Courage is contagious

[marmar]

from In These Times:




Strike? Adjunct Faculty Consider Work Stoppage in Chicago and New York

Friday
Mar 4, 2011
1:12 pm

By Kari Lydersen


As the Chicago Reader wrote this week, adjunct faculty at Columbia College and Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) in Chicago are currently considering going on strike, and adjuncts at New York University are still considering striking after a strike vote last fall.

In recent years, universities and colleges have increasingly relied on adjunct faculty without benefits or job security rather than tenured or even full-time non-tenure-track professors. This is a cost-saving measure for institutions and of course undermines the tenure system and the intellectual freedom it was supposed to guarantee.

One can argue that the spirit and process of tenure in higher education has become corrupted, often having the opposite effect wherein professors are so desperate to get tenure that they censor themselves and strive to please the powers that be to the extent academic freedom is chilled at the pre-tenure level as much or more than it is protected at the tenured level.

Carried out in the right way, a higher education system relying heavily on adjuncts can have significant benefits for professors and students along with the bottom line, as it facilitates classes taught by working professionals in media, the arts or other realms. As the Reader notes, Columbia College was a pioneer in this realm, attracting adjuncts currently working in their fields, who weren’t planning to give up their day jobs for academia but who wanted to teach for extra stimulation or income, and could serve as real-time professional mentors for their students. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7024/adjuncts_outrage_in_chicago_and_new_york/