Just to add on a couple of points. Temps dont have time to be involved in university governance either. Faculty used to have a great deal of input into how the university was run, going much beyond control of course content and offerings. Temps may have no time for serving on senate, committees, etc. nor to be active in faculty associations. Their interests are liable to be neglected. I know of at least one large philosophy dept. where temps. are not allowed to attend dept. meetings let alone vote on issues. Some of the members who disenfranchise temps think of themselves as progressive. One member said to a temp who worked at Brandon and at that department responded to his complaint of low pay and piece work. You should be glad to get the experience to put on your resume. We could get temps to teach for nothing, there is such a surplus. Great solidarity.. This dept. is in Canada by the way not the mean US :) CHeers, Ken Hanly valis wrote: > Just in case no undergrad student of yours has yet, > apparently unprovoked, let fly a personal testimony > that's also the founding document of a new generation, > leaving you with jaw agape and the lesson utterly forgotten, > the cover story of this week's Shepherd Express - Milwaukee's > beacon of unsubsidized truth - has been released into the ether. > > www.shepherd-express.com/shepherd/20/07/headlines/cover_story.html > before it's too late. > > A perhaps more relevant freebe cover story, "Slaves of Academia," > is found in the other, smaller, local beacon, The Metro, which > has thus far shunned such frills as a Website. > I have mailed Robert McGuire a request for the file, but for > now I'll just laboriously reproduce his first few paragraphs. > > ================================================================ > > I'm a good teacher, I think. I have a sense of responsibility > to my writing students at Marquette University and Carroll College, > and I know my stuff. I know how to get students to keep their > paragraphs focused on a main point and to make the thesis into > something significant and interesting to read. > But I wouldn't necessarily recommend my classes, because I don't > believe I serve the students as well as I should. > My little sister is beginning her college search now and what > I've been advising her is that what matters most in college, > what most affects the quality of your learning, is the relationship > you have with your teachers. The thing is, my students and I don't > have any relationship. I don't have the time for it. > I am the temp worker of the academic world. I teach on a course- > by-course basis at two schools and keep my ear to the ground about > openings at other schools for when my temporary assignments run out. > Because the pay is so low, I must overload my plate with work (some > of it as a free-lance writer) and can't invest the time that a teacher > should into a college writing class. > I have no time to get involved in campus and departmental life. > I don't see my students at drama department productions. They don't > bump into me in the student union. My office hours are minimal. > I am in my classroom for my students, but otherwise I am largely absent. > This is very different from the kind of teachers I had for freshman > composition or introduction to philosophy a decade ago. They were on > campus five days a week, in their offices every afternoon and were > valued counselors I got to know over a period of years and still visit. > But my sister is more likely to have a temp worker like myself for most > lower-level courses. Because of an explosion in the use of temporary > faculty in recent years, students are less likely to develop any > relationship with their teachers. This is bad news for the quality of > education. > Some readers may chuckle at this idealistic vision of teacher/student > relationships. We all know about professors who don't make themselves > available and who are never in their offices during the posted hours. > But the rise in temp instructors is making that the rule rather than > the exception. And it used to be that choosing a less affordable, > teaching-oriented liberal arts college over a research-oriented public > university was a protection against the anonymous campus. It no longer is. > > =============================================================== > > The rest of the article has numbers, instances, quotes and other meat. > Hopefully the author will come through with the file. > > valis
