Inside Higher Ed picked up the story of Carbondale’s plan to exploit unpaid professors.
Unless Carbondale issues a formal retraction and makes a public apology soon, this won’t end well for the already struggling university. Nobody wants to send their kids to a school that gets the worst press in the country all the time.
Actually, both. 🙂 In all honesty, I wavered between both versions of the title.
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After reading it, I understood who may agree to work for free:
\ individuals who may be forced to take such a position, such as foreign national PhD holders who may need it to be allowed to stay in the U.S.
Interesting whether and how such people are already used to provide free labour in American economy.
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I didn’t even think about it at first but yes, absolutely. It’s beyond disgusting. They are planning a bunch of layoffs this academic year. And here is their idea for who’s supposed to fill the jobs of the fired paid adjuncts.
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“foreign national PhD holders who may need it to be allowed to stay in the U.S.”
I don’t think so. Unlike many domestic PhDs, foreign PhDs don’t have a strong safety net. It’s not like they can move in with their family for some time, or have their family support them financially while they work for free.
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Foreign PhDs and probably also MAs may work illegally to support themselves. I don’t know what the US laws are regarding the kind and quantity of work one needs to do in order to stay.
Also, many foreigners may be afraid of being deported soon or even the moment they are fired, while the university offers a 3 year guarantee of being able to stay. The work required is not full time in a way preventing them from working in other places. Were I afraid of being deported after losing an employer, I would’ve been tempted myself to use university as an anchor.
I also heard something about people being tied to one employer somehow and being unable to change jobs because of deportation threat. Am I confused here?
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There is a visa category like that, yes. This gig not being paid, though, I am not sure it would qualify people for visas. Generally you have to submit salary information and show that you are not being paid less for the same work than citizens and permanent residents. Does anyone know how visas would work in the proposed SIU situation?
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It depends on the kind of visa. The NAFTA visa, for instance, doesn’t have many of these requirements. (It’s the TN visa).
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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