semester at one of my campuses this week (the other started last week). Upon checking my mail for the first time this semester, I found a letter stating that due to a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-poverty-labor-related-issues","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}