More adjuncts being hired....
straydog
Its either this weeks or last weeks Business Week magazine. One page
article on B-schools. More of them, even big names like Stanford, are
hiring adjuct faculty. For one of them -- I can't remember which --
half the faculty were adjuncts. Two or three others, they were up to
one third of their faculty hired as adjuncts. In all cases revealed,
the fraction that were adjuncts was higher today than just a few years
ago.
Hail the era of the temporary professor. Maybe what will happen is
career half-lifes will become so short that new faculty will never
know what was discovered or produced a few years ago and will be
doing things they think are original, but are really just re-inventing
the wheel.
Art Sowers
http;//scijobs.freeshell.org
Russell Martin
The thing is that business schools can get adjuncts who don't really
need the jobs because, being business types, they ought to be able
to make good money in their day jobs. Other departments can get
adjuncts because, being physicists for instance, they are desperate
to make any money at all. Interesting...
Cheers,
Russell
--
All too often the study of data requires care.
The opinions expressed are mine personally and do not
reflect any position of the U.S. Government or NOAA.
straydog
<Russell...@noaa.gov> wrote:
>straydog wrote:
>>
>> Its either this weeks or last weeks Business Week magazine. One page
>> article on B-schools. More of them, even big names like Stanford, are
>> hiring adjuct faculty. For one of them -- I can't remember which --
>> half the faculty were adjuncts. Two or three others, they were up to
>> one third of their faculty hired as adjuncts. In all cases revealed,
>> the fraction that were adjuncts was higher today than just a few years
>> ago.
>>
>> Hail the era of the temporary professor. Maybe what will happen is
>> career half-lifes will become so short that new faculty will never
>> know what was discovered or produced a few years ago and will be
>> doing things they think are original, but are really just re-inventing
>> the wheel.
>>
>> Art Sowers
>> http;//scijobs.freeshell.org
>
>The thing is that business schools can get adjuncts who don't really
>need the jobs because, being business types, they ought to be able
>to make good money in their day jobs. Other departments can get
>adjuncts because, being physicists for instance, they are desperate
>to make any money at all. Interesting...
Reading the lines -- and reading between the lines -- of that article
the situation seemed to be something like this: the deans and chairs
know that some PhD dork applies for a job and has a boring
dissertaion (english translation: no possibility to develop into a
good fund-raising scheme) and thus gets offered a cheap adjunct
position (which the guy takes because the job market is crappy for
them, too [Lots of MBAs have trouble getting jobs, too]. The guys
who have some dissertation topic that can be expanded into
contracts, grants, shakedowns, etc., get the full time slots and
maybe enough money (start up salary) so they can get to the point
where they can develop outside funding (so that part of their salary
can come from the outside) while they do nominal or zero teaching.
And, thus, is formed the "first class faculty" (who probably does not
get old-fashioned 'good tenure') and the "second class faculty" (who
gets teaching, maybe no office or else a cubicle in a cubicle farm,
and little or no job security.
To some degree, the better biz faculty might not want to mess around
in a true do-or-die biz environment because the competitiveness you
need may not be as much under your control as in academia. Or...in
other words...if you're good as schmoozing with the chair-dean, why
take a chance in a real commercial environment (I won't use the word
'industrial' because it sounds so stable when its really not).
Art Sowers
rick++
where at least half of the faculty may be temps. I recall articles about temp
faculty trying to cobble together an income of teaching at several campuses
courses at $2K-$5K a pop with no benefits.
brandon_z
If video teaching is introduced (canned teaching), then you can get
the job done in 3rd world country with english speaking people.
Actually the Prof in the video need not be a real Prof at all - he can
be an actor just reading prompts from a scren. There are so many
exciting money saving concepts there.
rick++
The for-profit schools, whether the Edisons for elementary, or the Phoenixes
for college, are seeking to reduce the highly labor intensive components of
education. One way is to have a "star" professor lecture to hundreds of
thousands of students, supplemented by near minimum-wage teaching assistants
and computerized exercises and grading. You eliminate classroom space by
using the InterNet to deliver these. Many students prefer the flexibility
of InterNet delivery.
Detector195
I did this, and it worked quite well as a stopgap for one semester
when I was in between jobs (i.e. unemployed). What I did was apply for
teaching gigs at several departments at a large state university -- a
physicist should be able to teach anything, after all. I lined up two
jobs adding up to a 100% appointment. One course had a department-wide
syllabus and exams. For the other course, I borrowed a syllabus and
exams from an experienced prof. I was basically unsupervised, and the
workload was manageable. My tuesdays and thursdays were completely
free for networking and interviews.
Eventually, one of my office mates recommended me to a local company
where he was a former employee. He also connected me into the local
music scene, so I owe him for both of my jobs.
One thing that helps is going from one department to the next, just a
couple days before classes. Every university has a teacher shortage
here or there. In one department, there was a published opening, but
the chairman had procrastinated on filling it until too late. In the
other department, they had 200 more incoming freshmen than expected,
and needed warm bodies to teach the remedial service course. In that
department, I never even met my supervisor.
R. Martin
>
> ric...@hotmail.com (rick++) wrote in message news:<f7422d8e.04101...@posting.google.com>...
> > They are just imitating what has been long practiced at 2 and 4 year colleges
> > where at least half of the faculty may be temps. I recall articles about temp
> > faculty trying to cobble together an income of teaching at several campuses
> > courses at $2K-$5K a pop with no benefits.
>
> I did this, and it worked quite well as a stopgap for one semester
> when I was in between jobs (i.e. unemployed). What I did was apply for
> teaching gigs at several departments at a large state university -- a
> physicist should be able to teach anything, after all.
In my experience we tend to be weak in Baroque art history, though. :-)
> I lined up two
> jobs adding up to a 100% appointment. One course had a department-wide
> syllabus and exams. For the other course, I borrowed a syllabus and
> exams from an experienced prof. I was basically unsupervised, and the
> workload was manageable. My tuesdays and thursdays were completely
> free for networking and interviews.
>
> Eventually, one of my office mates recommended me to a local company
> where he was a former employee. He also connected me into the local
> music scene, so I owe him for both of my jobs.
>
> One thing that helps is going from one department to the next, just a
> couple days before classes. Every university has a teacher shortage
> here or there. In one department, there was a published opening, but
> the chairman had procrastinated on filling it until too late. In the
> other department, they had 200 more incoming freshmen than expected,
> and needed warm bodies to teach the remedial service course. In that
> department, I never even met my supervisor.
I'm glad that worked out for you, but as you say it was a stopgap.
Trying to make a career of it is a difficult thing from what I've read.
Smith Rhoade
"brandon_z" <brando...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:13741275.04101...@posting.google.com...
TV Broadcasts, videotapes, DVDs, could all be used to make the availablitity
of knowledge wide spread, to make teaching more efficient etc. PROVIDED,
and this is really important, that a real live Prof. is available for
answering questions, checking homework assignments, and somehow interacting
with groups of students.
Also, PROVIDED, that testing is done well.
There is however no substitute for personal interaction and free wheeling
discussion, especially where critical thinking and analysis is part of the
game. For example, I have had a tiny bit of experience with a teaching
method used in med schools called "problem based learning." That approach
could be used in math, chemistry, literature, theatre, astronomy, but is a
bit too labor intensive in the sense that you need a fairly sharp
"facilitator" working with a small group.
By and large, the schools (Colleges +) have not made good use of the
technology available to them.
In the early 1970s I was a post doc for a wonderful brilliant guy at Ohio
State. They taped his lectures, but somehow never really worked out a good
way to mass distribute them--though that is my casual view of what happened.
He also taught a small advanced graduate course that I joined in. These
study-discussions were magical and could never be matched through
technology.
In case any old Buckeye's want to know, it was Prof. John Briggs.
OldDahdStillLurkingOnceInAwhileWithMegaMungedHeaders
Detector195
> In my experience we tend to be weak in Baroque art history, though. :-)
True, and I was hired before I made it to the art history department.
However, we physicists are supposed to be able to figure things out as
we go. How hard can it be to teach Baroque art history?
> I'm glad that worked out for you, but as you say it was a stopgap.
> Trying to make a career of it is a difficult thing from what I've read.
Quite true. Those temp teaching gigs are not career-worthy, no matter
how you slice it. However, they can be useful if you do not have
college teaching aspirations, which I did not. Three scenarios spring
to mind:
1. You have followed your spouse to a new town, and need a job as a
stopgap. That was my situation.
2. You maintain a permanent 50% position, making enough money for the
rent plus health insurance, while you build up a business venture.
After a couple semesters, the workload is minimal. A friend of mine
did this.
3. A pretty good day job for a professional musician.
Rich Lemert
> "R. Martin" <russell...@wdn.com> wrote in message news:<4175BB...@wdn.com>...
>
>
>>In my experience we tend to be weak in Baroque art history, though. :-)
>
>
> True, and I was hired before I made it to the art history department.
> However, we physicists are supposed to be able to figure things out as
> we go. How hard can it be to teach Baroque art history?
Sounds like you have the same attitude as a lot of MBA grads. Several
years ago, a headhunter described how he'd been hired to find a
technical manager for a mid-sized chemical process plant. The ad
specified that candidates had to have so many years of technical
experience (along with a technical degree), but about 10% of the
applications they received failed to meet this requirement. The guy
said he was curious about why this was so, so he collected the
resumes of these people and did a little informal follow-up study.
He called them up and asked, point blank, why they had applied for
the position when they did not have the required background.
The almost universal answer?
"I'm an MBA. I can manage anything."
Rich Lemert
R. Martin
>
> "R. Martin" <russell...@wdn.com> wrote in message news:<4175BB...@wdn.com>...
>
> > In my experience we tend to be weak in Baroque art history, though. :-)
>
> True, and I was hired before I made it to the art history department.
> However, we physicists are supposed to be able to figure things out as
> we go. How hard can it be to teach Baroque art history?
>
> > I'm glad that worked out for you, but as you say it was a stopgap.
> > Trying to make a career of it is a difficult thing from what I've read.
>
> Quite true. Those temp teaching gigs are not career-worthy, no matter
> how you slice it. However, they can be useful if you do not have
> college teaching aspirations, which I did not. Three scenarios spring
> to mind:
>
> 1. You have followed your spouse to a new town, and need a job as a
> stopgap. That was my situation.
Looks like I'm heading there myself.
> 2. You maintain a permanent 50% position, making enough money for the
> rent plus health insurance, while you build up a business venture.
> After a couple semesters, the workload is minimal. A friend of mine
> did this.
>
> 3. A pretty good day job for a professional musician.
Cheers,
rick++
from the 1940s to 1960s. They are amusing for the overt propaganda embedded
in them. I suspect today's canned educational media will appear similarly
amusing a few decades from now.
Perhaps the lower overhead films and videos killed them off. But they've
sort of ressurected in powerpoint. Filmstrips were easier to manage than
slidesets. The latter got lost, out of order, jammed etc.
Detector195
I do have the same attitude, but I only think it works when you are
doing face-to-face networking. When someone gives specific
requirements in a job posting, then it's reasonable to expect that
they really have specific requirements.
When you meet someone and talk to them in a friendly conversation,
then they have half a chance of listening to your side of the story,
plus there is less of a fear factor. I have no problem saying: "Sounds
like you people really need a physicist, and here's why."
Frank Iannarilli
My god, an *actor*, *reading*? How much better this would be over
most lecturers :-)
Russell Martin
Ever see any of the Standard Deviants instructional videos?
Quite entertaining, IMO.
Rolands Aravindan
> Frank Iannarilli wrote:
> >
> > brando...@yahoo.com (brandon_z) wrote in message news:<13741275.04101...@posting.google.com>...
> > > I am wondering if Professors can also be outsourced?
> > >
> > > If video teaching is introduced (canned teaching), then you can get
> > > the job done in 3rd world country with english speaking people.
> > > Actually the Prof in the video need not be a real Prof at all - he can
> > > be an actor just reading prompts from a scren. There are so many
> > > exciting money saving concepts there.
> >
> > My god, an *actor*, *reading*? How much better this would be over
> > most lecturers :-)
>
> Ever see any of the Standard Deviants instructional videos?
> Quite entertaining, IMO.
>
> Cheers,
> Russell
Hehe, interesting concept. I don't think it would do much good towards
real education which requires some kind of innovation in getting a
point across or motivating students in a particular direction; each
student would perceive such personal interaction differently from each
other thus ultimately fostering a variety of view points rather than
developing a run-of-the-mill kind of intellectual personality.
Well, who knows...
Cheers.
Rolands Aravindan
ara...@NOSPAMcharter.net
(Remove "NOSPAM" to reply)
straydog
>> If video teaching is introduced (canned teaching), then you can get
>> the job done in 3rd world country with english speaking people.
>> Actually the Prof in the video need not be a real Prof at all - he can
>> be an actor just reading prompts from a scren. There are so many
>> exciting money saving concepts there.
>
>I dont think so. You want impeccible American English to maximize the number
>of sales. The significant paying market would be in America and Europe.
>The other markets would pay less or pirate.
It might be much easier than you think. Ever hear of the movie Shrek?
Shrek 2, etc. The images were all synthesized. Some of the voices were
of well known people, but I'll bet they didn't get anywhere near the
usual movie star salary. Ever hear the synthetic voices on the VHF
national weather service? All mechanical. Instructional videos? They
are all over the place. Record once, make zillions of copies.
Its going to be the next thing
brandon_z
> > > > I am wondering if Professors can also be outsourced?
> > > >
> > > > If video teaching is introduced (canned teaching), then you can get
> > > > the job done in 3rd world country with english speaking people.
> > > > Actually the Prof in the video need not be a real Prof at all - he can
> > > > be an actor just reading prompts from a scren. There are so many
> > > > exciting money saving concepts there.
>
>
> Hehe, interesting concept.
Hehe..it gets even better. These actors can look very distinguished
(with sideburns etc), or look like the typical absent minded untidy
professor, or even have made to look like Einstein.
The potential is endless.
brandon_z
Yes...you have correctly appreciated the idea.
Also the fake Professors can come in a variety of appealing
costumes..the_distinguished_old_professor, or the
forgetful_shabby_professoer etc etc.