There's more. I even have a few waiting in drafts. Read the rest of this batch at the latest academic on the BookForum.com blog, Omnivore
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Currently, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education, 1.3 million of the 1.8 million faculty providing instruction in two- and four-year institutions are part-time or adjunct faculty, teaching off the tenure track.” [Peter's emphasis]
Since some of us are still using the 800,000 figure, I thought we should be aware of this number, which is considerably higher, even factoring in TAs. We may want to update the number we use.Also note,
The survey's key findings include:
- The median pay per course, standardized to a three-credit course, was $2,700 in fall 2010, and ranged from a low of $2,235 at two-year colleges to a high of $3,400 at four-year doctoral or research universities.
- Part-time faculty respondents saw little, if any, wage premium based on their credentials.
- Professional support was minimal for part-time faculty members' work outside the classroom and for their inclusion in academic decision-making.
I have been keeping company with Veblen. He may wince not, but I sure do -- that is, when I'm not laughing out loud at his mordant wit. His savagely brilliant sarcasm has a bite far worse than its bark. I would not want to be on the receiving end of such a scathing polemic as he delivers in The Higher Learning in America.* This has been a fierce, fun read.
Our public education is under attack! K-12, Adult Ed, Community Colleges, Cal States, and UCs are undergoing systematic destruction to make way for privatization. The failings of public schools can largely be attributed to external pressures, largely from the corporate world, at the national, state, and local levels. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the attack on Public ED and our common struggle to save it. For the sake of simplicity I will focus on California.
"I reject the notion that going into bookselling should be like taking a vow of poverty," he writes. "The editor who bought the book gets a paycheck, health benefits, paid vacation, and a retirement contribution, as does the publicist, marketing manager, etc. They aren't working for love."
"Nor is the company that will print the book, nor are the employees who work the presses. Nor is the company that manufactured the paper. They all expect to get paid. And rightly so."
Brown writes that the idea that a bookstore-sitter should be an unpaid serf at the bottom of book lovers' food chain is "an insulting and intellectually bankrupt view." That's a good point.The idea he rebuts is a familiar one...
Ms. Welch's basic idea is that bookstores are idyllic community resources free from the taint of lucre. "What WE booksellers do is important...WE represent an open market of free ideas, with value tied to meaning more than money," she writes (emphasis added, to show that she pretends to talk for all of us). In another post she says, presumably implying vows of poverty and years of penance done at the store, "Bookslinging is a hard way of life, but boy it’s a good one....WE’re like nuns and monks..."Shades of Chaucer's Clerke... "And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche."
More about Chicago Teachers (because our history matters): A wonderful article on the revolt of the Chicago teachers, in 1933, when they, through massive direct action, and over the objetions of many union leaders, directly attacked the banks to get the money to pay them and keep the schools open. Every teacher unionist should read this. The best telling of this story that this labor historian has ever read. Not optional! Big lessons for us now.