#adjuncts

[racefortheironthrone]

What were your thoughts on the New School strike, given his that was in your profession and your neck of the woods?

As a fellow adjunct, I supported the strike and I was glad to see that they were able to win substantial wage improvements to help deal with the cost of living in NYC. I hope that my union is able to use the New School's new per-course wage rates as leverage in our next collective bargaining campaign.

I do have some concerns about the long-term financial stability of the New School, but that's something that predates the strike. The New School is a very expensive (almost $80k a year) private university with almost no endowment (although it does have a lot of real estate...), and its workforce is like 90% adjuncts. I don't know how much more its leadership can squeeze on either the tuition or "labor savings" side of the equation.

[gerrycanavan]

Lost Semester Linkblogging!

For a variety of reasons, this was an extremely busy semester, and I simply wasn’t able to keep up with my open tabs (I had several hundred open at one point!). An irrecoverable browser crash killed any possibility of ever doing even an omnibus record of what I’ve been reading and thinking about — but I do have a tiny number of highlights from the semester that I will link here just to close the…

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[sparklywaistcoat]

Personal

On a whim, and as part of preparing my syllabus for next term, I looked up what the university where I teach is doing about food insecurity for students.

Well, they do have a program. And guess what? It's not just aimed at students. Faculty and staff are encouraged to access this food pantry as well, if needed.

Faculty. And staff.

So hey, employees might not get a living wage, but lookit how progressive and charitable our fine university is! We're combating food insecurity! We got us a food pantry!

Good to know. Thanks. I'm ever so grateful.

[entitledrichpeople]

Part-time professors struggle to put food on the table. Some want a union to fix that.

A new survey from the Service Employees International Union, the group organizing part-time (or adjunct) faculty across Florida, shows that many of these professors have one, if not multiple, poverty indicators. They skip meals, go without insurance and delay needed car repairs.

[texasbeernerd]

Czechvar B: Original by Budějovický Budvar

New Year, New Beer! For the next week’s worth or so of blogs I’m going to write about beer from breweries I have never tried before. Czechvar is the original Budweiser and is a much better beer than the American version (probably because there are no adjuncts like rice!). You can still find this beer branded as Budweiser in Europe but in the United States they had to come up with a new name so Czechvar it is. This is a crisp, clean beer that still has a lot of flavor for a lighter brew. Artesian water and Saaz hops undoubtedly help create this. There’s a hint of yeast and lemon as well as an understated hop bitterness. A little skunkiness comes through but it’s less than a lot of other Euro-lagers have. I’d drink this again but I would never choose to drink the swill that stole the name Budweiser.   

[tumblingintosociology]

Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

Adjunct professors in America face low pay and long hours without the security of full-time faculty. Some, on the brink of homelessness, take desperate measures

“Adjuncting has grown as funding for public universities has fallen by more than a quarter between 1990 and 2009. Private institutions also recognize the allure of part-time professors: generally they are cheaper than full-time staff, don’t receive benefits or support for their personal research, and their hours can be carefully limited so they do not teach enough to qualify for health insurance.

This is why adjuncts have been called “the fast-food workers of the academic world”: among labor experts adjuncting is defined as “precarious employment”, a growing category that includes temping and sharing-economy gigs such as driving for Uber. An American Sociological Association taskforce focusing on precarious academic jobs, meanwhile, has suggested that “faculty employment is no longer a stable middle-class career”.”

[gerrycanavan]

Wednesday Links!

* SFFTV 13.2 is out! It’s a great issue with some really great essays on wast and District 9, monster theory and Monsters, race and Arrival, and feminism and Ex Machina, but I want to put a special plug in for my co-editor Dan Hassler-Forest’s great essay on the nostalgia industry, Stranger Things, and Twin Peaks: The Return.

* Meanwhile, David Agranoff reads Extrapolation 61.1-2.

* And ICYMI: GS…

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[gerrycanavan]

Lockdown Megapost Part One, Just the Bad News for Academia

Lockdown Megapost Part One, Just the Bad News for Academia

* Decision Points Loom for College Leaders. Certainly Uncertain. Preventing the Collapse of Higher Education. Here’s what Fauci said about college students returning to campus in the fall. Colleges Are Deluding Themselves. The Case Against Reopening. Colleges Aren’t Reopening in the Fall. Empty Lecture Halls, No Fall Football, a Freshman-Only Campus. A Playbook for a Second-Choice Fall. This…

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