Re: As universities build reliance on ill-paid contingent labor, it's the students who suffer

It seems clear that those of us of a certain age saw, and were part of, and benefited from the high-tide of a certain kind of liberal arts education and broader university culture. I'm still in the environment, and I share Laval's despondency.


Andrew Szegedy-Maszak
Professor of Classical Studies
Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT  06459
ph: 860.685.2065
fax: 860.685.2089
________________________________
From: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group <[email protected]> on behalf of Laval Hunsucker <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2019 6:34 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [CLASSICS-L] As universities build reliance on ill-paid contingent labor, it's the students who suffer

A huge problem, indeed, and not only in the U.S.

Widely (universally?) recognized. Much discussed. Much lamented. No
solution in sight (or perhaps even realistically imaginable), as far as I
can tell.

I'm long departed from such an environment, myself, but all of this still
makes me quite despondent.

- Laval H.

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 23:21 DANIEL P. Tompkins <[email protected]> wrote:

> From a news item about University of NC,  Wilmington:
>
> "... the side-effects of growth, the larger class sizes in critical
> courses, professors taking on more courses each semester, *ultimately hurt
> the students*."
>
> How many faculty there are tenured / tenure-track?  The data isn't easy to
> find. (Indeed, we need a good national survey of this.)
>
> Is institutional growth being built on a reserve army of contingent labor?
>
> This has job market relevance:  as people complain about lack of decent
> jobs, this story reminds us that there are in fact *plenty of courses that
> need to be taught*: but too often, universities are hiring on the
> cheap, *refusing
> decent compensation to the teachers they hire.*
>
> I am not an expert on this, but I can say, it's hurting students and the
> profession.  I can say that it's the expensive / elite institutions that
> seem most likely to provide stable fulltime teachers, and that students
> gain from that.  The question is, is that where we should be investing,
> when the bulk of American postsecondary students don't benefit?
>
> Dan
>
>
> https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wect.com%2F2019%2F10%2F25%2Fgrowing-pains-uncw-faculty-chancellor-odds-over-growth%2F&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40LSV.UKY.EDU%7Ce9d9b1f6dbce44c0dba408d75a685abf%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C637077276551657531&amp;sdata=qka6Pn%2BRMAU8UMIOtXv03lHrZm5x8VeZ6hJ%2Bx53eeBI%3D&amp;reserved=0
>