Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Spreading Pain



As you know, I’ve been complaining loudly about how college students and adjunct professors are faring in California’s disastrous economy. One dean called upper-division courses “boutique,” as in, “we are eliminating our boutique classes” such as life drawing, printmaking, advanced anything, and art history that doesn’t cover at least 500 years.
That’s not college, that’s high school continued.
I haven’t considered the tenured faculty much. After all, they can’t be fired. Yes, they’re on furlough, getting 10% less pay while working at least 20% harder. I’ve still thought I’d trade with them, any day.
But I’m starting to hear about how devastated many full-profs are. Some have spent entire careers building up fields of study that have been axed totally. They can’t teach their specialty or anything near it. They have to fire their friends, and deal with furious students and parents.
At least we out-of-work adjuncts can use our “free” time to consider our next career moves, and get the hell out of academia.
I’m starting to sympathize.

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