Cringing Again-OSHA Inaugurates New Faculty Protections

I'd just like to take this opportunity to welcome myself back to this space, and to note that I've been doing some very dangerous work lately 1) trying to recall my username and password, and 2) researching the increasingly bizarre claims of our higher education leaders. But there is hope: check out the OSHAhttps://www.osha.gov info on "temporary workers."

The OSHA site features info on the Protection of Temporary Workers: God Bless Big Government!
Who knew they were trying  to protect adjunct and contingent faculty from noxious fumes (from DOE?)? 

I expect to shortly have a decent source of oxygen, and will be posting again regularly, just as soon as all the hoses and other gear are properly installed.

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.  

__________________________________________

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. 

What Kind of a Deal is Duquesne v. NLRB?

"Not only did they make a deal with us and go back on it, but they are disregarding their own canon law." That’s Dan Kovalik, who is the attorney for the proposed adjunct union at Duquesne, quoted in today’s Pittsburgh City Paper,

I like that, but if you have a look at the documents posted by Duquesne University, in regard to the Church hierarchy’s challenge to a National Labor Relations Board finding that the proposed union is kosher, so to speak, you’ll find that not everybody is on board.

For instance, right near the top of the amicus brief filed by a troika of high powered Church outfits*, we find this: “the arguments set forth in this Brief are about the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”), not the natural rights of employees.”

They go on to say something about what Brother Kovalik was highlighting, but it’s not what we really have in mind: “The Catholic Church has long supported the moral right of workers to organize and bargain collectively  [but] under the First Amendment, Catholic colleges and universities must have the freedom to pursue those goals without excessive government entanglement.”

So that’s not natural law they’re talking about—or canon law either. Just the regular stuff for the rest of us, and for those who need it when they decide they want it.                                            

As, for instance, when the Amici get around to one of their favorite secularisms, a definition of “religious” that, if applied to a school, is found by some courts to come with a “Get out of NLRB Free” card. This is the famous “bright line” test we will be hearing much more about in coming months.

A real three headed pest of a test, devised in the course of a hearing in 2001-02 by the Ist Circuit Court (D.C.), in University of Great Falls v. National Labor Relations Board, it holds that the board can not claim jurisdiction over an institution that:

(1) “holds itself out to the public as

a religious institution”;

(2) “is non-profit”; and

(3) “is religiously affiliated.”

Well, we’ll see, of course, There is a lot of good stuff to draw on, if you like that sort of thing. You know, for the idea that government should take a hands-off approach to religion without, on the other hand, having any right to take part in defining what “religious” means in the first place.

Our stout Amici?  They eat it right up, gleefully concluding that “by its very nature,” almost any kind of government inquiry into the nature of religion “invites government officials to substitute their judgment about an institution’s “religious character” for the judgment of the institution and its religious community.”

I write almost any kind of inquiry, because government is apparently allowed to ask, “by the way, are your religious?” And then accept, without comment, whatever the answer may be.

Or so it seems.

Before concluding, however, I do want to point out that the three Amici are not limited, in their reliance on the “bright line” test, to only those cases when they wish to avoid a meddlesome government. They waggle the same weapon when catching the sniff of something tasty, something not at all to be avoided, something eagerly desired. 

Thus, consider the case pitting Colorado Christian University against the State of Colorado (2008), which had been so bold as to inquire about CCU’s religious character in determining whether or not students there were eligible to receive publically funded scholarships.

Wouldn’t these little subsidized cream puffs entangle our pals in the terrible volutuousities of this world?

Oh piffle, don’t be so sensitive. Gladden up, as our three jolly Amici do when quoting, from CCU v. Colorado, the 10^th Circuit Court’s opinion that the state’s inquiries into where public monies go, “were impermissible under the First Amendment,” and very likely to “embroil the government in line-drawing and second-guessing regarding matters about which it has neither competence nor legitimacy.”

But, at least, where the Church is involved, there are at least clear moral principles available, and for that, let us all be thankful, and work for the best.

 * Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, the Lasallian Association of College and University Presidents, and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

Campus Equity Week is October 24-28, 2011

Ok-so that cool photo up at the right is from www.opednews.com/articles/Occupy-Santa-Fe-Photo-Ess-by-Meryl-Ann-Butler. Well done guys.

And, in that spirit, what are you doing for Adjunct Equity week? I mean, insofar as you know that ejicashun and gud jobs don't go together like they shud? I suggest:

1) Making this known to you full-time faculty colleagues, who generally don't know about adjunct/contingent trends or conditions: if they knew, they would surely help out. 

2) Wearing a loudly informative hat and/or t-shirt, such as those available through the New Faculty Majority web store. You can get stuff printed with Higher Ed Hand, or Fair Trade in Education.  There's a nice bumper sticker too: ADJUNCTivitis is a social JUSTICE disease, thought I think maybe the printing on it should be clearer. BTW, have any catchy slogans? 

3) Organizing an informational meeting with your union, if you have one, or with your faculty senate or other faculty organization if possible, or just getting everybody to shut down the college or university for a couple of weeks until you get your point across.

And here are other places for other ideas-

http://www.cocalinternational.org/ http://www.aft.org/higher_ed/cew/ http://www.fpse.ca/library/few http://www.fneeq.qc.ca/en/accueil/communiques/communiques_2007/new019.html http://www.caut.ca/pages.asp?page=572 http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/contingent/cewpage.htm  (Events from 2009, plus many helpful sample documents)