[Xmca-l] Re: ZeroHours professor dies in poverty

[info@arto.me]

I disagree.  It is most definitely a question of exploiter vs. exploited.

But, aside from that position, I fail to see the connection of college
workers being outraged in this particular instance, with the accusation
that college workers don't make enough eye contact with homeless people.

But what is true, in my experience, is the failure of many so-called
"full-time" professors, from caring about the plight of our adjunct
colleagues.  That's the most depressing part of this sad story.

Arto Aritnian
BMCC - CUNY

On 09/21/2013 06:08 PM, Jenna McWilliams wrote:
> Julian, Surely we know by now that it's nearly never a simple
> question of exploiter vs. exploited. Oppressions intersect, and it's
> disappointing that my response would be read as opposition to
> unionization. My frustration is with academic colleagues who avoid
> making eye contact with the homeless people in their college towns
> but react with loquacious rage when what they believe to be a
> safeguard against poverty--education, and lots of it!--doesn't keep
> the wolves at bay. I've heard faculty members at my local university
> rage about how "the bums are ruining our downtown culture"; I've
> heard those same faculty rage about the death of an adjunct.
> 
> I worked as an adjunct instructor in Massachusetts back in the middle
> years of the last decade. When Massachusetts passed its law mandating
> health insurance for all, I cheered with everybody else, then turned
> around and gave notice to my institutions that I would be resigning
> at the end of the semester. My adjunct gigs didn't qualify me for
> insurance, and I couldn't afford to pay for it on my adjunct salary.
> Certainly I'm in favor of unionization of adjuncts. I'm also in favor
> of academics caring about social issues, even when those issues don't
> hit uncomfortably close to home.
> 
> 
> Wishing peace, joy, and hope for all.
> 
> 
> Jenna McWilliams Cultural-Historical Research SIG Communications
> Chair Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University
> 
> ~ jenmcwil@indiana.edu jennamcjenna@gmail.com
> 
> 
> 
> On Sep 21, 2013, at 5:52 PM, Julian Williams wrote:
> 
>> Jenna
>> 
>> I find your reaction depressing: so are you for the unionisation of
>> 'adjuncts' or not? Do you see the sympathies of these outraged
>> middle class (presumably contemptible) colleagues progressive
>> (whether self interested and middle class or not) and potentially
>> transformative or not? Do we require colleagues to hold perfect
>> moral positions on all questions before we welcome them to the
>> cause of unionisation? (if it had been so, we would never have had
>> unions - they are of course essentially bourgeois institutions).
>> 
>> I read the two positions posted and I don't see how the truth can
>> be somewhere 'between' the two.. On the contrary They both tell the
>> same story. The university says there were many kindnesses shown by
>> its staff (im sure there were) and the case is being used for
>> ulterior purposes (i certainly hope it is) ... but the unionist
>> said only that she should have had some minimal rights (I'm
>> guessing health and pension support) and the adjuncts need to
>> unionise to fight for such rights and against exploitation,
>> (right?).
>> 
>> I just don't see how there is a truth somewhere in the middle here:
>> it seems so simple. Based on the two links, but maybe you know
>> something different.
>> 
>> Which side of this fight are we on, exploiters or exploited..
>> Surely it's that basic.
>> 
>> Julian
>> 
>> 
>> Ps I just love the idea i could join a steelworkers union...
>> Unfortunately we don't have any of those left here - they we're all
>> more or less closed down some time ago.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 21 Sep 2013, at 14:48, "Jenna McWilliams"
>> <jennamcjenna@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> I've seen this article make the rounds through Facebook and
>>> Twitter this week. My academic friends are particularly
>>> outraged...as if "this" (poverty, homelessness, death by poverty)
>>> shouldn't happen to "us" (academics rooted firmly in the middle
>>> class).
>>> 
>>> I imagine the truth of this story, if a truth can be located, is
>>> somewhere between the two stories that Bruce and Martin sent out.
>>> I also think it takes a particular kind of hubris to get up in
>>> arms about poverty only (especially) when it hits "one of our
>>> own." Where is the general outrage about poverty, homelessness,
>>> and death by poverty when it attacks the people it more typically
>>> attacks--the ones who we assume to be different from "us" in ways
>>> that keep "us" safe from "their" fate?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Jenna McWilliams Cultural-Historical Research SIG Communications
>>> Chair Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University
>>> 
>>> ~ jenmcwil@indiana.edu jennamcjenna@gmail.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sep 21, 2013, at 9:21 AM, Martin John Packer wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Bruce,
>>>> 
>>>> I don't know this case personally, and I do think that adjuncts
>>>> are treated poorly, but the university has responded to some of
>>>> the specific claims made in the article you linked to.
>>>> 
>>>> <http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/duquesne-disputes-claims-over-death-of-adjunct-professor-704143/>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 
Martin
>>>> 
>>>> On Sep 21, 2013, at 4:58 AM, Bruce Robinson <bruce@brucerob.eu>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Union Solidarity Int (@USILive) tweeted at 2:18pm - 19 Sep
>>>>> 13:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Death of an adjunct post-gazette.com/stories/opinio… <
>>>>> powerful story via @DrDonnaYates: #ZeroHours professor dies
>>>>> in poverty @MahmoonaShah
>>>>> (https://twitter.com/USILive/status/381355561293332482)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Alternative link:
>>>>> https://t.co/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FXIw32rqlcy&sig=19807c98edb2246f68730727d01a897b7b95fadc&uid=90759395&iid=80557aab-cde7-4aeb-a08d-c78c45dad949&nid=12+300+20130919&t=1
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 
Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> -- Sent from Kaiten Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>