The Future of Higher Education: Trash Bears and Pandas

One of my Harvard graduate school pals, long ago, wasn’t happy about the job market for new PhDs. In particular, he was disgusted by the prospect of taking an adjunct teaching job. "I'd rather eat out of a garbage can," he said.

Oh well, I've been eating out of garbage cans for about twenty years, and at about as many different schools, all of them run by presidents who, if you hang around them for more than five minutes, will give you a speech about how education is opening the doors of opportunity for all.

So, for the coming semester, I'll be eating out of garbage cans provided by Fordham University, Westchester Community (SUNY), and LaGuardia Community College (CUNY). The fare is of variable quality, but never more than what $3800 per course, with no benefits, can buy. I'm better off than many of my brothers and sisters in the "majority faculty," by the way, who make on average $2700 per course. I suppose there's a sort of cost-of-living bonus for foragers in the NYC metro area.

I've come to think of myself as a Trash Bear, one of those degraded bruins who rummage through the town dump, or through suburban trash cans. They seem to survive pretty well, and there are more of them now than ever. Though they were clearly not "naturally selected" to do so, they successfully adapted to new and unnatural conditions, and are now able to survive by foraging, often ranging over great distances, for meager resources.

 Now, can they organize?

 I hope so, because my strengthening conviction is that it’s going to be trash bears, not pandas, who save higher education. Pandas, of course, are full-time tenure track—but particularly tenured—faculty, exquisitely adapted to a specific environment in which they depend on huge quantities of rare bamboo and the occasional boiled egg and maybe a little glass of sherry. They are highly specialized mammals, and seriously cute.

 Their habitat is being destroyed at an unprecedented rate, their bamboo groves replaced by huge stainless steel buildings which house 1) The Student Counseling and Loan Center, 2) the Office for Loan Compliance, 3) the Dean's Office for Deanly Affairs, and 4) the Provost's Command Post.

 How can these pandas be saved? They do not wander far from the sweetness of their bamboo, and perhaps do not see the devastation that rolls toward them. But we, the wide-ranging trash bears, we know the lay of the land, and can plan accordingly. If Service Employees International Union (SEIU)  or similiar strategies in higher education organizing are successful, bringing solidarity to this highly dispersed foraging population, it will certainly change the terms of the "education reform" debate, focusing on the link between decent higher ed outcomes and decent faculty working conditions. That should be good for all the animals.

 Here is the key: part-time faculty can organize anywhere--under whatever state law pertains, and in public and private universities—but, among the pandas, only those in the public institutions can do so: a result of the Supreme Court's 1980 Yeshiva University decision, in which full-time faculty at private institutions were designated "management."

 Pandas, already declining in number, have been divided into two distinct and even smaller populations by Yeshiva, and this raises the specter of "minimal viability": at some point they won't be able to reproduce. But trash bears? No minimal viability there: they've been growing in number for forty years. And ask yourself, by the way, is any court likely to declare that part-timers are part of "management"?

In the past, it's true, trash bears have often foraged alone but, as their numbers have grown, and their travels have become more frequent and wide ranging--through private and public and even for-profit higher ed garbage cans--they are becoming more capable, and increasingly more willing, to share information and resources, and to plan ahead, with others of their kind.

 That's my view, and I think it's in sync with SEIU organizing campaigns for part-time adjunct faculty. In a recent NYT article, Adrianna Kezar, director of the University of Southern California’s Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, was quoted as saying that “The S.E.I.U. strategy has the momentum right now.” She also said “And we know that unionizing leads to pay increases and at least the beginnings of benefits.”

More on that SEIU "momentum": That would be Adjunct Action, a national contingent organizing campaign with a great track record beginning in the Washington D.C. metro area, with SEIU’s Local 500, which now represents part-time adjuncts at  George Washington University—where I got my first degree—American University,  Georgetown University, and Montgomery College. More recently, Tufts University and Lesley College (Boston metro region) are active, as are University of LaVerne and Loyola Marymount, and Whittier College (Los Angeles metro). And now, we’re seeing Adjunct Action at work in New York State: stay tuned. 

Most higher ed faculty aren't pandas, and to pretend otherwise is a disservice to all faculty, and to students, and to the future of higher education itself. Unless we are able to understand our own condition, and to accept the truth of it, we'll hardly be able to fight for better things.

Now, what's with all my trash talking here?

So, two weeks ago, at the American Philological Association's annual meeting in Chicago, I participated in an excellent panel entitled “Contingent Labor in Classics: The New Faculty Majority?” My contribution was a version of the trash bear/panda theme I’m playing with here—I also tossed in some language about “monstrous hybrids” that I thought would be appealing to classicists, and which reflects some of the work that gets done in my own field, cultural anthropology. Mutant unnatural hybrid adjunct/contingent swarm organizes. You get the idea. 

While it was all received, as intended, amiably, there was some unease as well. Some people clearly found it divisive and, in fact, not just the "trash bear" idea, but the idea of a "new faculty majority" itself: don't these ideas divide us?

 I don’t think so. The labels, the metaphors, do not divide us. Divisions have been made. They are real. They have created real obstacles to communication and movement. We’ve been divided. But the divisions have created a few opportunities, I think, of which the most significant is the potential of part-time adjunct faculty labor to build solidarity across institutions and throughout "metro" and regional higher ed territory. Pandas can't do that yet, but, who knows? When the day comes, I hope all the bears will have a big picnic.

OBAMA'S HISTORICALLY BLAND ADDRESS AT MOREHOUSE IGNORES EDUCATION

Ok, I admit to a bit of dead horse beating here, but what the hell?

How can this horse be dead? Where's the work ethic anymore?

President Obama had at least one good joke to begin his address at the Morehouse College commencement this morning: 

I know some of you had to wait in long lines to get into today’s ceremony. I would apologize, but it didn’t actually have anything to do with security. These graduates just wanted you to know what it’s like to register for classes.

Ha ha. Really. I like it.  

Didn't say anything about adjunct faculty, though, which, while it isn't funny, is important if you’re like me in thinking that the ongoing enfeebling of the nation's faculty is the real problem with higher education. 

Not funny at all.

President Obama did have a few words going on about responsibility, leaning on some remarks by Benjamin Mays, Morehouse president from 1940 to 1967, noting that the college should aim to produce graduates "who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting [those] ills.”

"Live up to President Mays’ challenge," U.S. President Obama urged.  "Some of you may be headed to medical school to become doctors. But make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too."

That was a prelude to softsell marketing of Obamacare. Obamacare? I’m a fan, in principle, but did the President take what was a golden opportunity, at Morehouse this morning, to point out that some unscrupulous employees—that’s probably a zillion colleges and universities, unfortunately, have been using Obamacare as an excuse to further injure the livelihoods and lives of America’s majority faculty?

No. Why did I even ask?

And, by the way, President Obama didn't say anything at all to any of Morehouse men who might be thinking about a career in high ed.

There must have been some. I wonder if they were thinking about the majority higher education faculty in this country—the faculty that already, being the "super-majority" in the community colleges and "lesser tier" 4-year colleges, knows quite a lot about serving "folks in underserved communities." A shame the current President, of the United States, seems so unaware of that.

Now, also get you to the Hofstra AAUP adjunct site, which has a very good post. 

And go comment-here's mine:

Hi folks-thanks for posting this. It’s a shame isn’t it, that we weren’t able to mobilize even more noise around this classically hideous example of institutional inequity, but at least we got some of it going. I tried to find some sort of info on whether or not there would be higher ed union or other supremos at this event– some published itineraries perhaps, of leadership types who might have been in the good seats– with a view to doing a twitter thing and twitting them for their fecklessness in the face of an obvious pr opportunity…but ran out of gas, not least of all because I had to/still have to, write a new final exam for a new course… To give tomorrow. But, again, it’s great to see this post, thanks.

And, of course, also visit the New Faculty Majority Blog, which has all manner of current adcon news going on-Thank you, Vanessa!

And then get to the New Faculty Majority Facebook page as well.

I really think the White House should be all tied with adcon tweets and so-forth...don't you?


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May 16, 2013  Ok, I'm sorry. I was wrong. 

Look: MorehouseCollege Won’t Shut Adjuncts Out of Obama’s Speech After All

 

So this crow was just helping me out, ok? Nothing bad happened to this crow.

And here is a comment from Kathleen Rand Reed, in which she explains the whole misunderstanding:

I spoke with Karen Miller, Chief of Staff, for President John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., at Morehouse and several other knowledgeable persons.  No slight was intended toward the adjuncts.  Usually the "full-time" faculty sits on the stage during commencement. Normally, some members of the faculty are not present --whether away on a vacation, choice not to come, whatever the reason.  This time because of the historic significance of the President speaking at a commencement--in Georgia, at Morehouse an HBCU, etc, almost every faculty member this side of Alabama and any other state wants to be and plans to be on that stage in full regalia.  This situation left a full stage, issues  around fire codes, no room for everyone on stage, security and the like.  Morehouse goes out of its way as an institution to teach its students "compassion, civility, integrity and even listening".  They are not about to go back on that commitment to its students, its faculty (all of its faculty) and the public and especially POTUS. Please do not project onto a revered institution some malevolent intent when the full story has not been told.

Let's hear a loud round of applause for the Morehouse coup of having Obama as the commencement speaker.  Wow!

Kathleen Rand Reed

I know, right? Wow. Now I'll have to eat that crow, probably with egg on my face. Disgusting.

See, Dr. Reed seems to be a nice person, and an anthropologist too, so I’m sure she knows that the American Anthropological Association, through its association with Coalition for theAcademic Workforce, for instance, is VERY SERIOUS about raising the profile of adjunct and contingent faculty.

And, furthermore, she’s clearly someone who commands respect within the academic establishment, because I found a recent post of hers, for instance, on the  "BLOG OF ACADEMEMAGAZINE," where I also read that "OPINIONS PUBLISHED HERE DO NOT REPRESENT THE POLICIES OF THE AAUP."

What a minute! What’s wrong here! Yes, I knew it! I knew the AAUP wouldn't stick up for the excluded adjuncts down at Morehouse College! And where’s AFT, come to think of it! Or NEA!

Are you kidding me!  Shame! Shame!

So, glad I could clear that up. I have three grading deadlines on me. Gotta go.

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May 13, 2012 -- Hi there—you may not be able to read this very good article by Peter Schmidt in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education, because it’s behind a paywall, but you can read it below because, well, I’m not sure, but somehow it just appeared here.

BTW, Morehouse College doesn’t have THAT many adcon faculty-only 50 or so (half are part-timers), so you’d think that seats wouldn’t be THAT hard to come up with….

(That’s all for now: I am still grading 24 gazillion tests and papers—Alan Trevithick)

Adjuncts May Be Shut Out of Obama's Speech at Morehouse College

ByPeter Schmidt

[Update (5/15/2013, 11:15 a.m.): Morehouse College announced on Wednesday that adjunct faculty members would each receive one ticket to be in the audience at the commencement ceremony because additional tickets became available after students’ ticket needs were met. The adjuncts will not, however, be able to sit with full-time faculty members on the stage.]

The original CHE article did not feature this poignant illustration, by the way, and, also, not all adjunct/contingent faculty dress like this. I do, of course, but I'm hardly putting myself out there as representative. Many of us who routinely get kicked to the curb in this way manage to do so in a a stylish, indeed, elegant, manner.

Despite all the time they spend in its classrooms, part-time faculty members at Morehouse College are at risk of being kept away on Sunday when President Obama delivers this year's commencement address on the campus green.

Faced with overwhelming demand for seats at the event and the security concerns associated with a presidential visit, the historically black private college decided in February to deny tickets to its roughly 50 part-time faculty members. It has since reversed itself to the extent that it is at least trying to find a way to let adjuncts attend, but Elise Durham, a Morehouse spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that "we just don't know yet" if that will be possible. "We are making every effort to do what we can," she said.

The Atlanta institution clearly is dealing with exceptional circumstances surrounding the first appearance of a sitting U.S. president to deliver one of its commencement addresses. Nevertheless, its decision to deny tickets to its part-time faculty—while seating full-timers onstage—is being perceived by some national advocates for adjunct instructors as emblematic of how colleges often give that population second-class treatment when it comes to inclusion in campus events or access to campus facilities.

"It is so common for adjuncts to be excluded from things," Maria Maisto, president of New Faculty Majority, said on Tuesday. She said even those adjunct faculty members who hold full-time jobs outside academe, and therefore are not as unhappy with their pay and benefits as adjuncts who try to make a living by teaching, "will get very upset about these kinds of exclusions, because they are an insult and they are disrespectful."

"This is just more of the same," said Debra Leigh Scott, who teaches part time at Temple University and is co-producing the documentary Junct: The Trashing of Higher Ed. in America. Calling adjuncts "the invisible people" on college campuses, she said, "It is not at all surprising that the administration would make a decision to further erase the existence of adjuncts at this type of thing."

The Chronicle was unable to reach any Morehouse adjuncts on Tuesday afternoon who were willing to talk about their exclusion from the commencement ceremony, first reported last week in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But Keith Hollingsworth, a professor of business who is chairman of the college's Faculty Council, said, "They are not happy, of course. I don't think that is a big secret."

"Normally," Mr. Hollingsworth said, "we have a very open graduation ceremony," with seats in the front reserved for students and their families but others open to anyone who wanted to attend. "This is the first time we have had to restrict it," he said. "The whole emphasis is to try to have as many tickets for the students as possible."

Ms. Maisto said that at some colleges commencements pose a much different problem for adjuncts because they are required to attend the events without being reimbursed for their time.

At Morehouse, President Obama's scheduled appearance at the commencement has generated high demand for seats, security concerns limiting the number of seats available, and an exceptional level of scrutiny for the college. Morehouse's president, John S. Wilson Jr., already has come under criticism for reducing the role played in its graduation ceremonies by the Rev. Kevin R. Johnson, a Morehouse alumnus who leads a Baptist church in Philadelphia and had recently criticized President Obama in an essay in The Philadelphia Tribune.

In past years, Morehouse had set out about 10,000 seats for its commencement, with no ticket requirements, and let about 3,000 additional people stand in the back. This year, for security reasons, it has had to remove a section of seats, reducing the number available to 9,500, and to require everyone in attendance to have a ticket. It has offered one ticket each to its 170 full-time faculty members, who will have to go through background checks before being seated onstage; one ticket each to members of its staff; and 12 tickets to each of its students.

Ms. Maisto of New Faculty Majority said the situation at Morehouse is an example of how adjuncts "are often reminded of our status" by being given inferior treatment, even when equal treatment would not cost the college any additional money. "It is as much about academic culture as it is about economics," she said, "maybe even more so."

Sector is Just Broken: From Guardian's Friday the 13th

“Have you been following what happened at the University of Virginia?” That was a question appearing in a live chat sponsored a couple weeks ago by the Guardian’s higher education blog.

Also referenced, early on, was an old favorite from AAUP on the bleakness of things, in 2010, which had a subheading “the Collapsing Faculty Infrastructure.” 

Which, really, was the main subject of the Guardian's Friday the 13^th conversation, entitled, “Freelance, part-time or fixed-term: is this the future of academic careers?”

This produced comments so rich, and varied, that I have taken the liberty of excerpting a number of them, with enough editing to yield “one-liners.” I think I have not altered  anyone’s fundamental views.

Now, although they were obviously aware of grim parallels in the United States, the respondents seem to be mostly British, no surprise, an Australian or American here and there, and mostly lecturers—limited term and part/or part-time, “fractionals”—and graduate students. There were also some “staff” folk, and at least one senior tenured professor, and a gaggle of panelists who are listed here. 

The chat was kicked off by the news that a job advertisement, from the University of Birmingham,* had elicited applications for a "voluntary postdoctoral position.” Well, even in Britain they’re not going for an entirely voluntary higher education faculty yet, and so the comments more often involved “fractional” and other sorts of arrangements that are very familiar to American adjunct and contingent faculty.

Of course, anyone can see the original comments whenever they wish, but I read them all, in one bleak and unbroken binge, and I am trying to convey here what I heard as a sort of opera, with voices of despair, grief, cynicism, solidarity, resignation, sadness, amusement (not much), anger, and resolve.

Um, before we go on, have you seen New Faculty Majority's new website? That will help you get through this or, after you've read the whole thing, get over this. 

Ok, it was a downer, altogether. I didn’t, for instance, read anything that sounded like good fun. You know, a bunch of teenagers preparing to toss a burning motorcycle through a bank window, that sort of stuff. 

And I guess I was a bit surprised by the lack of revolutionary zeal.

Also, not much about fattening administrative salaries or pharaonic building projects.

And not much class-based chat either. Some, not much: Brits, we really do rely on you for this. What gives?

Well. Here it is-almost everything is in order of appearance, with a few switches, and a few parenthetical indications, for the sake of intelligibility. I didn’t sample every single comment, but most of them. Also, I’ve linked here and there to some sites that explain some special topics.  

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Sad to hear that this is happening.

Sector is just broken.

Fractional contracts insufficient to live on.

Interactions lead to inequalities....nobody has managed to eliminate them.

Unless/until full time staff begin to value part timers and support them.

Existence of contingent faculty downgrades the value of every professor. 

In America, the pundits are continually asking why isn't college cheaper? 

Declare a fiscal emergency and tenure goes out the window.

Short-term, part-time contract was perfect. (Then) 

[But] Opportunities for permanence are not so forthcoming. (now).

Their career is something they're passionate about.

Supporting the status quo....actually part of the problem

Underpay and overwork new entrants to the profession.

Blight of casualisation.

UCU Day of Action on Casualisation great opportunity.

Universities know they are losing out to entrepreneurs.

Universities tend to be appalling employers.

Mundane factors...eating and sleeping and having basic job security.

Support...that you hope to get from senior colleagues...patchy.

Closed off to workers on casualised contracts...getting a mortgage.

PGWA resists... increasing exploitation of PhD students.

Someone who completed her PhD...working as a “honorary” research fellow!

Concordat says "value and afford equal treatment...regardless of contract.

Boggles the mind what they think they can and.. actually get away with.

Has the concordat actually made any difference?

Tend to avoid these kind of discussions because they fill me with panic.

Very long way from being paid fairly for the work they do.

Wait until you have to compete against every Ph.D. all around the globe.

Women academics are also twice as likely to work part-time.

I have been advocating the 'branded academic' and portfolio professional.

The level of responsibility that senior academics do or don’t’ feel.

The HE equivalent of selling off the family assets in order to survive today.

It’s about intergenerational responsibility, innit?

Can't get a job in academia, need to look outside it(?) Seems a tad harsh. 

There's clearly something rotten in the industry that needs to be sorted.

I'm more keen on tackling these problems than just throwing my hands up.

How about having limits on the numbers of PhD students trained?

Wish I could be as optimistic about the future as you.

Administrators primarily have cutting labor costs in mind. 

Have you been following what happened at the University of Virginia? 

Replace professors with machines...few people left to fight for ...education.

In terms of solutions, unfortunately, there are no easy fixes

Personally happy to (at least have accepted that I'll) work part-time.

What disheartens me is that this is expected.

Burden this puts on people not as lucky as I am in having partner who earns.

In US and Australia university teaching is casualised to a staggering rate.

Fraction of the cost of meaningful salaries.

Absolutely no business incentive whatsoever to higher education institutions.

We all hate to think that this is what's happening.

Try to find constructive answers.

The problem now goes...beyond individual academic career disappointment.

Someone looks at the evidence and decides it is time to do something else?

Many were working below the UK minimum wage.

Knock on impacts are huge... impacts upon support staff.

Casualization....going hand in had with relentless drive of marketisation. 

Increasingly seeing privatization of higher education.  

There is a LOT rotten in the industry!

When I [Senior faculty] catch cold, contingent faculty catch pneumonia.

All facing the same epidemic...should work together in order to stamp it out.

Without support from senior academics

Grassroots' groups ....little power to make any significant changes.

Real need for criticism of the system by those...already tenured.

"Lecturer" is part research part teaching, I don't see it w/only one part.

Flexible workforce... balance of financial incentive and professional esteem.

Reward flexible workforce: trust in you as employer will reap rewards. 

They'll keep you innovative, lean, on the cutting edge.

The very knowledge creators that your business depends on.

I doubt I'll get an academic job or post doc funding.

Get a job, almost any job...see if I can do a bit of research on the side. 

I'm 30—I want a pension and to start a family.

Think they'll get....jobs...supervisors don't seem to let them know the odds. 

Support staff...far more job security than people doing teaching or research.

Hell, some panelists (for live chat) have these kinds of staff positions.

Have hopes...but you should not have expectations.

* Now have look at this, for, not University of Birmingham, but University of Alabama at Birmingham where, strangely, they offer not one, but two "volunteer postdoctoral positions." Of course, we are a much bigger country. And, sure, it's for orthodontics students, and those guys stand to make a little money down the road, but still, there it is. 

And, again, just pointing it out: New Faculty Majority's new website? That will help you deal with all of this.