Our previous blog post pulled back the curtain and
revealed the terrible truth that universities and colleges are teaching their
students how to live in poverty. Adjuncts and graduate assistants living
below the poverty level teach their courses from positions of despair and
helplessness, and in the process of trying to survive, they reveal the lack of
respect that colleges and universities have for education. From their ivory
towers, armies (often more than twice the number of instructors) of secure,
well-paid administrators act as plutocratic directors overseeing the
performance of poorly paid and desperately overworked instructors, making
higher education a corporate plan to support growing numbers of administrators
who have stolen the spotlight (and the money) from their students and
instructors.
The
play Junct, which held an open dress rehearsal
April 25 on the CSU campus, brought this real-life drama to the stage.
Organized in short monologues, the play opened with
a young graduate student telling the story of her parents’ divorce and her
mother’s struggle to support her children. When the young woman entered college,
her mother encouraged her to become self-sufficient: “College professors make
good salaries and their jobs are secure.” This obvious mistake drew empathetic
murmurs from the audience, a large group of faculty who are painfully aware of
the dearth of full-time faculty jobs and the devastating plight of adjuncts. Nodding
quietly, the young woman explained to the audience that she is a graduate
assistant for CSU, working well over 40 hours per week for little more than
tuition for her coursework, and no future in sight beyond adjunct work, a more
permanent type of poverty.
Continuing with her story, the graduate assistant
explained that recently, she brought her concerns to the faculty advisor, whose
careless, antiquated response left her speechless. “Find a husband who can
support you, and then, perhaps after your children are grown, you can come back
and teach as an adjunct.” The young student reacted with dismay and anger: did
the conversation occur in a time warp? Is it 1950 or 2013? After years of study
and investment, must teaching be removed from her short list of career options
because she needs to be able to—of all things—earn a living wage? Is higher
education instruction becoming volunteer work for instructors who are fortunate
enough to have a pension or spousal support? If so, why are the administrators
secure and well paid?
In
the next monologue, we hear confessions about depression, burnout, and ketchup
sandwiches—these teachers have no money to buy food.
Most of the speakers are young and utterly oppressed
by the university’s system; they are regularly taking the bitter pill of poverty.
The sad atmosphere lightens with occasional music from a three-person band and fast-paced,
humorous skits involving several actors. One adjunct explains to a student that
he doesn’t have an office, but he can meet her in the parking lot. A group of graduate
students who teach composition—a course that requires instructors to spend many
hours grading essays—wonders why they are not paid hourly instead of per course.
The current compensation system may make work simpler for administrators, but it
perpetuates serious workload inequities between instructors in different
departments.
One
student wonders, after all of this pain, if she is still a writer and a human
being, as if teaching were a disease that may require surgery.
Yes, these young people who live on condiments, endure
numerous roommates, and work well over 40 hours per week have learned about poverty
from the higher education system. (When we think of “the working poor,” how
often do we think of people with advanced degrees?) Instead of leaving, however,
these instructors have chosen to honor their academic investments and speak out
in creative ways.
College administrators—particularly those who
receive state tax dollars—listen up.
You have created a culture of poverty and are perpetuating it across your
campuses. Listen and learn about the poverty that you are offering and teaching
to our nation’s young people. They deserve better.
Junct
will be
performed on college and university campuses in Colorado during Campus Equity
Week, Oct. 20-26, 2013.
Our
FRCC AAUP chapter website will provide more details as the Fall semester
approaches. https://sites.google.com/site/coloradoadjunctswiki/home
