Saturday, October 18, 2014

Professors in Poverty

“Falling is one of the ways of moving.”
~ Merce Cunningham (quoted in The Creative Experience: How and Why Do We Create?, courtesy of Maria Popova)
Meek assertions, copious footnotes, weasel words like “perhaps”: Behold the intellectual cowardice of academics... Educating Guess

Professors in Poverty

A few weeks ago Salon published “Professors on Food Stamps: The Shocking True Story of Academia in 2014.” The article shares the plight of adjunct instructors, a lot of whom teach many courses at multiple institutions for minimal compensation.
“The most shocking thing is that many of us don’t even earn the federal minimum wage,” said Miranda Merklein, an adjunct professor from Santa Fe who started teaching in 2008. “Our students didn’t know that professors with PhDs aren’t even earning as much as an entry-level fast food worker. We’re not calling for the $15 minimum wage. We don’t even make minimum wage. And we have no benefits and no job security.”… Academic argument