Resources and Recommendations from the Modern Language Association
MLA Academic Workforce Advocacy Kit
http://www.mla.org/advocacy_kit
- MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce: One Faculty Serving All Students
http://www.mla.org/awak_issue_brief_pdf - MLA Recommendation on Minimum Per-Course Compensation for Part-Time Faculty Members
http://www.mla.org/mla_recommendation_course
MLA Academic Workforce Data Center (soon to be updated with information for 2011)
http://www.mla.org/acad_work_search
Professional Employment Practices for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members:
Recommendations and Evaluative Questions
http://www.mla.org/clip_stmt_final_may1
A Portrait of Part-Time Faculty Members
http://www.academicworkforce.org/survey.html
- Survey Questionnaire
http://www.academicworkforce.org/CAW_Survey_Questions.pdf
The CHE Adjunct Project
http://adjunct.chronicle.com/
We need to stop and assess why required lit courses are being cut from American university curriculum; we need to lobby to prevent more cuts and work to reinstate those that have been cut. Can anyone else see we are in the worst crisis ever in our short history as a discipline, beyond discussions of keeping tenure or whatever else. We’re dying, like the environment; until we realistically assess our current 1% tenured and full-time employed in a posh 2/2 position vs. the other 99% scrambling for crumbs in “contingent” uncertainty, until we radically stabilize this dichotomy, anything we say about tolerance, diversity, literacy, education or anything else cannot be taken seriously as we clearly fail to practice anything we might preach. Aren’t we in as dire straights as our environment? I think so. Tenure? Matters not? Realistic doctoral education? Matters not? Non-academic jobs for PhD’s like chocolate or vanilla frosting, matters not? Nothing we work so hard to do or say matters until we come together to fix our issues and fight for our courses as literacy, customer service skills and basic humanity, all but gone with our sophomore surveys