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The Last Word
Are There Adjuncts in the Social Sciences?
AFTER THE DISCIPLINE of English, the social sciences employ the most temporary faculty, according to a survey conducted by the National Education Association. Part-timers slog away, keeping introductory psychology, sociology, criminal…
Surprises in the Academy (Not!)
by P.D. Lesko News Flash: A Department Education study has found that 62 percent of college faculty with full-time jobs are men. Of the 1.2 million college faculty employed in the United States, 80 percent are white. Shocking news. I know.…
Conflct at the CCCCs
I attended the National Council of Teachers of English CCCC’s conference this past March. Held in San Francisco, the event spanned three days and included, literally, hundreds of sessions, workshops and panel discussions. Before going, I…
The Best Made Plans
I didn’t plan for all of the features in this issue to deal with part-time faculty unionization, but sometimes the best plans simply aren’t made—they happen. So it was when I read about the efforts of the part-time faculty at the Community…
When The Janitors Earn More Than The Lecturers
by P.D. Lesko Every year, the University of Michigan releases a report which lists the salaries paid to all faculty and staff. I stumbled across a link to the document as I read a blog written by a faculty member at the university. The…
Colleagues Abroad
This issue marks the second time we have looked at the use of part-time faculty in countries other than the United States. The first time, in the May/June 2002 issue, we looked at the use of lecturers in Canada, Italy, Japan and Great…
Distance Education is Here to Stay
by P.D. Lesko September is a very busy month for part-time faculty. Some aren’t sure what their final teaching schedules will look like, others have their courses, but need to construct course descriptions and syllabi in record time. There…
Higher Ed. Publishing and Rough Seas
by P.D. Lesko In this issue of the magazine, we take a look at The Chronicle of Higher Education. The newspaper, which has been covering higher education since the 60s, has undergone some changes recently. What prompted the inquiry is the…
Boondoggle in California
by P.D. Lesko IN NOVEMBER OF 2001, a San Francisco part-time faculty activist, Margaret Quan, sent me an e-mail. She wrote that during the previous month she’d attended a BayFac (college in the California Bay area) union meeting, and “The…
Temptation
by P.D. Lesko THE QUESTION WAS thorny: How could California community college part-time and full-time faculty pay be equalized? The answer was an elegant and simple idea for equity: earmark $57 million dollars every year to be distributed…
