Catherine
----- Original Message ----- From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 1:13 am Subject: Re: reparations & exploitation
> >All right
> >pay differentials:
> >
> >let's be honest:
> >
> >should i be paid more now than i was when i cleaned houses for a
> living?>
> >yes.
> >
> >why?
> >
> >1) because it's harder and it costs me more in the way in which it
> >affects the rest of my life -- if i was paid as much as I was for
> >cleaning houses I would possibly still do it (some days). Perhaps I
> >should take pleasure in this work as some 'just' reward -- but
> >certainly others don't resond to my work as inherently valuable (it's
> >not motherhood or anything) -- and thus perhaps I could be seen
> to seek
> >validation for long hours and over-commitment in other ways
> >
> >but however you want to phrase that side of things...
> >
> >2) i personally want to reward people for undertaking extended
> >education -- which in very pragmatic terms is often unrewarded, and
> >which i think has major social benefits in terms of the
> 'awareness' of
> >the rest of the world it provides/sustains, and in some respects my
> >kind of job is a material example of why that's worth the effort
> >
> >I don't think in a perfect world I would have the same approach to
> >differential wages -- but for the moment I do think there's a
> case, and
> >i'm even prepared to concede I would benefit from it in ways i
> would be
> >prepared to defend.
> >
> >I haven't exhausted this, but I've probably been defensive enough.
> >
> >Catherine
>
> If I cleaned houses for 8 hours per day, 5 days a week, in the USA
> or
> Japan, I would make more money than I do now. Les Stansbery (a
> local
> friend of mine) used to do adjunct teaching at OSU branch
> campuses.
> He was a conscientious adjunct who made many corrections &
> suggestions on student papers, spent much time creating lesson
> plans,
> etc. By his calculation, his monthly paycheck, divided by the
> hours
> he spent on work, went below the minimum wage. Much of
> undergraduate
> teaching in American institutions of higher education is performed
> by
> "Teaching Assistants" (a misnomer because many TAs are entirely
> responsible for courses they teach) & other non-tenure-track
> instructors.
>
> If money were the only or even main incentive, no one would study
> English, History, Philosophy, Sciences, etc., at least not _in
> Ph.D.
> programs_. Why not study Law, Medicine, Finance, Engineering,
> etc.
> instead?
>
> According to Barbara E. Lovitts and Cary Nelson, "Although
> comprehensive national data do not exist on the consequences of
> graduate students' abandoning their degree programs, forty years
> of
> studies suggest the long-term attrition rate nationwide is about
> 50
> percent. That rate may have increased somewhat in recent years,
> partly in response to the job market for new faculty; in any case,
> the news has certainly not improved. Moreover, the average
> national
> rate of attrition from Ph.D. programs disguises the reality in
> specific universities and departments" ("The Hidden Crisis in
> Graduate Education: Attrition From Ph.D Programs," _Academe_, at
> <" target="l">http://www.aaup.org/ND00Lovi.htm>). The attrition
> rate has probably
> more to do with the poor chance of getting a tenure-track job than
> the average wages of tenured professors (which aren't shabby
> though
> they are by no means extravagant except for a few star
> professors),
> as well as the difficulty of combining teaching so-called "service
> courses" with research & writing while studying in a Ph.D. program
> that pays miserable "stipends."
>
> I believe that the working conditions of tenured faculty cannot be
> maintained, much less improved, while an increasing portion of
> undergraduate instruction is being conducted by non-tenure-track
> teachers. Tenure has already been attacked by such means as
> enrollment quotas (at some community colleges, you need to make
> the
> quota or else your "tenure" gets taken away, e.g., Seminole
> Community
> College where Michael Hoover teaches), "post-tenure reviews," etc.
>
> Yoshie
>