Other suggested reads:
- The New Faculty Majority Blog: http://thenewfacultymajority.blogspot.com/ and about the meeting: http://thenewfacul tymajority.blogspot.com/2011/09/cfhe-meeting.html
- AAUP's "Background Facts on Contingent Faculty": http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/contingent/contingentfacts.htm What should be a sobering fact:"Non-tenure-track positions of all types now account for 68 percent of all faculty appointments in American higher
education." (AAUP, n.d.)
- "The professor is in ": http://theprofessorisin.com/category/adjunct-issues
It used to be that post docs were the natural transition stage between graduate school and a tenure track position; now adjuncting has become the "consolation prize" for those of us who are determined to teach because we feel a calling to it and because it is our only hope to be part of a community of scholars... except that it is only a hope since we rarely/never meet colleagues, have no offices, and receive no support for academic endeavors (conferences, workshops...) activities and research that could contribute to our teaching, to the institution, and to the LIS academic field and profession.
I
am dedicated to my students' learning, I spend an inordinate number of
hours online each day to bring them support and quality tutoring; therefore, I
should be a proud adjunct faculty. I teach at a research 1
institution and I receive fantastic
administrative, technical, and support for my teaching . Yet, I feel as an outsider. I would love to meet the faculty-my colleagues- at least once a semester. Have an online "faculty lounge" where I could learn what is going on in my department...
I will also confess that at the recent ALISE conference I often felt an (internal)
nudge to apologize for being (still) "just an adjunct" in my
interactions with the tenured elite; especially after I realized that
some of them may show concern about the numbers and working situation of
part-time/temporary/adjunct faculty inasmuch as their own
viability/survival (or that of the tenure system?) could be at risk.
With the New Faculty Majority, I feel that I can be a part of a larger support group.
C. Closet-Crane, Ph.D., MLS, M.Arch, BA Art History
(Adjuncts do have academic credentials too as well as publishing records)
Greetings all,
A deeply disturbing read, and worth your attention. Whether faculties like it or not,
adjuncts and graduate students (whatever you call them, that is, non-tenured and non-tenure track teachers) are teaching the majority of university students at both the undergraduate and graduate level. They are indeed the New Faculty Majority. This is a major shift from the late 1960s, when a student would not run into a graduate student or asst prof at the teaching level. I know that I never did at UNC-CH or UM. And these were great universities, both for teaching and research.
In terms of LIS education, undergraduate courses in information sciences are being tossed off to graduate students AFAICT as minor contributions to the university mission, as are introductory courses at the Masters level in the information sciences.
I would love to see some numbers here - who at what rank is teaching who or what? Is ALISE collecting this data?
Ë --gw
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 1 Feb
2012 08:34:24 -0500
From: Lorna Peterson <
[log in to unmask]>
To:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: [ALISEadjunct] Fw: New Faculty Majority Summit
Inside Higher Education has a thorough essay on this by Modern Languages
ËAssociation president Michael Berube:
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/02/01/essay-summit-adjunct-leadersI highly recommend this sobering read.
lp
š
