Higher Ed the Culprit?
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– Richard Olmsted, Professor of Philosophy, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI
I have spent a forty year career in college/university teaching, and it seems to me that the problem this organization is trying to address may have begun in higher education. In colleges and universities, part time professional teaching positions requiring extended education but offering low pay with limited or no benefits have been proliferating since the early Seventies.
Personally, I am very fortunate to have had a reasonably secure professorial career.
I have also benefited from a union contract negotiated by a relatively strong local union (AFT) in a state with favorable organizing laws. However, even under these circumstances our union
has been unable to prevent a substantial portion of the teaching at my state supported institution (Rhode Island College) from being shifted to part-time faculty who receive punishingly low pay and no benefits. I have colleagues whose work I admire who have suffered
such conditions for years, for decades. The result has been the weakening of our union and terrible injustice for our colleagues.
January 27th, 2007 at 9:32 am
My dream when I graduated in 2001 with an MFA in film (I have three degrees) was to pursue not only a tenure-track career in higher education, because I love teaching, but also to pursue writing career as well.
Sadly, those dreams have not materialized because as a displaced BoomerGirl - and the first to graduate with college degree in my native American Choctaw family - I have watched over the last 7 years, not only the debilitating decline of tenured faculty positions in higher education, but the serious decline in the “QUALITY” of higher education that our young people are desparately in need of and are now receiving.
The breakdown of the higher educational system in this country is a tragedy and will one day come back to haunt us all because individuals such as myself were prevented from giving to the world our knowledge, hardwork, life experience, and love of teaching for the generations who have come after us.
A Greek Tragedy, indeed!
Linda Laurin
Dallas, Tx