Linda Ferzoco on tue 23 aug 05
A while ago I posted some information about a potential job at the junior
college I go to (my teacher is retiring next May).
I was talking to him last week about this and he pointed out that the art
department is replacing full professors with part-time employees! My guess
is that only the department heads, or maybe only the dean, will be full time.
Frankly, from the college's perspective, it makes sense. My prof teaches
only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12/13-hour days to be sure, but that doesn't
make 40 in a week. I don't know whether there would be enough students to
fill more classes.
Anyway, I suspect that we'll see more of this, especially in the arts, which
are always hard hit when the money gets tight.
Food for thought.
claybair on wed 24 aug 05
It's true Rosanna Rosanna Danna!
There is another rarely publicized insidious trend.
In conjunction with the dumbing down of educational system from
kindergarten through college & the denigration of instructors via
the PT structure there are a few more areas to note e.g.
the salaries of administrators and how much money gets poured into
popular sports while the arts gets squeezed or eliminated.
If anyone cares to document or research it. I did 11 years ago and it seems
to be worsening.
I saw it continually on a much lesser scale when I was a parent and school
board director
in PA. Every year there was less & less $ per child, higher taxes while
the administrators received outrageous benefits, retirement packages,
paid junkets to resorts for "conferences" plus assorted perks, maintenance
subs making more per hour than
teacher subs, accepting low balled estimates then approving outrageous work
change orders,
budgets constructed so it was impossible to track where money really went
etc. etc.
I tried my best to make things right and was able to get the ball rolling to
get several
of the worst bastards to leave/retire but the system was overwhelmingly
corrupt. My time there was
cut short as we moved from the area before I could achieve my goal of a
decent education for those 8000 children!
There was plenty of money....it just NEVER reached the kids.
I think that if this were researched in detail... cutting through the
bulls**t this would rival any recent business scandal.
It's been almost 10 years since I was in that little school district but
just thinking about
still makes my blood boil. How people can wantonly go for greed and leave
generations of children's
education bleed to death is truly beyond me!
Gayle Bair - this doesn't just make me angry..... it makes me mad...... like
a dog!
I had better go back into the studio to calm down.
Bainbridge Island, WA
Tucson, AZ
http://claybair.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Ferzoco
After I posted that bit about PT college instructors, I saw a TV program
about grade inflation in our colleges. I'd heard about it but was so
disgusted hearing the details.
Teachers are giving As and Bs to the majority of their students as the
students say that college is no big deal and they don't even have to work
hard for their 3 and 4 pt GPAs. The students bragged about partying 4
nights a week.
It's no wonder that corporate America is complaining about the caliber of
person they're getting straight out of college.
What I don't know is just how prevalent the inflation practice is and/or how
slanted this program was.
The show talked about the college administrations emphasis on keeping the
seats filled, not failing students, and teachers take it easy on the
students in order to keep their jobs. And most of the students are having
too much fun to understand that they're being robbed. I feel especially bad
for the 60-70% of students who work, a great number full time. They're
busting their humps and being cheated.
I'm starting to feel like Rosanna Danna. Please somebody tell me is isn't
true so that I can say Nevermind!!
Linda
California
William & Susan Schran User on wed 24 aug 05
On 8/23/05 9:38 PM, "Linda Ferzoco" wrote:
> Frankly, from the college's perspective, it makes sense. My prof teaches
> only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12/13-hour days to be sure, but that doesn't
> make 40 in a week. I don't know whether there would be enough students to
> fill more classes.
The community college where I teach has a normal teaching load of five 3
credit classes plus 10 yours of office hours.
In our art program, all studio art classes are 4 credit courses meeting 6
hours each week. The normal load is three of the 4 credit courses + the
office hours = 28 hours per week - nice job. My job as an assistant dean
allows for one class release time for administrative assignments. But this
doesn't account for the numerous hours I spend at home doing research for my
classes/students, administrative writing/research done at home because
there's not enough hours in the day at school. On the face it seems I'm only
working a part-time job, but it ends up more hours than a normal full-time
job.
As money gets tight, many full-time college teaching positions in programs
with smaller enrollments will be filled with adjunct faculty because all the
school pays is a salary, no benefits. Our art program has gone from 6
full-time positions and a couple of adjuncts to 3 full-time positions and
9-10 adjuncts.
--
William "Bill" Schran
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Tony Ferguson on wed 24 aug 05
Linda,
This isn't a trend, its been a reality for awhile now. As far as your professor, was he full time or part time? The amount of hours as they are calculated are not the same when compared to a nine to 5 job so you are comparing apples to oranges possibly if your professor is full time. What is included in their credit hours is also contact hours, prep, research, and many other duties that come with being a professor which include committee work, advising students, etc, etc. They do far much more than one would think and there is always some form of emphasis on publish or perish unless there is more emphasis on pedagogy (teaching methods). So, yes, from the university's " business model" perspective, if they can keep their costs down (which usually amounts to students and faculty suffering alike) somebody is making somebody happy.
I think it boils down to professional respect--but I see it happening in the form of many adjuncts taking the place of full time instructors or professors and in the community college arena it is as cut throat as you can imagine--they can cancel your class 2 weeks before it starts or the day it starts if they don't feel there is enough students to make money. They are very bottom line.
With Universities, it is truly a sad thing when a university can not provide any job security for its teachers or consistency with instructors and the familiarity and mentor/mentee relationships that come with knowing someone for an extend period of time. I am very curious about where education is going.
Tony Ferguson
Linda Ferzoco wrote:
A while ago I posted some information about a potential job at the junior
college I go to (my teacher is retiring next May).
I was talking to him last week about this and he pointed out that the art
department is replacing full professors with part-time employees! My guess
is that only the department heads, or maybe only the dean, will be full time.
Frankly, from the college's perspective, it makes sense. My prof teaches
only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12/13-hour days to be sure, but that doesn't
make 40 in a week. I don't know whether there would be enough students to
fill more classes.
Anyway, I suspect that we'll see more of this, especially in the arts, which
are always hard hit when the money gets tight.
Food for thought.
______________________________________________________________________________
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Tony Ferguson
...where the sky meets the lake...
Duluth, Minnesota
Artist, Educator, Web Meister
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Victoria E. Hamilton on wed 24 aug 05
Hi Linda -
It may take me a while to even begin to address our system of higher
education, let alone education in the arts!
On another subject, I did the same thing recently crediting "Never mind!" to
Rosann Rosannadanna. Incorrectly. It was actually Miss Emily Litella who
uttered those words.
Vicki Hamilton
Seattle, WA, where we are enjoying (?) some absurdly lovely (hot, hot)
weather for a couple of days, every couple of days, but you can tell Fall is
near.
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Linda Ferzoco
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 12:33
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: Possible trend in higher education?
After I posted that bit about PT college instructors, I saw a TV program
about grade inflation in our colleges. I'd heard about it but was so
disgusted hearing the details.
Teachers are giving As and Bs to the majority of their students as the
students say that college is no big deal and they don't even have to work
hard for their 3 and 4 pt GPAs. The students bragged about partying 4
nights a week.
It's no wonder that corporate America is complaining about the caliber of
person they're getting straight out of college.
What I don't know is just how prevalent the inflation practice is and/or how
slanted this program was.
The show talked about the college administrations empahsis on keeping the
seats filled, not failing students, and teachers take it easy on the
students in order to keep their jobs. And most of the students are having
too much fun to understand that they're being robbed. I feel especially bad
for the 60-70% of students who work, a great number full time. They're
busting their humps and being cheated.
I'm starting to feel like Rosanna Danna. Please somebody tell me is isn't
true so that I can say Nevermind!!
Linda
California
____________________________________________________________________________
__
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
John Baymore on wed 24 aug 05
Unfortunately this cute little "trend" is happening in an awful lot of
fields.......... so it really should be no surprise that some educational
institutions are following suit. With a full time person you typically
have to pay stuff like benefits and offer retirement plans and such. With
PT people you just have to pay them some sort of hourly wages.
Full time employees are "expensive".
Part of what allows this situation is the job situation in America. With
the conversion of many more professional FT jobs going "bye-bye"
(downsizing, outsourcing, and offshore)...... and lower paying PT "McJobs"
proliferating in the service sector (Would you like fries with that?)....
many people feel lucky to have ANY job. So employers can get people
without offering the older more traditional types of support for people's
needs.
With PT people there is less of any implied "commitment" also, so this
situation also makes it easier to simply not keep them in employment as
they ...ahem...... "mature" and maybe get toward the upper ends of the pay
scale...... allowing their replacement with a younger, less expensive
employee. Helps avoid those nasty age discrimination suits.
Then in the academic setting, there is also the frequent issue of "tenure
track" for full time professors. Which kinda' puts the person on "for
life" if they don't overtly screw up in a massive way. There's a concept
to put fear into the heart of the folks who count the beans in the
administration .
It would be nice to think that educational institutions are sort
of "above" these kinds of practices...... but I think that would be
deceiving one's self . And as you say.... art departments are not
exactly lush with funding these days.
If your focus is "the bottom line"........ this makes all the sense in the
world.
best,
...............john
John Baymore
River Bend Pottery
22 River Bend Way
Wilton, NH 03085 USA
JBaymore@compuserve.com
http://www.JohnBaymore.com
"Please use compuserve address for any direct conmmunications."
Stephani Stephenson on wed 24 aug 05
Linda
this has been going on for years, could almost say decades now...
though it may have just now reached your neighborhood.
Down here, adjuncts are known as 'freeway flyers'
they usually must teach at 2,3,4 institutions just to cobble together a
living
don't get paid for time, except for actual class hours , nothing for
time assisting students in the studio, studio prep, office time,etc....
There are examples of course where full time positions are abused, in
that full time profs are
primarily diverted into administrative tasks and are not as present in
the studio or classroom as they should be... etc
just as often though, the full time person has to fight like the
dickens to maintain the very existence of an art department, especially
studio art programs.
Full timers and part timers both are usually putting far more hours
than they are paid for... just that the part time wage usually doesn't
begin to cover even part of it...unless things have changed
drastically in the last few years, and my hunch is they haven't.
There are always numbers to justify; expense per student, etc. and
the 'numbers ' often look better when you can plug in part timers.
In the late 80s and all through the 90s, I experienced first hand the
'part timing'
of America...
I think it makes sense to have a certain number of part time
positions. These are perfect for some, help the university with
flexibility, bring new people into the studio, and provide entry level
or desirable part time work to others,
It is disheartening though to those who want to teach full time, to
find fewer and fewer opportunities,( and there are not too many to
begin with).
Adjunct salaries are no way to make a living. How fulfilling and
effective is teaching pottery when you have to drop everything at the
bell and rush on to the next place,( also, by the way, packing
everything in your car, because you don't necessarily have an office or
studio space at the institution)
. Some business , for example , after part timing and contracting
everything out , later realized they had lost the committed core of
their organization. Investing in people provides returns in commitment
, performance, etc, that aren't as easy to measure by numbers alone
but do even affect the bottom line eventually.
Of course situations vary. There are full timers who should be canned,
adjuncts who do a fabulous job, full timers who are heroes, adjuncts
who
don't put much into it... and everything in between.... what gets lost
is what really serves the interest of the people involved, students and
faculty ,
and the excellence of the educational experience and the furthering of
the art and craft itself.
steph@revivaltileworks.com
http://www.revivaltileworks.com
Marcia Selsor on wed 24 aug 05
Tony and Linda,,
I retired because I was never going to teach summer school again
because I needed 30 people in a class to make money for the Univ.
Since summer school was counted into my pension, I would have lost
the previous years. There are many different Univ. situations
requiring a variety of contact hours, duties, plus support chores
like loading kilns, ordering chemicals, firing kilns, and inventory,
keeping track of watse disposal etc. Not to mention endless meetings,
reports,
strategic planning, accountability analysis for art programs, etc.
Here is an example:
same state:
beg. ceramics is 5 credits at Univ. X and 3 credits at Univ. Y .
The prof at X teaches two classes for 10 credits and the Y prof
teaches three classes for 9 credits. Both are state institutions. One
teacher can come in 2 days a week and the other had no way to do that
and also has no support staff assisting with the operations.
The trend at my former Univ. was use part time when someone retires
or dies. Maybe after three years they will open a lecturer's position
which does include health benefits.
It has been like this for a long time.
Marcia Selsor
Linda Ferzoco on wed 24 aug 05
After I posted that bit about PT college instructors, I saw a TV program
about grade inflation in our colleges. I'd heard about it but was so
disgusted hearing the details.
Teachers are giving As and Bs to the majority of their students as the
students say that college is no big deal and they don't even have to work
hard for their 3 and 4 pt GPAs. The students bragged about partying 4
nights a week.
It's no wonder that corporate America is complaining about the caliber of
person they're getting straight out of college.
What I don't know is just how prevalent the inflation practice is and/or how
slanted this program was.
The show talked about the college administrations empahsis on keeping the
seats filled, not failing students, and teachers take it easy on the
students in order to keep their jobs. And most of the students are having
too much fun to understand that they're being robbed. I feel especially bad
for the 60-70% of students who work, a great number full time. They're
busting their humps and being cheated.
I'm starting to feel like Rosanna Danna. Please somebody tell me is isn't
true so that I can say Nevermind!!
Linda
California
Snail Scott on fri 26 aug 05
At 03:33 PM 8/24/2005 -0400, Linda wrote:
>Teachers are giving As and Bs to the majority of their students as the
>students say that college is no big deal and they don't even have to work
>hard for their 3 and 4 pt GPAs... Please somebody tell me is isn't
>true so that I can say Nevermind!!
This has been true for most of the art courses I've
encountered; less so for other fields. How amazing
it was for me to encounter my current program (at
Washington. U. in St. Louis). A large number of the
students in the art program transferred from other
programs in the university, and expect (or accept)
similar grade policies. They truly do have to work
hard and well for an 'A'. Meeting the requirements
and not screwing up and showing up for class every
day will only get you a 'C'. Even the electives,
taken mainly by non-majors here, are tough grades.
At this school, a huge number of the students are
pre-med and pre-law and are dead paranoid about
their GPA's, but they know they've got to work for
it.
Now it's true that everywhere, a 'C' no longer means
'average', but it does mean the minimum acceptable
standard. Until I came here, I'd seldom seen a 'C'
given in an art class except for flagrant nonattendance
and failure to turn in assignments.
Some colleges are easier graders than others, and at
every university, academic departments and courses
vary in the strictness of their grading. Some have a
mission to 'weed out' the unlikely before they progress
further into a program they can't handle. A minimum
grade in these 'gateway' courses' is how they restrict
access to the upper levels of selective programs. For
pre-med chemistry, for example, that makes sense.
For art, however, even academic programs often approach
it with a warm-and-fuzzy attitude that 'art is for
everybody', and that positive support should take
the form of easy 'A's. A lovely sentiment, but it's
one of the things that imapirs the credibility of art
departments within a university setting. These are
other venues for learning art, where no grades are
given and no particular standard is applied, but if
a course counts for college credit, it needs to be
graded like any other college course, to the extent
that the subjectivity of art allows.
This subjectivity is probably another reason for easy
grading, but this is why, in most cases, grading is
based as much on 'effort' or 'improvement' as on the
product. Still, in art, a low grade can be taken as
a personal slur on the student's very psychic essence.
A low grade in chemistry is hard to interpret as
anything but evidence that the student doesn't
understand chemistry. A low grade in art can be taken
far more personally, especially if the work is very
personal. It's hard for an instructor to look at a
student who says "This is a portrait of my cousin
who died of AIDS" and tell them "It's a bad painting".
Far easier to soft-pedal the grade and call it at
least a 'B'. The harm that that approach does is far
tougher to pinpoint than the immediate pain of a 'D',
though I belive it's still there.
Grading the work of someone's heart is a very hard
thing to do.
-Snail
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