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Friday, May 16, 2014

Have a look at this: http://www.upworthy.com/if-you-think-college-tuition-is-insane-you-should-see-what-they-pay-some-professors-5?c=ufb1

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or this one...
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/16/how-did-we-get-here-university-hall-at-this-point-of-time-the-anthropocene/

Anonymous said...

Linebaugh's rant relies too much on his personal interpretation of the changes in the library, the so-called loss of "books." Books are not being "lost" they are simply available in a different (electronic) form. And the point about stopping by the library to check the etymology of a word in a hard copy of the OED is ludicrous: the OED is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on OhioLInk. His "rage" has many important points (in particular the gutting of the history department), but they are lost in his own personal hangups over "forms" of scholarship and literature.

As far as "contingent" faculty goes, our lecturers are unionized and in a quite different situation (they have benefits, sick leave bank, etc) and I believe they are "tenured" after being rehired a certain number of years in a row. Their workload and recent increases in class sizes are an outrage, however. In regard to the big picture, I think the most important moment came when it was noted adjunct salaries had declined approx 40% since 1970 and administrative salaries had increased over 30% since 1970 - actually I think it was university presidential salaries that were cited, not all upper management.

However, once again the video reports what is just a personal hangup a particular professor has: "Climbing Walls". As long as a university provides rec services to its community I fail to see the difference between climbing walls and skulling teams, for example, except that the former is associated with grunts and the latter with elites and the former costs a whole lot less.

Bernice said...

Anonymous 6:42. Professor Linebaugh's essay written in anger at the pinnacle of his academic career and on the threshold of his retirement from the University of Toledo deserves better, kinder, than your cruel retort.

Obviously he loves books and you have no respect for them. How sad. Your unwillingness or inability to appreciate the profound difference between books and bits is highly unromantic,not to mention uncivilized, cold and inhumane. You probably believe in this tripe:

“Today’s technologies have created the biggest change in education since the invention of the printing press.” — Anant Agarwal, President of EdX

Blinded bit by bit, you, Mr. Agarwal, and too many mindless others, look into your mirrors day after day and rejoice in your rapid evolution into perfect cyborgs.

This makes Mr. Linebaugh very angry. Me too. Machines already govern the Garden. Humanity already withers away.

Adjuncts living in poverty are the canaries in this coal mine.

The Singularity is here.

Anonymous said...

Academia is changing and not just at UT, look all over the country and you can see many of the same changes, including to libraries. Surely as faculty in 1920 or 1950 or 1970 were complaining about changes in their profession and in higher education so would one in 2014. These changes include the need to attract students with residence halls and recreational centers (competing against other colleges but also new off campus housing) as students pay big bucks for on campus housing. Again just another reality to higher education in 2014. And as to his rant about summer teaching to the Dean (summer classes are assigned by chairs not the Dean) hard to see much long term concern as since 2009 he has earned over $80,000 per year - pretty good gig to teach a few courses each term (and now on a pension of over $50,000 per year for life) And if anyone has a need to complain about working conditions and salaries on the UT campus it certainly is not the tenured faculty but instructors (who have no tenure protection) and teach twice as many courses for half the pay of many tenured faculty or the staff and perhaps most importantly part time instructors teaching a course for as little as $2000 with no job security and no benefits.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 12:21. Your latest blog entry continues your ad hominem attack on Professor Linebaugh by invading his privacy to reveal his annual salary. It then adds insult to injury be speculating on his retirement income. What’s next? Will you soon be announcing his retirement to Mauritania and listing the medicines he might be taking along with him?

I am curious what motivates your animosity for this dedicated professor? Ok, so he wrote an angry essay articulating how the Jacobs administration deliberately sent his dream career and the careers of many other dedicated senior tenured professors on the Bancroft Street campus into a demoralizing tailspin over the past eight years. His specific complaints are part of a shameful institutional historical record that can be easily verified.

Plus, in this posting, you introduce a red herring into your desperate rhetorical strategy by bringing up the condition of adjunct faculty on this campus in contrast to the condition of tenured faculty.

Blame President Jacobs and his bloated, overpaid, administration for conspiring to grow UT’s poorly compensated contingent teachers in order to free up student tuition for risky business ventures and frivolous non-academic pursuits.

BTW, have you read this? http://chronicle.com/article/A-Caring-Professor-May-Be-Key/146409/

Anonymous said...

I have to agree, although I love books and have a large collection in my office and at home, the publishing industry is changing with digital the new norm. In recent years all the papers I have published have relied only on digital sources for journals, books and other references, and my collection of e-documents is quickly numbering as great as my printed collection. It has been several years since I stepped a foot into the Carlson Library for research. The historical collection and key texts are still important but increasingly even many of those if not in my collection or the library I can find online. Romance of books aside, the use and utility of libraries is changing, the use and role is simply not as it once was.

Anonymous said...

From today's (May 19th) Inside Higher Education:

"At the 25 public universities where presidents earn the most, student debt is rising faster than at other public universities, according to a report issued Sunday evening by the Institute for Policy Studies. The report also found that they are increasing the use of non-tenure-track faculty members at rates greater than those of other state universities."

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/05/19/presidential-pay-student-debt-and-adjuncts#ixzz32AS9wGdQ
Inside Higher Ed

Anonymous said...

When is someone going to recognize the plight of the large number of faculty who are not eligible for STRS. The state changed the rules of the game on their ARP plans. With the increase in employee contribution, fees taken by STRS, decline in university contributions to Social Security levels, and federal policies that reduce Social Security outlays, we have many faculty on this campus and across Ohio with no viable retirement plan.

Anonymous said...

Re:anonymous 5:27 a.m. Curious that a. Faculty member at a public university bemoaning his salary - which is public information on a fairly accessible website, needs to be defended when the salary is announced.

in any event, faculty have better to do now than rants such as originally published or defenses of such rants. keep the focus on the chance now to improve UT through active, public, noisy, faculty advocacy.

Anonymous said...

The original post in this thread was directing us to a vid on "contingent" faculty, many of whom hold PhDs. In 2000 the % of Americans with Doctorates or Professional degrees was 1%. The latest stat has this number at 3%, a considerable increase in 13 years. However, the first video directs us to the distinct possibility that even though you may find yourself, after years of education, in an elite stat, you have not earned your way into the tenure track club. And by the way, the latest stats regarding jobs and 4 year degrees shows that having a undergrad degree is essential to a successful job search. Or, in other words, a 4 year degree is a valuable degree; a graduate degree, not so much.

Anonymous said...

Depending on your field there are plenty of opportunities for graduates with MS/MA and even PhD degrees outside of academia, I know of many recent graduates with advanced degrees getting great career jobs with very good salaries in the private and public sector, certainly many more then are trying the academic career route.

Anonymous said...

Linebaugh's posting referred to his issues and challenges with his pay level and inability to secure summer teaching to supplement his 9 month salary (which has nothing to do with Jacobs or the Dean as chairs and departments assign summer teaching) so since his salary is public along with his pension percentage it was worth noting in response that he is certainly well compensated for his work. And as a senior tenured faculty member such complaining about his salary is misplaced considering that the vast majority of faculty including many junior faculty, all instructors and all part timers (plus many UT staff) are paid much less and more deserving to complain. He has every right and justification to complain about the impact this Administration has had on his work environment and lack of replacement faculty in his Department, but in my view the global changes to libraries due to technology and his salary are not where he should be directing his anger.