Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Statement
Recently, Dean Wayne Vaught of the
College of Arts and Sciences was interviewed by the school’s
newspaper, in which it was stated that in order to save on costs,
full-time faculty would be replaced as they retired with adjuncts.
The Dean claimed he was misquoted, and that adjuncts were a
short-term fix for a temporary problem. He added, in a meeting with
students on April 24th, that adjuncts provided specialized
knowledge and bring a lot to the university.
Adjuncts are instructors who are
part-time workers. Salaries are typically between $2000 and $3000 per
class, they receive no office space, teach anywhere from four to six
classes a semester at multiple universities, have very little time to
meet with students, and at the end of the day rely on food stamps and
other forms of public assistance to make ends meet. It is hard to
picture this move as anything other than sacrificing education in the
name of reducing costs.
At the University of Missouri-Kansas
City, administrative salaries have been on the rise while faculty and
GTA salaries remain stagnant. The provost has said that this is to
benchmark salaries to the market so that these people do not leave.
But what about the professors who make well below market-value, yet
continue to show up to teach their students? Are they unimportant to
the administration?
In the meantime, class sizes continue
to grow. UMKC is pushing for a 14-1 student-faculty ratio, but anyone
who has taken classes in Philosophy, Ethics, Psychology, and more can
attest to the fact that this ratio is a bold-faced lie. MA classes in
Economics, for example, have over 50 students. Is this what UMKC
means when they advertise small classes?
The purpose of higher learning in
America and the rest of the world is to foster young minds and give
them guidance as they make their way through life; it is designed to
give those who may have had trouble in their youth a second chance;
it is focused on giving all who enter its doors an education – on
teaching them the tools and skills they will need for success. It
requires, most importantly, those who wish to learn, a nurturing
faculty who care about teaching, and the resources so that knowledge
may be passed from teacher to student.
The threat to higher learning is an
administration that does not recognize these goals – an
administration who sees students not as people wishing to learn, but as
walking dollar signs. It is because of them that faculty remain
underpaid, that students are forced into classes with hundreds of
other people, and that cuts are continually made to college and
university budgets. Business values are the bane of higher education;
they create perverse incentives in which administrators are paid not
based on the quality of education they help provide, but on the quantity
of dollars they bring in. When business values dominate higher
learning, it is the students who ultimately suffer.
If you are in favor of small classes,
professors who have the ability and resources to best teach, and
better education in general, you are not alone! Together, we CAN, and
we WILL be heard! We are UMKC Students For Education!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)