tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post8807917561030973962..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Three points about the academic job marketCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-8271775643830588172012-02-09T16:33:14.371-05:002012-02-09T16:33:14.371-05:00Not saying you're altogether wrong, but I thin...Not saying you're altogether wrong, but I think the admitting of students into humanities PhD programs has been unethical. It's only been in the last five years that people have begun to openly talk about the dire job situation and adjunct racket. But this has only come to light because people with real scholarly records (by that I mean publications), finding themselves in their tenth year in part-time work have begin to kick up a row. In other words, Universities are only now beginning to acknowledge this issue and are starting to come (semi) clean.<br />I'd also add that it isn't good enough to complain about "administrators" being responsible for the adjunct scam. If you're tenure track or tenured and you allow your department to use adjuncts you're as guilty as any administrator.<br />But an excellent post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1877318001750654392010-09-14T11:01:38.779-04:002010-09-14T11:01:38.779-04:00Great post, Jeffrey. Your conclusion says it all:...Great post, Jeffrey. Your conclusion says it all: ultimately, it is the quality and future of higher education in America - world reknowned, at least now - that loses out because of these hiring practices.Kavita Daiyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18324878826314933779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-12452230268923236662010-02-28T07:24:43.285-05:002010-02-28T07:24:43.285-05:00Thanks, Dr V and ADM: very valuable, from the tren...Thanks, Dr V and ADM: very valuable, from the trenches contributions.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-16328270283047845542010-02-27T23:26:16.155-05:002010-02-27T23:26:16.155-05:00Late coming back to this, but glad I did. I work ...Late coming back to this, but glad I did. I work at an institution that did away with tenure many years ago. We now have a system akin to the non-tenured, but 'permanent' system you might see in other countries. Several faculty members have tenure from the old days. Most of them teach 4-3 or 4-4 loads (some were hired when publication was not required, as we are a 'teaching' school, and they don't want a course release for research). All of them but one still serve on committees, etc. The one who doesn't still makes what could be argued as valuable contributions to the university's reputation. <br /><br />Getting rid of senior people guarantees only one thing: being able to replace them with adjuncts or cheaper junior people. Tenure doesn't make a bit of difference, financially. I've worked at unionized campuses with tenure, and it didn't prevent tenured faculty being RIF'd in recent cuts nor, more importantly to Eugyppius' badly thought out arguments, it didn't prevent tenured faculty who did not do their jobs from being fired. <br /><br />I'm all for tenure reform, but there is no sensible reason that tenure can be held responsible for a lack of positions. Perhaps mandatory retirement ages would help, but considering the number of very productive scholars I know who are in their sixties and seventies and are magnificent researchers, teachers, and mentors to junior faculty, I'm not about to suggest that. Not to mention that I am not about to encourage any sort of discrimination.Another Damned Medievalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05231085915472400163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-79807552972556550062010-02-27T16:56:30.144-05:002010-02-27T16:56:30.144-05:00Dr. Virago said: "to argue that adjuncts do w...Dr. Virago said: <i>"to argue that adjuncts do what TT faculty do, but cheaper, is to misunderstand TT faculty as classroom teachers only, or to value them only as such. Or worse, to think of the classroom and its instructors (TT or adjunct) the way my university's administration thinks of it: as a 'content delivery system.'"</i><br /><br />Thanks for this. Bingo.Matthew Gabrielehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11971159578332078338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-31974662016403145352010-02-26T20:04:48.705-05:002010-02-26T20:04:48.705-05:00Of course we can make it more humane: unionize, p...Of course we can make it more humane: unionize, people. As with Dr. Virago, I'm in a union (mine is <a href="http://www.apscuf.com/" rel="nofollow">APSCUF</a>--you can read the contract on the homepage). Collective action does not directly help hiring--only more money can do that--but it does indirectly. Our contract, for instance, caps the number of credit hours which adjuncts can teach. My dept. has almost twice as many tenure lines (30) as some PhD granting institutions which feed their comp programs with graduate students. Some academics react with shock to a 4/4 load (the shock arises from an elitist bias, frankly, which grad schools too often teach to their students; it's just not that bad), but pity goes both ways: I really, really feel for the stresses friends on non-union campuses have to endure that we don't.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-59106756946204877922010-02-26T17:45:39.652-05:002010-02-26T17:45:39.652-05:00I'm enough of a cynic to believe that the univ...I'm enough of a cynic to believe that the university is a cog, but enough of an idealist to think that it can serve to make the whole machine more humane.<br /><br />It's chilling to read some of the assertions about tenure being the main issue in light of the situation at King's. The Principal there recently suggested the possibility of <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=410485&c=2" rel="nofollow">cuts twice as bad as the Thatcher cuts</a> of the early eighties. (And someone has paid PriceWaterhouseCoopers to produce a document suggesting the specter of 30%: "Real cuts of between 5 and 30 per cent are now unavoidable.")<br /><br />Thatcher's government ended tenure in 1988.<br /><br />For a time, you might (and people did) argue that it worked okayish with arguably more opportunity at the lower rungs, more possibilities for moving from temporary to permanent contracts, fixed-term posts being on the same pay scale as permanent staff and so on.<br /><br />But 30% cuts (and we see that the cuts are marked for productive academics while upper admin salaries rise and recruitment is underway) for financial exigency at a institution that boasts a top 25 global ranking..looks like a plan, with no tenure and weak labour representation, for a race to the bottom.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14163909745278934948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-42927396474445688112010-02-26T16:24:25.647-05:002010-02-26T16:24:25.647-05:00As if we need more evidence:
The humanities conti...As if we need more evidence:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nhalliance.org/news/humanities-enjoy-strong-student-demand-but-declini.shtml" rel="nofollow">The humanities continue to play a core role in higher education and student interest is strong, but to meet the demand, four-year colleges and universities are increasingly relying on a part-time, untenured workforce.</a> Those are among the findings from the Humanities Departmental Survey, conducted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) and a consortium of disciplinary associationsJeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-42263054631979506512010-02-26T16:22:05.098-05:002010-02-26T16:22:05.098-05:00Something encouraging.<a href="http://www.nhalliance.org/news/national-humanities-alliance-submits-humanities-jo.shtml" rel="nofollow">Something encouraging.</a>Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-5237500339832028132010-02-26T13:31:24.289-05:002010-02-26T13:31:24.289-05:00Here are some numbers. At my regional public univ...Here are some numbers. At my regional public university, salaries for tenured/tenure-track professors account for 13% of the academic budget and only 8.6% of the total operating budget. I'd link to my union's web page with those numbers, but Dr. Virago is a pseudonym, and on the web I'd like to keep it that way.<br /><br />Meanwhile, to argue that adjuncts do what TT faculty do, but cheaper, is to misunderstand TT faculty as classroom teachers only, or to value them only as such. Or worse, to think of the classroom and its instructors (TT or adjunct) the way my university's administration thinks of it: as a "content delivery system."Dr. Viragohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03960384082670286328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-12161045717623664442010-02-26T13:25:59.203-05:002010-02-26T13:25:59.203-05:00Interesting discussions....as a contingent employe...Interesting discussions....as a contingent employee having to teach more classes than my tenured colleagues just to make ends meet, when I can catch up on Chronicle, Inside Higher Ed, and blog posts on the topic, I have many thoughts few of which have been mentioned here why a man from the lower economic class of this country thinks grad programs not only are not going away but should not, why an undergrad would want to go to grad school even with little hope of professionalization in traditional terms, why tenure is good and necessary, and who the culprits are beyond the obvious financial (i.e. one reason why there is no money, beyond "it's the economy, stupid!"), and why even with my worst case scenario when I started the journey now my reality I would make the same decision to go to grad school, get a degree in a field I love....all these thoughts ramble about the ol' brain box. Someday I'll write them up. Till then, keep up the discussion!theswainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-82728911607879029852010-02-26T12:59:00.812-05:002010-02-26T12:59:00.812-05:00being realistic For example.
If you'd like to...<a href="http://expositions.bnf.fr/mai68/grand/188.htm" rel="nofollow">being realistic</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=derrida+university+without+condition&aq=0&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=derrida+university" rel="nofollow">For example.</a><br /><br />If you'd like to butt heads with the numbers and realism of my union's arguments, by all means, do so. Elsewhere. Given, however, that we won substantial pay raises 3 years ago, and have won a number of victories since then against a corporatist state government, and are entering into contract negotiations again this year, I prefer to fight, with an eye towards both future victories and the memory of past successes, rather than to abandon the field altogether and call that 'realism.'<br /><br />You've made your point, repeatedly, that eliminating tenure, taking all the money now not tied up in professors making...how much? where are your numbers?...and splitting that "equally" up among...how many adjuncts and newly born adjuncts, and freeing up (how much?) money by cancelling facilities projects, would be easier than asking the rich to pay the taxes they did in 1993. <br /><br />And I'm the one who's unrealistic? <br /><br />At any rate, yes, eliminating tenure would lead to a more equitable working environment for academics. We'd be as equal as we all will be in death.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-15014515586920224812010-02-26T12:23:25.300-05:002010-02-26T12:23:25.300-05:00I'm betting the administrators will be nearly ...<em>I'm betting the administrators will be nearly impossible to dislodge. Maybe the tenured faculty are too, but good god, the last thing we want is more of them.</em><br /><br />Don't include me in that "we." I want many, many more tenured faculty, as countless as the desert stars, each one of them impossible to dislodge.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-54660117988478900022010-02-26T12:19:46.560-05:002010-02-26T12:19:46.560-05:00I don't understand generic exhortations to use...I don't understand generic exhortations to use "numbers," absent the disputation of any factual point. And I don't understand how the numbers you and Jeffrey have cited support the argument that it is at all realistic to expect anyone to spend more money on teaching labor. Even if you could restore taxes to 1993 levels.<br /><br />Administrative salaries are indeed ballooning -- or at least holding steady from the boom times. The overlarge and cumbersome administrative apparatus, like the tenured faculty (christ, like a lot of the building projects), was set up during the fat years and now we're stuck with them in lean years. We should get rid of them, or deal with increasingly smaller pie slices for everyone else. But I'm betting the administrators will be nearly impossible to dislodge. Maybe the tenured faculty are too, but good god, the last thing we want is more of them.<br /><br />Oh, and you're right about universities. I used "originally" loosely. As soon as they were organized bureaucratically (within a generation or two) the universities went to work for the head boys. Primarily the church, but of course they assumed secular positions too (often both; often the distinction seems blurry to me).eugyppiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15784545168319593123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-56356913678329576822010-02-26T11:35:14.536-05:002010-02-26T11:35:14.536-05:00The university was especially fit for this refashi...<i>The university was especially fit for this refashioning. It had originally been a cog in the ecclesiastical machine (training clerics for roles in the church bureaucracy).</i><br />By the way, although I'm far from an expert on medieval schooling, I believe the story's a great deal more complicated than this. This is true, to a degree, after the twelfth century; but prior to the development of universities, the Cathedral Schools (at Chartres, Orleans, etc.) were more involved in this role. And, at any rate, trained scholars would sometimes go on to work in state rather than ecclesiastical bureaucracies. Who staffed the exchequer, for instance?Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-35825614265478494842010-02-26T11:28:47.162-05:002010-02-26T11:28:47.162-05:00What is an "unschooling pedagogy"?: it&#...<a href="http://lmgtfy.com/?q=unschooling+pedagogy" rel="nofollow">What is an "unschooling pedagogy"?</a>: it's the argumentative field to which some of your proposals belong. I've had a look at your blog; given your rhetoric, here and there, I'm surprised you don't know about it. You may also find it useful to read <a href="http://www.worldwar3illustrated.org/" rel="nofollow">these.</a><br /><br />I'd find this all less tiresome if you cited some actual numbers, Eugyppius, as numbers are requisite for any 'realistic' (your words) discussion of trends in academic finances and employment. I pointed you to a few: the salary schedule for CUNY, and my union's testimony to the state in re: budgetary recommendations for fixing the CUNY budget. Jeffrey's pointed to some other figures. You could also check out the data assembled by protestors against cuts to California higher education: there's a lot of data there, if you decide to look at it, concerning ballooning salaries of administrators and their staffs even during times of supposed fiscal crises. <br /><br />You, however, have provided nothing but rhetoric. Rhetoric's fine, but since we're in the realm of arguing about numbers, it'd help you provided, well, numbers rather than just framing. Without that, I don't really see the point of continuing this conversation with you.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-6556457122724219532010-02-26T11:25:16.273-05:002010-02-26T11:25:16.273-05:00Thank you. Number 3 is happening to me and 4 adjun...Thank you. Number 3 is happening to me and 4 adjuncting colleagues in the same English Department right now. <br /><br />Work a-plenty (medieval literature courses so overenrolled that extra classes have to be added), but no permanent contracts allowed. Under the law here, our contracts cannot be renewed more than twice or they become permanent, so we are being dismissed despite good evaluations, good staff relations, etc. With a bit of luck, we will actually be forced to train our successors even though we'd love to have their jobs...LJNhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04003522787987545206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-53185563405354277362010-02-26T10:57:44.303-05:002010-02-26T10:57:44.303-05:00P.S. What is an "unschooling pedagogy"? ...P.S. What is an "unschooling pedagogy"? Is that how you characterize realism?eugyppiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15784545168319593123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-8163909124836728902010-02-26T10:52:48.627-05:002010-02-26T10:52:48.627-05:00Part II
The argument is an easy one to make if y...Part II<br /><br /><i> The argument is an easy one to make if you are a CFO who wants to be able to build a new engineering complex and refurbish the stadium,</i><br /><br />As with the sports programs: What do you think motivates those building projects? Do you honestly think your local CFO is EVER going to say, hey, to hell with all these new buildings -- let's hire more medievalists? Honestly? Part of what universities <i>do</i> is build stuff; ever thus with large institutions dependent upon donor largesse. Cf. medieval cathedrals and monasteries.<br /><br /><i>Eliminating tenure, however, would make the instructors more, not less, beholden to the bottom line. The workings of the pedagogical/financial/capitalist machine would be strengthened, if anything.</i><br /><br />The machine is already all-powerful; the adjunctified merely bear more than their share of the burden. And if your definition of "not too hard" is <i>bringing taxes on the New York State's rich back to 1993 levels</i> then I really don't know what to say to you. <br /><br /><br /> <i>I do think the university is more than just a cog in the capitalist machine.</i><br /><br />Sorry, it's not. Our capitalist machine has refashioned the world into cogs. The university was especially fit for this refashioning. It had originally been a cog in the ecclesiastical machine (training clerics for roles in the church bureaucracy).eugyppiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15784545168319593123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-12152714564738005962010-02-26T10:51:53.970-05:002010-02-26T10:51:53.970-05:00Part I:
...to find a community of the likeminded....Part I:<br /><br /><i>...to find a community of the likeminded...</i><br /><br />Yeah, the academy is big on finding communities of the likeminded.<br /><br /><i>And here's the second thing: deflecting a serious talk about the job market into a cynical dismissal of the tenure system as the culprit behind every college and university ill deflects attention from where it ought to be placed: how to invest more of the educational budget into the full time benefited longterm positions that are actually needed, and how to move away from the exploitative system of at-need PT employment that is at the root of the moribund FT job market.</i><br /><br />Your rhetoric is riotous. There are seriously exploited workers in this world; our glorious capitalist project screws a lot of people over. Adjuncts? I'm sorry, but they're far, far down on the exploited list. <br /><br />And <i>the full time benefited longterm positions that are actually needed</i>? Needed by whom? Us? If the system needed them it would pay for them. Adjunctification is a symptom of financial stress, tenure, and the expansion of higher ed at the community college level. If all the job money is locked up underneath the asses of middle aged tenured types, how do you think that's going to work out in the long run, as budgets get tighter, endowments shrink, and the basic project of higher education is retooled to function more or less like the German Gymnasium system (again, as secondary ed disintegrates)? And you still think tenure is your friend, as schools across the country begin to feel increasingly insecure and unable to pay for even the tenured faculty they have? The tenure system means that a lot of schools have teaching staff leftover from the seven fat years in the middle of an epic stretch of seven lean years. The results are all around us. <br /><br /><i>Easy way to free up millions at nearly every university: de-fund all sports programs and have the institution concentrate upon the mind, not the football and basketball teams.</i><br /><br />Because that's like totally going to happen. It's statements like this that I find just completely unbelievable. <b>The mind</b>? We've obviously been operating in parallel worlds. Universities in the US have a specific social role to play. Like it or not, part of that role is tied up in sports. If schools shut down their sports programs, they'll suddenly be a lot less donor interest. And since when, in our post-WWII world, have any critical mass of universities "concentrate[d] upon the mind"? Not many people have ever been interested in minds, mine our yours or our students'. Power and money are what they're after.<br /><br />Our schools cater to donor demand, pure and simple. I don't have much money, I'm betting you don't either. Wealthy donors, government, and assorted characters, however, do have money and our schools dance to their tune. That will never, ever change. And if it were to, there would only be less money, fewer jobs, and more adjuncts -- because there would be less money. Bureaucratized institutions like universities aren't your friends, and they never will be. But if you're realistic about how they work and why they're here and why they want you around, you can use them to get by and free up some time to think now and then. Which is a precious, precious thing in this imperialist overcommodified world that we inhabit.eugyppiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15784545168319593123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-19327827296706185952010-02-26T09:26:14.787-05:002010-02-26T09:26:14.787-05:00Thanks Jeffrey.
"sinecure": TT faculty...Thanks Jeffrey. <br /><br />"sinecure": TT faculty at my institution teach 21 credit hours a year. Since classes default to 3 credits, that's 3/3 + advising + an expectation of committee work. Sure, tenured faculty can stop publishing, and, sure, certain faculty can get very soft committee assignments, but I've never had a job, in or outside the academy, in or outside the public trough, that didn't have a cord or two of deadwood.<br /><br /><i>I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with the salary schedule for your institution</i><br />In part, I wanted you to observe that our adjuncts are part of our bargaining unit. When I do work for the union, which I do, I'm also doing work for the adjuncts.<br /><br />And, Eugyppius, if you want to engage in an unschooling pedagogy, fine. Eliminating tenure, however, would make the instructors more, not less, beholden to the bottom line. The workings of the pedagogical/financial/capitalist machine would be strengthened, if anything.<br /><br />Getting more money for CUNY wouldn't be too hard: bring taxes on the New York State's rich back to 1993 levels. See the budget testimony <a href="http://www.psc-cuny.org/documents.htm" rel="nofollow">here.</a> Problem solved.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-82953793711461296662010-02-26T07:49:17.782-05:002010-02-26T07:49:17.782-05:00PPS And then I really need to prep for the indepen...PPS And then I really need to prep for the independent study I am about to: read the Coalition on the Academic Workforce brief <a href="http://www.academicworkforce.org/" rel="nofollow">here</a> (download PDF from left hand side). The end of the brief contains a compelling collection of charts and statistics, including this one: "In 1970, part-time faculty members represented only 22.0% of all faculty members teaching in<br />US colleges and universities. By 2007 the percentage of part-timers had increased to 48.7% of<br />faculty members in all institutions (fig. 1). In four-year institutions the percentage of part-time<br />teachers in 2007 was 41.2%."<br /><br />If you go on and read the rest of the appendix, you'll see the situation is actually much worse than these percentages when contingent FT positions and TAs are added in.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-88357998496987875192010-02-26T07:41:31.984-05:002010-02-26T07:41:31.984-05:00OK, a last PS: Bousquet's work is not revoluti...OK, a last PS: Bousquet's work is not revolutionary; in a way it is deeply commonsensical. And researchers have been making a similar point for quite some time: look, for example, at the 1999 issue of <a href="http://www.theminnesotareview.org/journal/ns50/toc.html" rel="nofollow">minnesota review on Activism and the Academy</a>.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-88138721038544229362010-02-26T07:35:22.310-05:002010-02-26T07:35:22.310-05:00Tom, well said, and here's the thing: beginnin...Tom, well said, and here's the thing: beginning with the assumption that tenure itself is the main issue -- that it ties up tremendous financial resources that if disbursed through more flexible modes of employment would better the postsecondary educational landscape -- is to have already bought the argument for adjunctification. <br /><br />The argument is an easy one to make if you are a CFO who wants to be able to build a new engineering complex and refurbish the stadium, but it starts with all kinds of problematic premises: that the amount of money expended upon faculty salaries due to tenure is extraordinarily high, that it is not a good investment in pedagogy and institutional prestige, that most tenured professors sit on their duffs most of the day and don't care about their research, service, and teaching. Again, a convenient vision to buy into if you want to underpay casual workers, but a vision with little basis in fiscal reality.<br /><br />And here's the second thing: deflecting a serious talk about the job market into a cynical dismissal of the tenure system as the culprit behind every college and university ill deflects attention from where it ought to be placed: how to invest more of the educational budget into the full time benefited longterm positions that are actually needed, and how to move away from the exploitative system of at-need PT employment that is at the root of the moribund FT job market.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-8579392583361463322010-02-26T06:41:56.805-05:002010-02-26T06:41:56.805-05:00We hand out assignments and issue grades so the bi...<i>We hand out assignments and issue grades so the bigwigs can compare the relative stamina, obedience and intellectual ability of their potential workforce, in other words. Obviously a hefty dose of fantasy permeates this arrangement. I suspect that the grades I hand out measure but poorly my students' relative aptitude and readiness for the financialist project. </i><br /><br />That is an incredibly cynical and depressing view of things. I don't think every student who steps foot on campus is there for pure intellectual stimulation, of course, but I do think the university is more than just a cog in the capitalist machine.<br /><br /><i>Administrations seem rapacious because they're caught between a rock and a hard place. The tenured set suck up a lot of the budget and they don't teaching nearly enough. What to do? So far, the answer has been: Hire part-time workers.</i><br /><br />Sorry if I innately distrust people in power to do the right thing for the good of the whole. Administrations are not the victims here, and removing tenure is certainly not going to make things <i>more</i> equitable.<br /><br />Jonathan is right, as he said over at my place as well, that there is a money problem, and perhaps we need to rethink how to fund the humanities in order to survive. But the "tenured" are not causing the crisis, and insinuating that they are is not going to get us anywhere.Tom Elrodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14634982419388998095noreply@blogger.com