BobbyG @ 5

For example, an adjunct instructor at a typical community college might earn $1,500 (or less) for teaching a three-credit course. Now let’s say this faculty member teaches five courses a semester, which anyone who has taught at the college level would consider a extremely full teaching load. That amounts to $7,500 for the semester and $15,000 for an academic year (gross pay)—maybe $18,000 for the whole year if they are lucky enough to find a couple courses to teach over the summer. On top of that, most adjunct faculty members don’t receive health benefits, leave or pensions, and most don’t have the professional support you would imagine a faculty person would receive—”perks” like an office, a phone, professional development opportunities or even a decent orientation to the college. In short, we are staffing our college classrooms as if faculty members are simply entry-level service workers rather than highly qualified professionals entrusted with the education of the next generation.

Yep. Although our numbers here at UNLV aren’t quite that bad (~$2,200 per 3 credit hr course, no benefits or ofc space), still, were you to teach 5 courses per semester year-round (which, of course, they won’t let us PTIs do), it still sux. Would be about half what I made at my last day gig.

About 60% of the UNLV classroom faculty are PTIs, too. I call us “faculty serfs.”

so guess what. If you get pregnant…

YOU’RE FIRED!!!!!

And good FUCKING luck getting ANYONE to cover the cost of the FUCKING ABORTION you’re going to have because you can’t FUCKING AFFORD the hospital bills of a FUCKING BIRTH.

Just fucking throw the baby in the trash.

Fucking University Fucking ASSHOLES.

I was just barely above that, teaching at a small religious college with no tenure and low salaries. Started in 1993-94 at $23,000/year for teaching 12 hours each semester. By 1997-98 I was bringing down a whopping $26,800, and I came to my senses. By the fall of 1998, I had found other, better, employment.

DrDick @ 50

Same one. I am also a member.

Cool!

When finish college and get a job, I am going to look for a job where they have unions.

Good idea, girl. I’ve worked both union and non-union shops, and there is a world of difference. My last 25 years were with the government, and believe me, were it not for the unions (in my case, NTEU*), I would have been fired before the 2nd year was up. In fact, I ran the Miami local for nearly 18 years. I actually quit teaching after the ‘70 AFT teacher strike in PA which followed immediately the ‘69 GE strike (I was a UE member). I took a job with the Customs Service in Miami to escape the labor unrest. I learned differently in a hurry.

*National Treasury Employees Union

I was just skimming, about to go tackle some chores, but -
I like this idea. We set it up now, give as we can, and get somebody who knows how to invest for the next two years…
Even without rigging for Cssie, I like the idea of a Molly Ivins Memorial scholarship. Maybe a qualifier would be having a sense of humor? *g*

Craig @ AFT @ 53

Now, I don’t want to start a firestorm here, but most of the problem has to do with state funding (which of course is connected to federal funding), but this is a problem that has been brewing for a while under various administrations and state governments–I think there is a lot of educating to do all the way around. At least that is our approach. Talk to everyone–make sure those that agree with investing in higher ed stay and those who don’t, go.

Absolutely. I have watched state appropriations drop and tuitions rise steadily over the last 30 years. Right now, state support for higher education , as a proportion of costs, are at an all time low in most states (I may actually be in all of them). This forces an increasing financial burden on to students and their families, as well as encouraging administrators to find “creative” ways to cut costs. This includes hiring more adjuncts and graduate assistants, increasing class sizes and teching loads, cutting back on basic maintenance, and cutting library and support budgets.

Our ’state’ universities (particularly those in the Carnegie Research-Extensive class) are really state-assisted universities. If you examine the budgets carefully, in every case I’m aware of the state’s contribution is less than half the overall budget. The rest comes in from student tuition and fees, the university foundation, research contracts, grants-in-kind, and research grants.

The problem for the citizens of the state of anxiety (or where ever) is that the golden rule applies: She who has the gold maketh the rules. Or, in its corollary form: He who pays the piper calls the tune. If you want to influence the campus environment, make sure you have the leverage to do so.

BC

I am in 10th grade and will be looking at colleges in a year or two. Are there any websites that tell me if the college teachers are in a union and if they are full time? The advice I have heard so far is that I should go to a small liberal arts college because the big universities are where the classes are huge and the teachers are grad students.

Here’s an idea:

We set up and endow a Molly Ivins Memorial Scholarship Fund, so that a deserving high school student from the Austin area gets a full ride to Smith (Molly’a alma mater, and Christy’s too).

Then we rig the selection process for Cassie.