The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Missed Paycheck Leads Adjuncts To Form A Union

Kelly O'Leary, a part-time English and French instructor at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, says it only took one bad September for her and her part-time instructing colleagues to decide they'd form a union.  O'Leary says it all started when she didn't get her first paycheck Sept. 15, the date she had been told she would be paid. A group of 11 part-time instructors gathered some 200 signatures from both part-time and adjunct instructors in favor of creating a bargaining unit. Read more at:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/05/part-time_instructors_say_late.html

Adjuncts Are Invisible To The American Public

Retail employees, food service workers, call center operators: These, we are told, are the low-paying jobs of the future. Unfortunately, that list would be incomplete without including one of the fastest growing job titles at the business networking site LinkedIn: adjunct professors. Between 2007 and 2011, the number of people describing themselves there this way grew by almost 40 percent. Despite their near-universal presence in American higher education, most students and their parents don't know anything about adjunct faculty members. Read more at:
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_20490316/guest-commentary-adjunct-professors-are-hiding-plain-sight

AAUP Says Don't Blame The Faculty For Rising Tuition

Faculty salaries haven’t kept up with inflation over the years and are not to blame for rising tuition across the country, according to a study released by the American Association of University Professors. The group notes that tuition prices have risen two to four times as fast as full-time faculty salaries, placing blame on state and local funding cuts at public schools. AAUP also reports that the tuition rises coincide with “rapid growth” in part-time faculty hires that “pay incredibly low wages and usually do not include benefits.” Read more at:
http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/04/professors_group_dont_blame_fa.html

Depending On Cheap Labor Will Lead To A Crisis In Higher Education

Relying on cheap labor at educational institutions comes at a high price — for educators and students alike. Since the 1970s, a radical shift has been occurring in higher education, as growing numbers of institutions turn to contingent (or adjunct) faculty to cut costs, while keeping pay as low as possible for the support staff who keep campuses running. Students suffer, as the number of available services are reduced, class sizes increase, and educators are less able to provide direct assistance and mentoring to the students they are there to teach. Now, employees in higher education are fighting back, and facing real challenges from administrations when they do. Read more at:
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/04/the_disposable_professor_crisis/singleton/

Adjunct Faculty Member's Thank You For Whistle-Blowing Is Getting Fired

Justin Schwartz, a lecturer at Cal State East Bay in 2009, told his bosses that a colleague in the recreation department was spending thousands of dollars of university money to buy himself a $4,000 bicycle, passes at a climbing gym, sailing equipment and paragliding lessons while claiming they were for classes he taught.  A campus investigation confirmed that the man had billed the school for personal expenses and that much of the equipment he had bought had mysteriously disappeared, and it found that department officials had never asked questions. Rather than thank the whistle-blower, Cal State East Bay fired him. The colleague who appeared to have bilked the school still teaches there. Read more at:
 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/31/MNLS1NO615.DTL#ixzz1qzZumozz

With Adjuncts Here To Stay The Focus Moves To How To Treat Them

As tuition soared at American colleges and universities in recent decades, so did the number of part-time, non-tenured faculty teaching America's students. Adjunct teachers account for about 70 percent of instructors on college campuses. Adjuncts are demanding better treatment as they carry more of the load. This week, that drive showed itself on one Pittsburgh campus as the non-tenured teachers at Duquesne University went public with a plan to form a union. Maria Somma, an organizer for the United Steelworkers of America, said her group has been in discussions about organizing adjuncts at several Pittsburgh-area universities over the past year. Read more at: 
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_789221.html#ixzz1qz7U2Pry

American Faculty Are Among The World's Best Paid

How much is a professor worth? It might help to know what professors are actually paid and how that figure compares with other salaries — and with the salaries of academics in other countries. But as Philip Altbach and his colleagues at the Center for International Higher Education discovered, such questions are a lot easier to ask than to answer. They also show a profession that in many countries is subject to a widening gap between professors at top research universities and those who work at colleges devoted mainly to teaching. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/world/europe/02iht-educlede02.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Conservative Group's Report Concludes That Leftism Is Out Of Control At UC

The University of California is a hotbed of leftist faculty and politically correct thinking where many students are receiving a weak and unbalanced education, according to a report by a conservative organization of professors and administrators. UC Provost Lawrence Pitts said he disagreed with the findings and insisted that UC allows plenty of intellectual debate. Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0401-uc-critics-20120402,0,6621298.story

Ex-Chancellor Thinks Faculty Need To Work Harder And Be More Productive

As a career-long academic and former university chancellor, I support this position. But I disagree with the next assumption, that the answer to rising college costs is to throw more public money into the system. In fact, increased public support has probably facilitated rising tuitions. Overlooked in the debate are reforms for outmoded employment policies that overcompensate faculty for inefficient teaching schedules. Though faculty salaries now mirror those of most upper-middle-class Americans working 40 hours for 50 weeks, they continue to pay for teaching time of nine to 15 hours per week for 30 weeks, making possible a month-long winter break, a week off in the spring and a summer vacation from mid-May until September. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/do-college-professors-work-hard-enough/2012/02/15/gIQAn058VS_story.html

Colleges Outsource Faculty To Deal With Funding Problems

Colleges and universities struggling with dwindling budgets and smaller endowments are increasingly turning to outsourcing faculty in order to cut costs. Although colleges argue that outsourcing professors and academic programs are beneficial to both the students and the school, some worry this cost-saving measure can  taint a school’s reputation and take away from the students’ learning experience. But just because a class is being outsourced—doesn’t mean it is cheaper than those taught by permanent professors. Read more at: 
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/03/19/universities-turn-to-outsourced-instructors-to-cut-costs/#ixzz1paAHdiTs