Sign up for a free recipe e-book →

Clarissa's Blog

Scared or Happy?

Published by

Clarissa

on

I will consider it a great personal failure if I ever get to the point of thinking, “To hell with everybody else, to hell with collective action and watching out for the good of the discipline, I’ll just concentrate on my career and watch out for nobody but myself.” I don’t want to be that person but I can’t banish the suspicion that there is no alternative.

If people have no objection to part-time instructors losing their jobs because full-timers will teach their courses for free, if there isn’t enough solidarity to oppose this blatant attempt to destroy the union representing part-timers, if everybody agrees to let the administration effectively cancel out our contracts, then I don’t see what can be done about it.

I feel like all I’m achieving is annoying people who are perfectly content with teaching 7 courses per semester instead of 3 with no salary increase and who are profoundly at peace with relinquishing self-governance and academic freedom. I don’t mind making myself obnoxious and fostering the image of myself as a grumpy malcontent and a habitual refusenik. But there’s got to be a point in this.

I see only two possible reasons for everybody’s perpetual silence: people are either terrified or perfectly happy. Since there is no reason to be terrified, I have to conclude that everybody is content with how things are developing.

Imagine you have a contract stating that you are obligated to teach 3 courses per semester. And then you are informed that, from now on, you will teach an unspecified number of extra courses for free. Would you have something to say about this? Questions to ask? What if you couldn’t be fired and have already earned a good, comfortable pension? Would you say something then?

Maybe I’m insane, and silence is the only appropriate reaction.

17 responses to “Scared or Happy?”

  1. Z Avatar
    Z

    This is why I have given up on solidarity and so on. If so many academics are not going to be solidary with themselves, their fields, the profession, the students, but only with administrators imported from middle management of who knows what failed company, then they are mush with whom it is impossible to be solidary anyway. (And, I owe you a letter and have not forgotten, speaking of solidarity.)

    Like

    Reply
    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      I want you to be wrong about this, I really, really do. But I’m afraid you are not wrong.

      Like

      Reply
  2. Stille (@aperfectbalance) Avatar
    Stille (@aperfectbalance)

    The whole situation is utterly, profoundly bullshit, from what you describe to me. I wonder what social or psychological pressures are there on your colleagues – they don’t act happy, and while they may be perpetually terrified of their own shadows, it’d be interesting to figure out the cause for that if that were the case.

    Like

    Reply
    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      If at least somebody were to ask “Whaaat?” or react in some way, any way, that would be something.

      What needs to happen for people to get off their knees for a moment?

      Like

      Reply
    2. J. Otto Pohl Avatar
      J. Otto Pohl

      Stockholm Syndrome?

      Like

      Reply
  3. J. Otto Pohl Avatar
    J. Otto Pohl

    That is one First World Problem I am glad I don’t have. Our faculty union is pretty good.

    http://jpohl.blogspot.com/2013/08/thank-you-utag.html

    Like

    Reply
    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Book and research allowance? Here we have forgotten what that is.

      This is an example of people who fight for their rights. We need to take lessons from you guys.

      Like

      Reply
      1. J. Otto Pohl Avatar
        J. Otto Pohl

        Yes, we finally got it all. But, it took a while.

        http://jpohl.blogspot.com/2013/08/another-utag-meeting.html

        Like

        Reply
  4. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    Some thoughts (some related back to the spoiled marxist thread)

    There seems to be a slowdown on social mobility in the US combined with peak job : where work (aside from the most demeaning jobs) is no longer a duty or even a right, but a privilege.

    Increasingly, in such an environment, more pleasant and fulfilling jobs will be reserved for the ‘right’ kind of people.

    Last minute notices about interviews at MLA are a wonderfully effective way of making sure that only the right kind of people apply.
    People who can on their own (or more likely with their parents’ help) arrange a last minute (in other words more expensive) trip are who they’re interested in. Period.

    At ground level, this means that administrators (transforming into an overseer class) can calmly demand more and more from the minions (ie you) confident that the minions know there’s plenty more who’d gladly take their place under even worse conditions.

    As for tenured faculty. They’re liable to regard themelves (rightly or not) has having paid their dues and deserving of not having to worry about the problems of those who have yet to make it.

    I’m reminded a little of Leonard Bast in Howard’s End :

    “I shall never get work now. If rich people fail at one profession, they can try another. Not I. I had my groove, and I’ve got out of it. I could do one particular branch of insurance in one particular office well enough to command a salary, but that’s all. …. I mean if a man over twenty once loses his own particular job, it’s all over with him. I have seen it happen to others. Their friends gave them money for a little, but in the end they fall over the edge. It’s no good. It’s the whole world pulling….”

    Like

    Reply
    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      The only problem with this argument is that, at our department, the tenured Full Professors who teach the less popular languages will suffer from this imitative a lot more than the 3 untenured people in Spanish.

      I don’t want them to do anything for me. I want them to wake up and go something to protect their own interests.

      You are right about the last-minute interviews being a weeding-out strategy. You always have the best insights.

      Like

      Reply
  5. Ol. Avatar
    Ol.

    I guess I miss one of your posts. Where on earth do we see professors who do not mind teaching seven courses instead of three?

    Since Grad school I do not hold much hopes in collective action. All these students afraid of creating a union or of holding a strike. Brrr…

    That being said, I cannot be selfish. I believe that my discipline, the future of my discipline, academic freedom, self-governance, good work conditions, defending TT jobs, are much much more important than my career. I despise political quietism. It is the too obvious sign of decadence.

    But yes, there are few alternatives. Where I work I can only support adjuncts when they negotiate their collective agreements, trying to keep our classes as small as possible, being extra careful with online teaching initiatives, offering as many courses as possible, not downsizing programs that not only work but bring money to the institution (even if some mid-level administrators want to get rid of these programs… because…).

    I am more concerned with my students and their lack of collective action. Maybe I live in a romantic fantasy, but I am surprised how many of them do not care about the quality of their education, how they do not mind being in class with 1000 more students, how they are OK with paying student loans for the rest of their lives. How, at age 18, they want to study business and not economy.

    Like

    Reply
  6. Z Avatar
    Z

    All right, Ol., you rock.

    Part of this whole syndrome is that people have been set against each other instead of against the situation and that is an old divide and conquer technique.

    What I am going to do in 2014 is refrain from arguing with faculty in certain ways and resist every divide-and-conquer technique. This may have an interesting effect on faculty committed to arguing in certain ways.

    Like

    Reply
  7. Ol. Avatar
    Ol.

    @Z “Part of this whole syndrome is that people have been set against each other instead of against the situation and that is an old divide and conquer technique.

    What I am going to do in 2014 is refrain from arguing with faculty in certain ways and resist every divide-and-conquer technique. This may have an interesting effect on faculty committed to arguing in certain ways.”

    You are right, Z. Your goal for 2014 may give interesting results, but it definitively will be complicated to achieve. Unfortunately, I think that wedge politics or divide and conquer politics are structural in North American universities. As for me, one of my specific goals in 2014 is to protect every language that we teach in our department, even if the TT professor of a certain language is a complete asshole and does no deserve my time and intellectual energy.

    My fear, on the long run, is the following: do students know that they need to protect universities too? Or will the majority of them think – wrongly – that by teaching seven courses per semester tuition will not rise and the qualtiy of their education will be the same? When, a couple of years ago, the German major at my former department was phased out, not a single student raised his/her voice. Likewise, the Japanese minor disapeared in complete silence last year.

    Like

    Reply
    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “I think that wedge politics or divide and conquer politics are structural in North American universities. ”

      – Yes. We were recently threatened that our contracts would be changed to a 4:4 load (that plan was later abandoned in favor of forcing us to teach for free without changing the contract.) When people (i.e. me) started to protest, we (i.e. me) were told that people who publish a lot will be immune from this change.

      LIKE I’M STUPID ENOUGH TO FALL FOR THIS CHILDISH TRICK.

      Like

      Reply
  8. Evelina Anville Avatar
    Evelina Anville

    Wow. I can’t imagine not complaining if someone wanted me to teach a 7/7 uncompensated; how is that even possible??? Don’t the faculty as a whole have to agree to a change in contract? Maybe nobody is getting worked up because it is impossible for the administration to enforce this? I love my job but if my load went up to a 7/7 without compensation, I would probably quit.

    But I think you should keep on making sure that you voice you opinion on important matters. I don’t think all academics are terrified (and I do think it’s terror–not satisfaction.)The way I see it, academics tend to fall in three general groups:

    Group 1: Those who voice their opinions. These academics try to fix problems that come up. They see part of their job as assisting in self-governance and participate in committee work (even when it’s boring and tedious.) I belong to this group. I think you do too. On the negative side, those in this group sometimes get prematurely riled up……I am speaking for myself and some very dear friends here. 🙂

    Group 2: Those who cower in abject terror. This is the group you describe in this post. I don’t have any explanation for it. Sometimes its full professors who are quite accomplished and can’t be harmed by the administration. But their safety doesn’t stop their sad terror and their willingness to acquiesce to insane adminstrative demands. Those in this group also sadly want administrators to approve of them and to tell them “Good job!.” And this makes them dangerous as colleagues because they will turn on a colleague if it can get them the approval they so desperately want.

    Group 3: Those that completely check out. Those in this group are neither afraid nor do they care about the institutional climate. They teach and do their scholarship and don’t care about much else. These are the people that always shirk their committee duties, miss meetings, and are generally apathetic and unreliable colleagues. I personally think people like this ruin an institution. While these “colleagues” are ignoring the day to day realities of the institution, they are shoving off work on to those who are willing to do it, and essentially giving administrators carte blanche to run the institution as they see fit.

    It sounds like you have colleagues solely in Groups 2 and 3 and you are in Group 1. That’s rough. I have my issues with my university but I will say that we do have enough colleagues in Group 1 who pay attention and protest and argue and help ensure that the institution remains a generally fair and pleasant place to work. But maybe if you keep on protesting, you will help wake some people up. The trick, I think, is those in Group 3. Those in Group 2 will always cower. But those in Group 3 will become vocal if they realize that their jobs will become worse. The problem is that by the time they can be bothered to care about an issue, it is too late.

    Anyway that is my (long) take on academic types for what it’s worth. Sorry for the diatribe.Stay in Group 1!

    Like

    Reply
    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Our contracts would need to go through the state legislature to get changed. This is why nobody is changing the contracts. We are told we will be teaching extra courses when there are under-enrolled sections with no official change in the contract. Nobody knows how many such “off-load” courses will be piled upon each person. Nobody knows anything because NOBODY IS ASKING QUESTIONS. We were informed of this change in policy six days ago. There hasn’t been any reaction from anybody. Yes, the holidays. Let’s hope that somebody will come awake after the holidays.

      What I’m afraid of is that I will slip into Group 3 of your classification. I don’t want to but I have to be honest, it might get to that point.

      Like

      Reply
      1. Z Avatar
        Z

        Very difficult not to see that actively entering Group 3 might not be the best policy. If being in Group 1 just wrecks you, it doesn’t actually help the institution that you stay there.

        Like

        Reply

Leave a comment

A conservative literary critic and college professor

Recent posts