If you’re trying to get the book from an online bookseller and seeing an estimated delivery of 1 week, it’s because the first printing of HTUW has sold out. The second printing was due in warehouses April 4, and should be shipping shortly. (The best price–$15.84 to $17.60–is at Barnes and Noble. Ordering directly from NYU Press may result in the fastest shipping, at least until the big discounters have completed the restocking process. And it’s always okay to order through your local independent bookstore!)
In the meanwhile, you can print and read the 50-page introduction as well as chapter 4 which discusses “extreme work-study,” or the startling emergence of “financial aid” as a vector for hyper-exploitation of undergraduates by corporate-university partnerships.
Chapter 4 was written to be read by a general audience and can be assigned in undergraduate classes of all disciplines. The average age of an undergraduate is now 26. Currently 80% of undergraduates work an average of 30 hours a week to fund educations commonly lasting 6 years or more: ask them to write about their experiences. You’ll be shocked at what they endure.
I am extremely grateful for the outpouring of reviews, sharing of stories, invitations to speak, and the expressions of solidarity, here and at the Valve, on Brainstorm and in private email. If you are a faculty member serving contingently, let me urge you to acquaint yourself with the resources at Joe Berry’s Chicago COCAL page, and to think about attending COCAL 8 in San Diego (August 8-10, 2008).
This month, I’ll be making a series of book-related appearances. Hope to see you there!
Special thanks for reviews or generous mentions by Bill Pannapacker in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Global Sociologist, Gregory Zobel of Adjunct Advice, Emily Hegarty of Open Admissions, Chuck Tryon, Leslie Madsen Brooks of Blogher.com, Miriam Burstein of The Little Professor, Scott Jaschik and Scott McLemee (recently elected to the National Book Critics Circle–yay, Scott) at Inside Higher Ed, Sound & Fury, Purse Lips Square Jaw, Jan Clausen (”coerce u.”) at ablationsite.org, Gerry Canavan, Professor Zero, Subaltered, Historiann, Dave Mazella of Long Eighteenth, Lila Harper at FACEtalk, the Citizen of Somewhere Else, and Gifthub.org.
Recently:
- Happy Fourth?
- Poverty In Higher Ed
- What I’m Reading Now
- Meet the Trustees, Part 1: Trustees Behind Bars
- They’ll Be Watching You
- Maybe He Can’t
- Academic Labor Bookshelf
- Job Listing #666
- Psst! Forward this Link to Grad Students
- Don’t Miss COCAL VIII
Comments
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 9:11 am and is filed under coming attractions, getting the book, this blogging life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I’m glad you added that section above on Chapter 4. Many students are so tired from their “real world” jobs that they resent the homework assigned to them in serious courses, comparing them disfavorably to the “guts” (or whatever term is now in vogue — is it “cake” courses?).
Another thing that the working student has difficulty with is the fact that the scheduling of courses at colleges and universities is designed to satisfy the faculty’s desires (well, the tenured faculty members’ teaching schedules are, at least), and not around the needs of the working student.
And, last but not least (while I’m on a roll about the tenured faculty), how about their use of undergraduates as un/paid (i.e., both situations occur) teaching assistants, even grading the work of other students, sometimes for academic credit! — esp. in large lecture classes?
Used to be one had to hold the degree for which one was grading/teaching to be considered professional and ethical. Not any more.
Just think how well this dovetails with the general trend in grade inflation. Can you imagine a parent coming in to complain that a student gave his/her child a failing grade, or even a C?
Yup. That’s how those “impacted majors” stay impacted and — as the Pew-funded AIR report on college literacy documents so well — Jonnie still can’t read.
Addendum to above comment:
Students work to pay taxes and/or tuition to fund courses in which they grade themselves, or have other students grade them (especially in first and second year-level courses).
This is even more exploitative than the usual adjunct/contingent labor situation at the same levels.
Once I actually tried to get Middle States to confront the issue. The Associate Director (or some other high-level individual) told me on the phone that, indeed, that would not be acceptable for accreditation.
When I asked for that in writing, I got back a letter saying, oh, how sorry she was, she was incorrect, there was no policy on that, etc.
College/university presidents don’t head up accreditation teams for nothing. There may be no honoraria attached, but believe me, it _pays_!
P.S. I’m sending this along to you now, before your posting tomorrow on “Extreme Work-Study”, because I don’t recall seeing anything on the undergraduate TA phenomenon in your book chapter. (Of course, my memory isn’t what it used to be.)
Also, I hope you will include this in your discussions at the MN conference and report back in your column(s) as to how widespread the participants feel the phenomenon has become.
Many colleges and universities have “contracted in” their student advisement to “peer counselors”, as well. (Those few remaining tenured faculty are so over-worked with “service” now that there are all those adjuncts replacing tenure-track positions, that they had to do something to lighten their “load”, don’t you see? Uh-huh.)
Thus, students not only work to pay to teach themselves and grade themselves, they are also working at the university to counsel themselves on their curricula and careers!
AHA-Erlebnis
Although my posting on this thread/site is, literally, a _thankless_ endeavor (HTUW, _Animal Farm_: some commentators are more equal than other commentators):
Colleagues in SUNY have informed me that Stony Brook has suspended the jobs of over 400 adjuncts, cancelling hundreds of fall courses (registration has just begun, apparently) and instructing the full-time faculty to take up the slack in important courses.
Budget woes. So what if some students don’t graduate on time because of this, right?
Of course, adding one course to a two-course per semester teaching load only brings the teaching load up to three-fourths that of a full-time college professor in SUNY.
And apparently, since research responsibilities are self-directed (for college and university faculty), this won’t even be considered a formal increase in workload for collective bargaining purposes.
This is only the beginning of chickens coming home to roost from the adjunctification of the university….
Guess I’ll post this at some point at a Brainstorm thread — on tenure, for example.
AHA-Erlebnis
Well, let’s just say that we all look forward to hearing back from you after the MN conference — on _these_ and other related issues.
AHA-Erlebnis