Well, except for the budget. Mine seem to be filling with no problem (as I knew they would, since I'm teaching a required class -- resented by many students, which doesn't make it fun to teach, or do much for my evaluation numbers, but it fills).
Well that's a shitty system. May it fill to overflowing (to account for those who will drop once they realize that summer classes, contrary to rumor, involve actual work).
We're still getting very robust enrollments in the required course I teach, which seems like good news employment-wise for contingent faculty, and gives my tenure-track colleagues a good fallback when courses in the major don't fill, except that if the demand exceeds the supply of teachers by too much (which has happened occasionally lately), the university starts pressuring the department to raise course caps, and find more "efficient" ways of teaching the course, etc., etc. There's a delicate balance.
And yes, burnout is pretty high around our parts, too. Not as bad as yours, I'm pretty sure, since the political context for higher ed isn't quite as crazy. But salaries are pretty much stagnant, and the cost of living is high, and service pressure on tenured faculty is high, and publication pressure on pre-tenure faculty is very high, and contingent faculty are really tired of teaching 4/4 (at best) with rising assessment/course cap/general justification of what we do pressures and too little money.
And it doesn't really look like any of the above are likely to get better any time soon, does it?
And amen. And our state just approved doubling our deductibles and out of pocket expenses (now $500 and $2000 for a family). So we are all taking yet another pay cut. I am not sure how much longer I can keep doing this.
Well, except for the budget. Mine seem to be filling with no problem (as I knew they would, since I'm teaching a required class -- resented by many students, which doesn't make it fun to teach, or do much for my evaluation numbers, but it fills).
ReplyDeleteI am praying that I get enough in mine to get my full salary. Otherwise I teach at a pro-rated salary based on the number of breathers in the roster.
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't need the money to feed my kids, I wouldn't do it. My burnout level is the highest it's ever been.
Well that's a shitty system. May it fill to overflowing (to account for those who will drop once they realize that summer classes, contrary to rumor, involve actual work).
DeleteWe're still getting very robust enrollments in the required course I teach, which seems like good news employment-wise for contingent faculty, and gives my tenure-track colleagues a good fallback when courses in the major don't fill, except that if the demand exceeds the supply of teachers by too much (which has happened occasionally lately), the university starts pressuring the department to raise course caps, and find more "efficient" ways of teaching the course, etc., etc. There's a delicate balance.
And yes, burnout is pretty high around our parts, too. Not as bad as yours, I'm pretty sure, since the political context for higher ed isn't quite as crazy. But salaries are pretty much stagnant, and the cost of living is high, and service pressure on tenured faculty is high, and publication pressure on pre-tenure faculty is very high, and contingent faculty are really tired of teaching 4/4 (at best) with rising assessment/course cap/general justification of what we do pressures and too little money.
And it doesn't really look like any of the above are likely to get better any time soon, does it?
Nope.
DeleteAnd amen. And our state just approved doubling our deductibles and out of pocket expenses (now $500 and $2000 for a family). So we are all taking yet another pay cut. I am not sure how much longer I can keep doing this.