Cheating Our Students - III
[As you know, I am deeply distressed by the increasing practice of substituting part-time for full-time faculty in North American higher education. I would not object to graduate students teaching one class during their dissertation writing year, but what we see now is harassed graduate students and others spread thin with far too many courses taught frequently in more than one institution. This means thin teaching for students and faculty not available for the many extras - advising students, writing recommendations, completion of courses delayed by emergencies (the part-time teacher has departed), even basic work by part-time teachers (grades, paper reading) occasionally not done.
The upshot is that both the part-timers and their students are being terribly cheated by this bottom line mentality that figures this as a good way to cut costs. There is NO FREE LUNCH. Our students are not being taught:
a) to read and comprehend complex materials -- we tend to baby feed facts and ideas,
b) to write rapidly and with expertise in various areas,
c) even how to take examinations because final exams are not apparently across CUNY handed back with detailed criticisms.
What we are being presented with in the way of a higher education is in all too many instances faculty members as poor reflections of Casper, the Friendly Ghost: http://home.att.net/~thft/casper.htm -- here today and gone tomorrow.
Let me say that many of our students ARE the best and manage to find their way through the CUNY maze to a first rate education. But CUNY is NOT the best and we could be better -- if we were properly funded. NYC is a first rate drawing card for the best of faculty, but we need the monies to bring them here and put them in place in vastly increased numbers! And the U.S. must do it right, if it is to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy. Let it not be said that the 20th was the American century! Ed Kent]
..................................................................
Subject: Campus Equity Week Events
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:22:17 -0400
From: Mary Ann Carlese
To:
****************
Campus Equity Week is scheduled this year from Monday, October 31
through Friday, November 4. Campus Equity Week is a week of
demonstrations, rallies, legislation and education at campuses
throughout North America calling for fair pay and benefits for college
and university part-time faculty.
Please join the PSC during Campus Equity week on Tuesday, November 1st
from 7pm - 9pm at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Ave at 34th St.) in
Room 5414 for a special discussion on "The Future of Academic Labor."
The discussion will include a panel featuring:
Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
Kathleen Barker, CUNY author of Contingent Work: American Employment
Relations in Transition Brenda Carter, Yale PhD candidate and Organizer
with the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO).
Marcia Newfield, Moderator, PSC VP for Part-time Personnel.
Refreshments will be served.
In addition, prior to the discussion, there will also be a Soapbox
Teach-out from 5:30pm - 6:45pm on Tuesday, November 1st on the steps of
the Graduate Center with the focus on fair pay and benefits for
part-time faculty.
Also the Part-timer Seniority Scroll will be on display at both the
discussion and the teach-out. The Seniority Scroll, featuring names of
hundreds of part-time faculty, illustrates the lack of job security and
lack of seniority for part-time faculty at CUNY regardless of how many
years of teaching or number of re-appointments.
I hope you can join us.
Please RSVP by emailing me back at carlese@pscmail.orgm or calling me at
212-354-1252.
Thanks, Mary Ann Carlese,
Associate Executive Director, PSC
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp
The upshot is that both the part-timers and their students are being terribly cheated by this bottom line mentality that figures this as a good way to cut costs. There is NO FREE LUNCH. Our students are not being taught:
a) to read and comprehend complex materials -- we tend to baby feed facts and ideas,
b) to write rapidly and with expertise in various areas,
c) even how to take examinations because final exams are not apparently across CUNY handed back with detailed criticisms.
What we are being presented with in the way of a higher education is in all too many instances faculty members as poor reflections of Casper, the Friendly Ghost: http://home.att.net/~thft/casper.htm -- here today and gone tomorrow.
Let me say that many of our students ARE the best and manage to find their way through the CUNY maze to a first rate education. But CUNY is NOT the best and we could be better -- if we were properly funded. NYC is a first rate drawing card for the best of faculty, but we need the monies to bring them here and put them in place in vastly increased numbers! And the U.S. must do it right, if it is to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy. Let it not be said that the 20th was the American century! Ed Kent]
..................................................................
Subject: Campus Equity Week Events
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:22:17 -0400
From: Mary Ann Carlese
To:
****************
Campus Equity Week is scheduled this year from Monday, October 31
through Friday, November 4. Campus Equity Week is a week of
demonstrations, rallies, legislation and education at campuses
throughout North America calling for fair pay and benefits for college
and university part-time faculty.
Please join the PSC during Campus Equity week on Tuesday, November 1st
from 7pm - 9pm at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Ave at 34th St.) in
Room 5414 for a special discussion on "The Future of Academic Labor."
The discussion will include a panel featuring:
Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
Kathleen Barker, CUNY author of Contingent Work: American Employment
Relations in Transition Brenda Carter, Yale PhD candidate and Organizer
with the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO).
Marcia Newfield, Moderator, PSC VP for Part-time Personnel.
Refreshments will be served.
In addition, prior to the discussion, there will also be a Soapbox
Teach-out from 5:30pm - 6:45pm on Tuesday, November 1st on the steps of
the Graduate Center with the focus on fair pay and benefits for
part-time faculty.
Also the Part-timer Seniority Scroll will be on display at both the
discussion and the teach-out. The Seniority Scroll, featuring names of
hundreds of part-time faculty, illustrates the lack of job security and
lack of seniority for part-time faculty at CUNY regardless of how many
years of teaching or number of re-appointments.
I hope you can join us.
Please RSVP by emailing me back at carlese@pscmail.orgm or calling me at
212-354-1252.
Thanks, Mary Ann Carlese,
Associate Executive Director, PSC
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp
posted by Ed Kent at 8:26 AM
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