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A Couple of Academics Would Like a Word With You

Started by mahagonny, August 08, 2020, 08:32:40 AM

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mahagonny


Parasaurolophus

An hour an forty-two minutes?

No, thank you. Is there a highlight reel? Some particular moment of interest?
I know it's a genus.

writingprof

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on August 08, 2020, 08:36:58 AM
An hour an forty-two minutes?

No, thank you. Is there a highlight reel? Some particular moment of interest?

Presumably, future anthropologists sifting through the ruins of our civilization will be interested.  Otherwise, no.

mahagonny

#3
Put it on while you're doing housework. Or you can get a lot from just the first 30 minutes. A few highlights: (1) inherent white racism confessions share key features with organized religion , e.g. there is salvation coming as a result of your faith but no resolution to the actual problems that are ostensibly so urgent (2) the myth that prisons are full of innocent law abiding young black men rather than idiots who don't know how to behave (3) telling someone to get his shit together and take care of his family is 'blaming the victim' (4) the mob shouting down anyone with conservative views in academia.

One piece of my experience in the last year or two as it relates to my job is telling me that college faculty unions are not helping. Not that they're any particular movers and shakers anyhow, but...face it, adjunct unions can make things somewhat better, and they should absolutely do what they can. But sometimes what they need to do is wait for a time, say months down the road, when the the lay of the land suggests they can do it better. The mistake they make is when there isn't that much they can do other than stand by in case someone is about to be terminated unjustly, they feel the need to look busy. This means, more recently, joining in the America-is-hopelessly-racist chorus.

ciao_yall

Quote from: mahagonny on August 08, 2020, 08:47:34 AM
Put it on while you're doing housework. Or you can get a lot from just the first 30 minutes. A few highlights: (1) inherent white racism confessions share key features with organized religion , e.g. there is salvation coming as a result of your faith but no resolution to the actual problems that are ostensibly so urgent (2) the myth that prisons are full of innocent law abiding young black men rather than idiots who don't know how to behave (3) telling someone to get his shit together and take care of his family is 'blaming the victim' (4) the mob shouting down anyone with conservative views in academia.

One piece of my experience in the last year or two as it relates to my job is telling me that college faculty unions are not helping. Not that they're any particular movers and shakers anyhow, but...face it, adjunct unions can make things somewhat better, and they should absolutely do what they can. But sometimes what they need to do is wait for a time, say months down the road, when the the lay of the land suggests they can do it better. The mistake they make is when there isn't that much they can do other than stand by in case someone is about to be terminated unjustly, they feel the need to look busy. This means, more recently, joining in the America-is-hopelessly-racist chorus.

Why does this sound like the same song?

(1) College faculty unions offer no resolution for actual problems faced by the adjunct who has no interest in participating in faculty governance, service, research or even teaching a full load;
(2) The myth that all adjuncts are innocent exploited victims instead of people who have full-time jobs and teach a class or two;
(3) Reminding someone that they have advanced degrees and other career options if working as an adjunct isn't working out for them is just "blaming the victim;"
(4) The howling adjunct shouting down those who say that the solution is more full-time jobs because, well, academia is hopelessly and permanently anti-adjunct instead of recognizing that adjunct faculty are not supposed to be the core of the faculty in the first place.

mahagonny

Quote from: ciao_yall on August 08, 2020, 09:28:34 AM
Quote from: mahagonny on August 08, 2020, 08:47:34 AM
Put it on while you're doing housework. Or you can get a lot from just the first 30 minutes. A few highlights: (1) inherent white racism confessions share key features with organized religion , e.g. there is salvation coming as a result of your faith but no resolution to the actual problems that are ostensibly so urgent (2) the myth that prisons are full of innocent law abiding young black men rather than idiots who don't know how to behave (3) telling someone to get his shit together and take care of his family is 'blaming the victim' (4) the mob shouting down anyone with conservative views in academia.

One piece of my experience in the last year or two as it relates to my job is telling me that college faculty unions are not helping. Not that they're any particular movers and shakers anyhow, but...face it, adjunct unions can make things somewhat better, and they should absolutely do what they can. But sometimes what they need to do is wait for a time, say months down the road, when the the lay of the land suggests they can do it better. The mistake they make is when there isn't that much they can do other than stand by in case someone is about to be terminated unjustly, they feel the need to look busy. This means, more recently, joining in the America-is-hopelessly-racist chorus.

Why does this sound like the same song?

(1) College faculty unions offer no resolution for actual problems faced by the adjunct who has no interest in participating in faculty governance, service, research or even teaching a full load;
(2) The myth that all adjuncts are innocent exploited victims instead of people who have full-time jobs and teach a class or two;
(3) Reminding someone that they have advanced degrees and other career options if working as an adjunct isn't working out for them is just "blaming the victim;"
(4) The howling adjunct shouting down those who say that the solution is more full-time jobs because, well, academia is hopelessly and permanently anti-adjunct instead of recognizing that adjunct faculty are not supposed to be the core of the faculty in the first place.

So none of those arguments gets you anywhere in an academic career, does it? But in the conversation about justice for white supremacy victims they are fifty dollar bills, hundred dollar bills, five hundred dollar bills. And why would that be? I have a theory or two, but you're welcome to tell yours.

polly_mer

Out here with many academic refugees, we spend our time doing the work and discussing how to get more people to help with the work as the retirement wave hits.

An adjunct who gave up five years ago and changed career paths could be well along a career ladder here in many categories. An adjunct who had real math and/or programming skills could have finished another paid-for master's degree and now been quite well paid for full-time work.

The diversity discussion tends to stall pretty quickly when the data of qualified people is brought up.

One of the hardest niche jobs to fill are the adult education ones, but that would require learning the subject matter that we need taught.
Quote from: hmaria1609 on June 27, 2019, 07:07:43 PM
Do whatever you want--I'm just the background dancer in your show!

Wahoo Redux

Headline: Plenty of call for full-time academics, but the jobs have been diced into PT positions which are unsatisfactory to everyone.  Why should people learn computer programming when we need them in the trenches?  (Rhetorical by this point, Polly, no need to rehash history).

Feature: People who want to deny racism are as obsessed with anti-racism as people who are obsessed with racism.  Weird.

Entertainment:

You show us everything you've got
You keep on dancin' and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You say you wanna go for a spin
The party's just begun, we'll let you in
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

kaysixteen

This notion reminds me of the govt.-funded 'job retraining' programs designed to find alternative employment for industrial workers whose jobs go away when the factory closes up shop to move to Some Cheap Country-- I recall one especially nauseating story a number of years ago from Oregon, where a number of such workers were given funding to train to become hair stylists.   The number, however, of such workers who trained in this program and graduated that year exceeded all the jobs available for stylists in the state.   Not to mention existing stylists looking for work there, etc.   Put simply, computer programming is not a panacea-- there are not infinite quantities of jobs in programming, and if even 10% of current adjunct faculty trained to do this work, most of these would be unemployed programmers at the end of said training.  Polly wants people to have a 'contingency plan'-- my plan B, back in the day, was library school.   Now I have advanced degrees in two vastly oversubscribed, decaying fields.   Ah well.

ciao_yall

Quote from: mahagonny on August 08, 2020, 09:38:56 AM
Quote from: ciao_yall on August 08, 2020, 09:28:34 AM
Quote from: mahagonny on August 08, 2020, 08:47:34 AM
Put it on while you're doing housework. Or you can get a lot from just the first 30 minutes. A few highlights: (1) inherent white racism confessions share key features with organized religion , e.g. there is salvation coming as a result of your faith but no resolution to the actual problems that are ostensibly so urgent (2) the myth that prisons are full of innocent law abiding young black men rather than idiots who don't know how to behave (3) telling someone to get his shit together and take care of his family is 'blaming the victim' (4) the mob shouting down anyone with conservative views in academia.

One piece of my experience in the last year or two as it relates to my job is telling me that college faculty unions are not helping. Not that they're any particular movers and shakers anyhow, but...face it, adjunct unions can make things somewhat better, and they should absolutely do what they can. But sometimes what they need to do is wait for a time, say months down the road, when the the lay of the land suggests they can do it better. The mistake they make is when there isn't that much they can do other than stand by in case someone is about to be terminated unjustly, they feel the need to look busy. This means, more recently, joining in the America-is-hopelessly-racist chorus.

Why does this sound like the same song?

(1) College faculty unions offer no resolution for actual problems faced by the adjunct who has no interest in participating in faculty governance, service, research or even teaching a full load;
(2) The myth that all adjuncts are innocent exploited victims instead of people who have full-time jobs and teach a class or two;
(3) Reminding someone that they have advanced degrees and other career options if working as an adjunct isn't working out for them is just "blaming the victim;"
(4) The howling adjunct shouting down those who say that the solution is more full-time jobs because, well, academia is hopelessly and permanently anti-adjunct instead of recognizing that adjunct faculty are not supposed to be the core of the faculty in the first place.

So none of those arguments gets you anywhere in an academic career, does it? But in the conversation about justice for white supremacy victims they are fifty dollar bills, hundred dollar bills, five hundred dollar bills. And why would that be? I have a theory or two, but you're welcome to tell yours.

Why is that? Because...

That the only disadvantages/inequities/whatevers you see in the world are those that affect you.

And that you are so self-centered that you think other people's problems don't exist.

And further, that you are so selfish and entitled that you think the world should stop until YOUR problems are solved. At which point, maybe, we'll get around to other people's problems. But only, of course, if YOU declare them real.

Because apparently someone died and made you G-d or something.

mahagonny

Quote from: kaysixteen on August 08, 2020, 10:00:48 PM
This notion reminds me of the govt.-funded 'job retraining' programs designed to find alternative employment for industrial workers whose jobs go away when the factory closes up shop to move to Some Cheap Country-- I recall one especially nauseating story a number of years ago from Oregon, where a number of such workers were given funding to train to become hair stylists.   The number, however, of such workers who trained in this program and graduated that year exceeded all the jobs available for stylists in the state.   Not to mention existing stylists looking for work there, etc.   Put simply, computer programming is not a panacea-- there are not infinite quantities of jobs in programming, and if even 10% of current adjunct faculty trained to do this work, most of these would be unemployed programmers at the end of said training.  Polly wants people to have a 'contingency plan'-- my plan B, back in the day, was library school.   Now I have advanced degrees in two vastly oversubscribed, decaying fields.   Ah well.

No they don't. They just want cheap temporary classroom teaching laborers who have to shut up.

mahagonny

#11
Quote
(1) College faculty unions offer no resolution for actual problems faced by the adjunct who has no interest in participating in faculty governance, service, research or


You're not talking about me here. I have publications one can find easily by googling my name; none were funded or supported in any way by any tenure granting institution, yet the tenure granting institution uses the publication to attract students. I have no reason to think this isn't common. And I have others in the works. Actually, adjunct unions have made a few modest gains in getting faculty development funding, against the reluctance of administration and often the non-engagement of tenure track faculty.
As for something in the direction of service and governance, the administration says it would be happy to let us attend faculty meetings if the tenure track faculty would OK it. They will not.

Quote[nor interest in] even teaching a full load;

Widely untrue. We all know about schools putting a cap on the number of courses any adjunct may teach, which adjunct unions tend to fight, people teaching at multiple schools, even adjuncts teaching more than a full time load at the same school under part time contracts. Really hard to read such brazen dishonesty, Ciao.

Quote(3) Reminding someone that they have advanced degrees and other career options if working as an adjunct isn't working out for them is just "blaming the victim;"

Right, of course, though not all adjuncts have an advanced degree or the opportunity to get one. And the point is still that when the discussion turns to black America, academics are first in line to say everything except their own choices is responsible for what has happened to them. Well, there a 37 million black Americans, and if they all vote democratic, you can hope for more funding for higher ed. Reason to make it look like you're doing something for them. And of course, there's a lot of money in peddling courses about the scourge of white supremacy..

Quote(4) The howling adjunct shouting down those who say that the solution is more full-time jobs because, well, academia is hopelessly and permanently anti-adjunct instead of recognizing that adjunct faculty are not supposed to be the core of the faculty in the first place.

You information and conclusion are very old and shaky, with 75% of faculty now off the tenure track.

Quote(2) The myth that all adjuncts are innocent exploited victims instead of people who have full-time jobs and teach a class or two;

Straw man. There's no myth. Of course, some have full time jobs, but there's disagreement about how many, and their having a full time job doesn't answer whether academia is in the exploitation business or not.
What you convey to me with a comment like this is that you believe colleges are entitled to getting work almost donated to them on a regular basis. You've got plenty of company too.