Typical part-time or adjunct faculty who are not in the tenure system have it even worse. In most cases, their wages are so low that they end up working 60+ hours per week just to make a living - and they usually do not have the benefits of health care and retirement provided to full-time employees.
On the bottom of the higher education food chain, you will find graduate assistants. These poor sots are students working to attain post-graduate degrees; and in order to pay for those degrees, they teach undergraduate courses for stipends that barely cover their expenses. They generally have no health care benefits, no retirement savings, and their jobs are more tenuous than part-time faculty, since they can easily be replaced due to their status as students, which put them outside of normal employment regulations.
In his introduction, Cary Nelson explains how U.S. higher education got to this point, and why you should care. He uses real-world examples and writes in an easy to follow style. If you read nothing else, at least read this section of the book.
We need to keep pounding the drums on the issues raised by the academic labor movement, but I am not so sure this book is speaking to the right audience for it. Bousquet writes in a more academic style than Nelson, and those outside of academia may find it difficult to wade through the text. Even though his arguments are well researched and thoroughly articulated, I found myself skimming the chapters for his key points, following more closely when something caught my attention. Still, in an era of increased attention on the unionization of higher education instructors, this is a timely book and one that will easily complement the collection of literature on the topic of academic labor.
Article comments
1 - Kevin Eagan
As someone who is about to enter this topsy turvy world (via a Graduate Assistantship teaching Freshman composition), this review caught my attention. I definitely want to check this book out, as it may give me the tools necessary to become an activist/supporter of a better work environment, seeing as I'm going into academia head on (and don't want to turn back).
Thanks for the review, Anna.
2 - Anna Creech
Kevin, there is an entire chapter devoted to the instruction of rhetoric and composition, so it's definitely one you'll want to read.
3 - Kevin Eagan
That's interesting that he devotes an entire chapter to that one subject, but then again, the English and Speech Communication departments at most universities seem to rely on part-time/assistantship help more than any other department. One of my professor's wrote an excellent article about this issue in a culture studies book he edited, advocating change and pointing out the hypocrisy of most institutions in their treatment of the "lower classes" of academia.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of talk and article writing about how the system is flawed, but not much tangible action or change, leaving people like me stuck at the bottom with the most stress. But, they get GA's to go along with it, because they promise to pay your tuition. Plus, you get invaluable experience, just not much pay and no benefits...
4 - Dani in NC
I remember several movies from the 1940s and 1950s that portrayed university professors as poor and struggling individuals doing noble work. The modern stereotype of professors in the media doesn't seem to include the poor part anymore.