[blind-democracy] Re: Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns Less Than Pet-Sitter | PopularResistance.Org

  • From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 21:46:59 -0700

Both of our democratic senators, Patty and Maria knuckled under. From
what I kept hearing, they were undecided. But I'm a bit of a cynic.
They were probably still counting their booty. As I said in an
earlier note, it looks like after the primary I'll be voting the Green
Party all the way. But after saying that, I will read the information
from any Left Wing Party that is fielding candidates.
At this point in time, I'd vote for the Pope for president over any of
the major party candidates. And that from an Agnostic!
But it's all a sham.



On 6/25/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

By the way, your US Democratic Senator voted in favor of the TPP.

Miriam

-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 2:17 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns
Less Than Pet-Sitter | PopularResistance.Org

The state of Washington has been moving toward more and more contract
labor.
The legislature will not provide additional FTE's for new employees, and no
additional funding. By going to contracts, the state is able to hire as
many providers as they have dollars. The dollars are stretched to cover
more providers because there are no fringe benefits and the contracts can
be
held to the same dollar level year after year.
While there were certainly problems when services were provided by state
employees, at least there was the ability to review and improve programs
and
services. But under the contracting system, despite claims to the
contrary,
services are poorly monitored, if at all, and supervision is spotty to
nonexistent.
During our first several years contracting with the Department of Services
for the Blind, we had annual case reviews and full annual audits. To my
way
of thinking, this gave us valuable information with which to improve our
services, as well as to assure us that we were doing our job properly. I
can't remember the last audit we had.
Maybe ten years ago? And our case review is done, if at all, on a quick
check of the computer records.
And, as Miriam said, it is the clients who get the short end.
To me, the message is loud and clear. The state of Washington has little
regard for those people providing services. Furthermore, the State has
little regard for those people requiring services.
Indeed, the state of Washington is not serving the people it claims to be
serving. Look at the highways and bridges. They are falling into
disrepair. Look at the Elderly and disabled. There is not enough low
income housing, medical services are insufficient, often times, in rural
areas, doctors and health services are not available. Higher education is
becoming more and more out of reach for the Working Class citizens, with
huge debts being assessed to graduates. The list is endless. The fact is
that the State is only serving the needs of the wealthy citizens. And in
fact, not all of those the State is serving are citizens of this, or any
state. Just follow the tax dollars and see how many go into highway repair
and mass transit, and how many tax dollars go toward large private
consultant fees and corporate management costs.
I wonder what we call those who take a beating and never open their mouths
or raise a hand in their own defense. Dead People? Really really dumb
People: Brain washed People?

Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis


On 6/25/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So this is happening to people with PhD's who want to teach in
colleges and universities. And in New York, those of us who were doing
adoption home studies on a private basis, became contract workers as
rules changed and studies needed to be certified by agencies. Before
that final clamp down, we were competitors, fighting with each other
to attract clients. Some of us charged low rates, worked on a sort of
assembly line basis, and did a less than stellar job. The families and
the children whom they adopted, were the victims. Some of us charged
more, maintained high professional standards, and had fewer clients as
a result. All the work on a properly conducted study took at least 10
hours. But fees varied widely. Then the adoption agencies were given
the power to dictate how much we could charge. There were very few
situations in which we could do private home studies on our own. The
paperwork increased and the fees were capped. Never, were there any
fringe benefits of any kind. And by the time I retired, one no longer
felt that at least, one was an independent agent. That was no longer
true. All of this came about because of the successful lobbying of a
powerful organization representing adoption agencies. And the excuse
given, was that it was being done for the welfare of children. In
fact, as paperwork and rules increased, the protections for children
and families decreased because the individual professional
responsibility of social workers for their work was devalued.

Miriam

-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 11:45 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns
Less Than Pet-Sitter | PopularResistance.Org

How many jobs, transferred to contract employment, will it take before
Americans wake up to the fact that the Working Class is getting screwed?
By, "Working Class", I mean Blue Collar, White Collar, Manual Labor
and Office Labor. Included are also many mid and upper management
jobs. The operative phrase for "Screwing Americans", is, Contract Labor.
Contracts open a wonderful opportunity for Corporations to pass off
all costs, risks, losses, health benefits, and operating fees to the
contractee.
I have no idea how long ago it began, or with whom, but I've watched
cab companies, trucking companies, logging companies, and corporations
such as Boeing and Microsoft turn more and more to contract labor.
Companies that once owned and services fleets of vehicles, now
contract with folks who are expected to own and maintain their own
vehicles. The company is absolved of all responsibility and
liability. The Post Office contracts out its rural routes. Low b bid
is awarded the contract. The only fringe benefit is a guarantee that
you will have the job until a new contract, and someone underbids you.
Over the years we have had a number of retired folks taking up the
grueling six day a week grind in order to supplement a pension or social
security.
When Corporations talk up the wonderful benefits of contract
employment, think instead in terms of Down Sizing the Income of Americas
Working Force.
Contracts put more profit in the pockets of Corporations. Profit that
is seldom plowed back into the community where it was taken from.
Profit that usually finds it's way into off-shore banks or the bulging
pockets of billionaires.
Contract labor is working hard to make the rich even richer. Longer
hours, lower pay. The rich man's wet dream.
But while we're shedding tears for the plight of this adjunct
professor, and so many others just like him, let's not forget the
students who are being cheated, too. And charged increasingly
outrageous fees for the privilege.
It appears this is one way of educating them to what will be their
fate once out of school.
Once Americans understand that it will only get worse, they may
finally identify the cause, and begin to eliminate it.
And what is the cause of this downward spiral in Americans standard of
living?
In a word, it is Greed. Eliminate Greed and we are on the road to
recovery.
Eliminating Greed is far easier than we make it out to be.
First, we simply stop producing for the Corporations, without an equal
share in the profits. Secondly, we set five year limits on the
existence of all Corporations. Each five years they must show how
they have benefited America, and ask for a renewal for another five
years.
I'd go further, but that would be a decent beginning.

Carl Jarvis


On 6/25/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns Less Than Pet-Sitter |
PopularResistance.Org pf-core frame

Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns Less Than Pet-Sitter |
PopularResistance.Org frame popularresistance.org
https://www.popularresistance.org/adjunct-professor-teaches-5-classes
-
earns-
less-than-pet-sitter/

Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns Less Than Pet-Sitter

It's hard out here for an academic. Really, really hard. Photo by
National Adjunct Walkout Day

It's hard out here for an academic. Really, really hard. Photo by
National Adjunct Walkout Day

Like most university teachers today, I am a low-paid contract worker.
Now and then, a friend will ask: "Have you tried dog-walking on the
side?" I have. Pet care, I can reveal, takes massive attention,
energy and driving time. I'm friends with a full-time, professionally
employed pet-sitter who's done it for years, never topping $26,000
annually and never receiving health or other benefits.

The reason I field such questions is that, as an adjunct professor,
whether teaching undergraduate or law-school courses, I make much
less than a pet-sitter earns. This year I'm teaching five classes (15
credit hours, roughly comparable to the teaching loads of some
tenure-track law or business school instructors). At $3,000 per
course, I'll pull in $15,000 for the year. I work year-round, 20 to
30 hours weekly - teaching, developing courses and drafting syllabi,
offering academic advice, recommendation letters and course
extensions for students who need them. As I write, in late June, my
students are wrapping up their final week of the first summer term,
and the second summer term will begin next week.

I receive no benefits, no office, no phone or stipend for the basic
communication demands of teaching. I keep constant tabs on the media
I use in my classes; if I exhaust my own 10GB monthly data plan
early, I lose vital time for online discussions with my students.
This, although the university requires my students to engage in
discussions about legal issues and ethics six days a week, and I must
guide as well as grade these discussions.

Three of my Philadelphia-area friends are adjuncts with doctorate
degrees.
One keeps moving to other states for temporary teaching posts. The
others teach at multiple sites to keep afloat financially - one at no
less than seven colleges and universities.

Having heard all my life about solid "government job" benefits, I
figured I might have more stability, and still be able to handle
teaching, if I worked for the Post Office. I started carrying mail in
early January. As a City Carrier Assistant, I earned less pay than
regular postal carriers do, though I did more than "assist": my job
was to handle absentee carriers'
routes. I had no medical insurance, no sick leave allowance and had
to agree to work as much as managers deemed necessary for 360
consecutive days (whereupon I could sign up for a second 360-day
contract, with no promise that it would bring me any closer to a
permanent job offer). I worked on Sundays too, under the US Postal
Service's contract with Amazon.com. With human flaws - I fell on ice
more than once - I was no match for the drones Amazon intends to
deploy. After two months on the job, which was long enough to develop
a lifetime fear of Rottweilers, I was behind in my university work. I
turned in my cap.

In late March, I started a retail job. It offers real days off, and I
expect to be eligible for health and dental benefits soon.

Last week, a friend came in to shop, saw me, and exclaimed, loud
enough for all to hear: "What are you doing here?" Friends who know I
hold two law degrees and teach at a university can't fathom that my
teaching doesn't cover rent. Some writers have discussed adjuncts
waiting tables or bagging groceries alongside their students as
though it's the ultimate degradation. I see things differently.
I'm trained by the people who deliver parcels, serve meals and bag
groceries and who might, any day, apply to take my courses. I am
their equal, and I know it at a level most established faculty
members do not.

Faculty members do not even interact with each other as equals. Most
adjuncts aren't included in regular faculty meetings, let alone
conferences where ideas are exchanged and explored. A concept called
the inclusive fees campaign seeks to make conferences affordable for
adjuncts.
(It focuses on PhDs, but could encompass teachers whose positions
require law degrees or other alternative qualifications.)
"Inclusivity" for a systematically exploited group is only a patch.
But it's good to see established professors challenged to acknowledge
contingent workers, who now comprise the preponderance of the faculty
community. Yes, of the 1.2m instructional staff appointments in US
higher education, 76% - more than 900,000 - are now contingent.

We are working for institutions that claim to open doors to career
opportunities even as they etch contingency into their hiring practices.
The
significance of the inclusive fees campaign lies in its implicit
question:
how will the schools hear our voices over the silence of the tenured?

Even more daunting than the dearth of dollars is the fragmentation of
the adjunct's time. Recently, an editor at the University of Oregon
School of Law asked if I'd be a conference panelist. Can I travel,
yet still clock enough hours at my second job to stay above the
threshold for health insurance?

Every day I live two people's lives, and it's fatiguing. Every day I
need more time with students while being pulled away from them.

The best that could come of the adjunct crisis is a teaching
community broadly committed to the civility and inclusivity we've been
missing.
This could lead to a new kind of education, based not on ranking, not
on status, but on genuine guidance for living with decency and
respect on
this planet.

A conference on this is well overdue - and I don't want to miss it
while watching the time clock.
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-
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Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns Less Than Pet-Sitter

It's hard out here for an academic. Really, really hard. Photo by
National Adjunct Walkout Day

It's hard out here for an academic. Really, really hard. Photo by
National Adjunct Walkout Day

Like most university teachers today, I am a low-paid contract worker.
Now and then, a friend will ask: "Have you tried dog-walking on the
side?" I have. Pet care, I can reveal, takes massive attention,
energy and driving time. I'm friends with a full-time, professionally
employed pet-sitter who's done it for years, never topping $26,000
annually and never receiving health or other benefits.

The reason I field such questions is that, as an adjunct professor,
whether teaching undergraduate or law-school courses, I make much
less than a pet-sitter earns. This year I'm teaching five classes (15
credit hours, roughly comparable to the teaching loads of some
tenure-track law or business school instructors). At $3,000 per
course, I'll pull in $15,000 for the year. I work year-round, 20 to
30 hours weekly - teaching, developing courses and drafting syllabi,
offering academic advice, recommendation letters and course
extensions for students who need them. As I write, in late June, my
students are wrapping up their final week of the first summer term,
and the second summer term will begin next week.

I receive no benefits, no office, no phone or stipend for the basic
communication demands of teaching. I keep constant tabs on the media
I use in my classes; if I exhaust my own 10GB monthly data plan
early, I lose vital time for online discussions with my students.
This, although the university requires my students to engage in
discussions about legal issues and ethics six days a week, and I must
guide as well as grade these discussions.

Three of my Philadelphia-area friends are adjuncts with doctorate
degrees.
One keeps moving to other states for temporary teaching posts. The
others teach at multiple sites to keep afloat financially - one at no
less than seven colleges and universities.

Having heard all my life about solid "government job" benefits, I
figured I might have more stability, and still be able to handle
teaching, if I worked for the Post Office. I started carrying mail in
early January. As a City Carrier Assistant, I earned less pay than
regular postal carriers do, though I did more than "assist": my job
was to handle absentee carriers'
routes. I had no medical insurance, no sick leave allowance and had
to agree to work as much as managers deemed necessary for 360
consecutive days (whereupon I could sign up for a second 360-day
contract, with no promise that it would bring me any closer to a
permanent job offer). I worked on Sundays too, under the US Postal
Service's contract with Amazon.com. With human flaws - I fell on ice
more than once - I was no match for the drones Amazon intends to
deploy. After two months on the job, which was long enough to develop
a lifetime fear of Rottweilers, I was behind in my university work. I
turned in my cap.

In late March, I started a retail job. It offers real days off, and I
expect to be eligible for health and dental benefits soon.

Last week, a friend came in to shop, saw me, and exclaimed, loud
enough for all to hear: "What are you doing here?" Friends who know I
hold two law degrees and teach at a university can't fathom that my
teaching doesn't cover rent. Some writers have discussed adjuncts
waiting tables or bagging groceries alongside their students as
though it's the ultimate degradation. I see things differently.
I'm trained by the people who deliver parcels, serve meals and bag
groceries and who might, any day, apply to take my courses. I am
their equal, and I know it at a level most established faculty
members do not.

Faculty members do not even interact with each other as equals. Most
adjuncts aren't included in regular faculty meetings, let alone
conferences where ideas are exchanged and explored. A concept called
the inclusive fees campaign seeks to make conferences affordable for
adjuncts.
(It focuses on PhDs, but could encompass teachers whose positions
require law degrees or other alternative qualifications.)
"Inclusivity" for a systematically exploited group is only a patch.
But it's good to see established professors challenged to acknowledge
contingent workers, who now comprise the preponderance of the faculty
community. Yes, of the 1.2m instructional staff appointments in US
higher education, 76% - more than 900,000 - are now contingent.

We are working for institutions that claim to open doors to career
opportunities even as they etch contingency into their hiring practices.
The
significance of the inclusive fees campaign lies in its implicit
question:
how will the schools hear our voices over the silence of the tenured?

Even more daunting than the dearth of dollars is the fragmentation of
the adjunct's time. Recently, an editor at the University of Oregon
School of Law asked if I'd be a conference panelist. Can I travel,
yet still clock enough hours at my second job to stay above the
threshold for health insurance?

Every day I live two people's lives, and it's fatiguing. Every day I
need more time with students while being pulled away from them.

The best that could come of the adjunct crisis is a teaching
community broadly committed to the civility and inclusivity we've been
missing.
This could lead to a new kind of education, based not on ranking, not
on status, but on genuine guidance for living with decency and
respect on
this planet.

A conference on this is well overdue - and I don't want to miss it
while watching the time clock.
Adjunct Professor Teaches 5 Classes, Earns Less Than Pet-Sitter |
PopularResistance.Org f











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