$4000/course as an undergrad TA arbitrated as short changed.

[polly_mer]

UC Berkeley has just lost arbitration because of how little they paid undergraduate TAs in electrical engineering and computer science.  How little?  Only $4000/course or $30/hour.  With tuition remission, those undergrad TAs should have been paid $11k/course.

Note that so many students are enrolled in the intro classes (some with more than 2000 students) that undergrad TAs must be used to carry part of the load because of a national shortage in faculty.  Nationally, graduate assistants generally want to do research, not teach.

Read about it at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/16/arbitrator-says-uc-berkeley-owes-its-computer-science-tas-5-million .

I'm not surprised that people would choose to pay $4000 for 8 hours of work per week over $11k for 10 hours of work per week.  What struck me was the continuing stream of evidence that adjuncting with a graduate degree in certain fields pays so little compared to what one can get as an undergrad in other fields.  My employer is still having undergrads turn us down for internships that are only $25/hour and full-time jobs for newly minted BS holders that are only $80k + full benefits.

[marshwiggle]

UC Berkeley has just lost arbitration because of how little they paid undergraduate TAs in electrical engineering and computer science.  How little?  Only $4000/course or $30/hour.  With tuition remission, those undergrad TAs should have been paid $11k/course.

Note that so many students are enrolled in the intro classes (some with more than 2000 students) that undergrad TAs must be used to carry part of the load because of a national shortage in faculty.  Nationally, graduate assistants generally want to do research, not teach.

Read about it at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/16/arbitrator-says-uc-berkeley-owes-its-computer-science-tas-5-million .

I'm not surprised that people would choose to pay $4000 for 8 hours of work per week over $11k for 10 hours of work per week.  What struck me was the continuing stream of evidence that adjuncting with a graduate degree in certain fields pays so little compared to what one can get as an undergrad in other fields.  My employer is still having undergrads turn us down for internships that are only $25/hour and full-time jobs for newly minted BS holders that are only $80k + full benefits.

Fascinating points to unpack from the article:

• 8 hour appointments don't get tuition remission; 10 hour appointments do. That's the basis for the difference in pay.
• 8 hour appointments were to be used sparingly. Up until 2015, they were only 2% of appointments. Since then they've risen to 12%.
• The university argues that the shorter appointments were intended to avoid interfering with academic performance.
• The arbitrator's decision is to give retroactive tuition remissions to those affected.

Since I have all undergraduate TAs, this is very interesting.

[mamselle]

What does Berkeley pay adjuncts in those fields?

Because that sounds like a higher pay range than adjuncts would get, although i'm a couple years out from my most recent teaching gig.

M.

[spork]

I have no figures, but I doubt an adjunct capable of teaching an undergraduate computer science course would be willing to do it for only $4,000. It's likely not worth the person's time. Teaching assistants, on the other hand, are in effect captive labor who don't have to be paid market rates.

[Aster]

Collective bargaining, a powerful leveler for transparency and accountability in Labor.

Kudos to the abused T.A.'s. for having their voices heard.

[Ruralguy]

My liberal arts colleges pays about 4-5 K per three credit course. It's generally not negotiable, but in a couple of cases we've given significantly more.

[mahagonny]

• The university argues that the shorter appointments were intended to avoid interfering with academic performance.

Ha ha. Good one.

[dr_codex]

• The university argues that the shorter appointments were intended to avoid interfering with academic performance.

Ha ha. Good one.

I'm with you on this one.

It's like giving somebody 39.5 hours/week so that they can look after a child. "Oh, does that mean you won't qualify for health care? Never crossed my mind!"

[Hibush]

What does Berkeley pay adjuncts in those fields?

Because that sounds like a higher pay range than adjuncts would get, although i'm a couple years out from my most recent teaching gig.

M.

I found two adjunct professors of computer science in the salary database, at $144k and $37K. It was not clear whether that was full time or part time. The latter is probably a single course.

The CS faculty list has more than one hundred faculty, so two adjuncts is a small proportion.

These numbers again show the huge range among schools and fields. Those who are big and healthy get nearly all the resources.

[mahagonny]

• The university argues that the shorter appointments were intended to avoid interfering with academic performance.

Ha ha. Good one.

I'm with you on this one.

It's like giving somebody 39.5 hours/week so that they can look after a child. "Oh, does that mean you won't qualify for health care? Never crossed my mind!"

I have found that college administrators and their representatives have a remarkable talent for comedy. (Now don't claim I never say anything nice about anyone on the fora.)

[Anselm]

Any compensation should factor in average rent in the community.  That is a high rent city.   I can't imagine anyone with mad coding skills in the SF Bay region teaching for a pittance.  My grad school seemed to take the previous year's TA salary and then add 3%.  There was no base line budgeting that considered the actual cost of living.

[magnemite]

Any compensation should factor in average rent in the community.  That is a high rent city.   I can't imagine anyone with mad coding skills in the SF Bay region teaching for a pittance.  My grad school seemed to take the previous year's TA salary and then add 3%.  There was no base line budgeting that considered the actual cost of living.

The is a vast gulf between "should" and "actually" for many institution's TA compensation policies. Here, we've had grad school deans say that stipends are low in order to allow the students to be eligible for our state's subsidized health care plans. Our rents have also increased significantly and TA stipends have stayed low, and what increases provided have been below the rate of official inflation.

[mahagonny]

Any compensation should factor in average rent in the community.  That is a high rent city.   I can't imagine anyone with mad coding skills in the SF Bay region teaching for a pittance.  My grad school seemed to take the previous year's TA salary and then add 3%.  There was no base line budgeting that considered the actual cost of living.

The is a vast gulf between "should" and "actually" for many institution's TA compensation policies. Here, we've had grad school deans say that stipends are low in order to allow the students to be eligible for our state's subsidized health care plans. Our rents have also increased significantly and TA stipends have stayed low, and what increases provided have been below the rate of official inflation.

Welfare for the rich (deans and full tenured profs).

[Parasaurolophus]

Here, we've had grad school deans say that stipends are low in order to allow the students to be eligible for our state's subsidized health care plans. Our rents have also increased significantly and TA stipends have stayed low, and what increases provided have been below the rate of official inflation.

omg. That's unconscionable.

[marshwiggle]

Here, we've had grad school deans say that stipends are low in order to allow the students to be eligible for our state's subsidized health care plans. Our rents have also increased significantly and TA stipends have stayed low, and what increases provided have been below the rate of official inflation.

omg. That's unconscionable.

What I don't understand, in this day and age where everything is done by computer, why we still use simple binary threshholds and things of that nature that make this kind of nonsense happen. Prorating things using some sort of formula could be just one tiny part of the payroll algorithm. Same thing goes for government tax calculations, etc.

Why is the government the only organization that doesn't actually use big data????