Hard Times
by P.D. Lesko
THERE’S AN OLD joke that goes something like this: It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It’s a depression
when you lose your job. Needless to say, the economy has slowed
a bit during the past three months. Fortunately, the Adjunct
Advocate’s subscriber base continues to grow, and the magazine is doing relatively well. That’s not to say that our publisher’s reps. (the company which sells advertising on behalf of the magazine) aren’t hearing plenty of budget woes from the current and potential advertisers whom they contact on our behalf. I feel very, very lucky, nonetheless, to have a job at a thriving publication.
Several weeks ago, LinguaFranca ceased publication after ten years in business. According to the article in the New York Times, publisher Jeffrey Kittay intended to keep his second magazine, University Business, going. In late-December, I found out that Kittay had laid off the majority of his UB staff, as well. I will miss LinguaFranca and University Business for a number of reasons, not the least among which is that there are now two fewer general
interest publications to serve the higher education marketplace.
I am sorry for the people–certainly Jeff Kittay, whom I met last August during a visit to New York–but even more so for his staff. Jeff Kittay will land on his feet, I am sure. What with the shrinking number of jobs in publishing, his staff will have a more difficult time of it, I’m afraid.
UB staff writer, Amy Rosenberg, contacted me for free-lance work, and I happily gave her several assignments, the first of which you will read in this issue of the magazine (“The Science of Silence”). Amy is an experienced higher education writer, and we are very fortunate to have her writing for the magazine.
I also want to take a moment and talk about The Chronicle
of Higher Education. I have been subscribing and reading the newspaper on and off again since 1987. I have watched as it went from black and white to four-color throughout, and as sections on technology and the Internet were added. I must say though, The Chronicle is a bit like the Modern Language Association. People complain, and I’ve heard its conservatism pilloried on a number of occasions. However, like the Modern Language Association, it is an unparalleled institution. The Chronicle of Higher Education is a
crucial member of the community of publications which reports
on higher education.
People frequently ask if the Adjunct Advocate competes with The Chronicle. My answer is always the same: no. There is a bit of cross-over readership, to be sure, but our editorial content is much different. Over the past three years, the newspaper has published an increasing number of profiles and opinion pieces about adjunct faculty (an adjunct was recently hired to write a monthly column for The Chronicle’s “Career” section). However, the majority of The Chronicle’s readership is comprised of college administrators. The newspaper’s editorial content reflects this fact.
Finally, let me comment on Pam Dillon’s fine piece in this issue about California’s $57 million dollar salary adjustment fund. The same day I got Pam’s piece, I received my copy of the Union Press, put out by the United Professors of Marin, AFT Local 1610. In that newsletter, I read that “Part of UPM’s stand is to be sure that all time spent by faculty is paid equally, so even overload rates for full-time faculty would be upgraded to 100 percent as well.”
In short, Local 1610, which is controlled by full-time faculty, intends to try to make sure that full-time faculty benefit from the money set aside to equalize wages between full- and part-time faculty. The full-timers, who earn 31 percent more per course than their part-time faculty colleagues, want to have their overload schedules classified as part-time work so as to be able to get paid more. As Pam Dillon writes in her piece, this kind of Machiavellian maneuvering clearly goes against the intent of the legislation.
I hope part-time faculty in California will write to the AFT’s national office and demand that the money allocated for salary equity be used for part-time faculty salary equity. Clearly, the full-time faculty who teach in California’s community colleges don’t need extra compensation on top of their extra compensation (overload classes). The Adjunct Advocate will report on this situation as it develops. The full-time faculty union leaders in California should allocate every penny of the $57 million dollar salary equity fund to the community college faculty who are real part-timers.
