Sunday, August 03, 2008

Academic Freedom Comes with Higher Pay

Academic freedom is one of the biggest reasons given for fighting to maintain and protect tenure.  Hey, I am with you there.  But, before I can be free, I need to eat and have decent health care.  So, while academic freedom concerns me, parity in pay and benefits is more important.

I am sure that some adjuncts—maybe even a majority—want to preserve their academic freedom and protect their work.  Near as I can tell, the universities largely devalue and dismiss our work.  Why?  Because if they actually valued our intellectual contributions, we would be paid more.  And if we were paid more, then we would accrue more social standing, power, and respect.  Unfortunately, pay scale equals respect in this culture (this is true in the academy as well in spite of cries of denial), and if you make more money, you have greater value.  If you have greater value, as determined by pay scale, it makes it harder for a university to come after you.  Oh yes, they can still come after highly paid and/or tenured folks if they are motivated.  However, it is far easier to dismiss a low-paid adjunct than a high paid tenure tracker.

Parity in pay means an increase in respect from colleagues and the institution.  This respect means being heard, and it means greater protection from …

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