From Jane Gabin
What will it take to convince those paying for higher education that exploiting contingent faculty is bad?
While there have been a number of initiatives calling attention to the widespread use of contingent labor in higher education, there has been little reflection of this by 1) counselors (those who advise high school students to apply) and 2) official groups who represent them.
A third group would be those parents, students, and families who save to put away money in “college funds” for their children.
What will it take to convince these individuals that they need to speak up and take action? For instance, NACAC – the National Association of College Admission Advisors – says it is more interested in “access” to higher education than in the injustice of a system that routinely condemns a significant proportion of highly-educated people to poverty. NACAC says it has “other priorities.”
Should we publish a list of those schools hiring more contingent faculty than regular? It would include schools of such divergent backgrounds as Adelphi University, the University of Alabama, American University, Baruch College (and, indeed, every other branch of CUNY), Caldwell University, Cal State at Long Beach, Catholic University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, George Mason University, Kean University, Kent State, Hofstra, Molloy College, and the University of Maryland.
I recently published a guide to colleges in the US that asks students why they wish to study, and urges them to study the Common Data Set for their target schools.
- What is rate of return? (how many students come back for a second year there?)
- What is the graduation rate?
- What is the average class size?
- And who, in particular, is doing the actual teaching?
People want to know “the secret” to getting into Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. They don’t want to learn that “college” is considered a business like many others, and access should be granted to the few – the few that afford to study, and the few who can afford to teach.
And thus the cycle continues ….