[Alumni-chat] "Earning" opportunities

ilse moon ilse1 at comcast.net
Wed Jun 27 14:43:34 EDT 2007 

Perhaps someone posted this information and I missed it among the hundreds 
of messages.  Which staff (not names necessarily, but positions) lost their 
jobs?  On what basis?  Didn't they belong to the union?  If so, why didn't 
that help?
Ilse Moon '53

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Warren" <warren at antioch-college.edu>
To: "Alumni Chat List" <alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu>
Cc: "Alumni Chat List" <alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Alumni-chat] "Earning" opportunities


> Yes, Christine.  I agree with Callie:  thank you!
>
> Scott
>
> Alumni Chat List <alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu> on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at
> 6:25 PM  wrote:
>
>
>>First, one of the protections our staff has is that they are unionized,
>>something we cannot do.  Mty father was a steelworker and he had more
>>protection than I did/do because he had a union to back him up.  Second, a
>>number of faculty here and at many schools do not have PhDs, depending on
>>the requirements and demands of their disciplines.
>>
>>I would certainly never claim that my job is more important than others.
>>I simply think it is important.   Hell, if you ask my family, they think
>>that since I don't do physical labor I don't really do anything important.
>>
>>
>>The bigger issue here is that retention of a tenure system is one of the
>>major demands (if not THE major demand) of faculty at Antioch College.
>>You can choose to think we are a bunch of lazy privileged do-nothings who
>>think we are better than everyone else, that's your choice (if you do
>>think that, I don't know).  But if you are supporting Antioch and keeping
>>it open,I would think that means supporting the faculty.  The faculty feel
>>that it would not be Antioch College without tenure.  It would be Antioch
>>University, with fearful faculty who can lose their jobs at will.  Right
>>now we know what that feels like.
>>
>>I think it is fucking amazing that I am even having this conversation.  We
>>are all losing our jobs, and I have to justify my right to have some
>>semblance of job security, and get accused of being privileged and wanting
>>a free pass to sit around and eat bonbons or something.  I watched my
>>colleagues bust their asses to exhaustion trying to implement a curriculum
>>that most didn't not want and few voted on, with the hopes it would save
>>the college they love.  Today I watched 20 people lose their jobs, and see
>>the panic on the faces of my colleagues who don't know how long they have,
>>even after devoting 30+ years of their life to this institution.  I don't
>>need this and I am not going to continue with this conversation.
>>
>>christine
>>
>>
>>>So Academic freedom and tenure is only worthy of those with PhDs?  I find
>>>it ironic that so many people demanding community government can also
>>>argue for an apartheid based system of job security.
>>>
>>>  As someone that is tenure-track, I recognize (and freely admit) that
>>>tenure is nothing more than a free-pass to do
>>>
>>>  Is being a professor more noble and/or important than serving as an
>>>administrative assistant?  Food worker?
>>>
>>>  Do people arguing for tenure actually feel that they contribute more to
>>>society than others who did not have the opportunity to pursue advanced
>>>studies in their specific field of interest?
>>>
>>>  Why should the administrative assistants and physical plant workers
>>>have the same protections that tenured PhDs have?  I believe all workers
>>>should have the same protections.
>>>
>>>  What's next?  Requiring people to have "earned" the ability to own
>>>property before they can vote?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Peter Bradley <pbradley at mcdaniel.edu> wrote:
>>>  At the risk of continuing a discussion that is probably a red herring
>>>anyway...
>>>This is all true, but there is another reason that is often overlooked.
>>>Tenure-track faculty are not just responsible for teaching, advising and
>>>mentoring students - they are responsible for the curriculum as well (at
>>>least, they are supposed to be). Non-tenure track faculty teach the
>>>classes they are given. Tenure-track faculty create new classes,
>>>programs, etc. They are entrusted to know what skills and content is
>>>required for a student to be considered a representative of that college
>>>in their future endeavors. Without tenure, the curriculum would be in
>>>the hands of the administration, and the faculty would be forced to
>>>teach the courses and programs that brought in the most money.
>>>Innovative programs like gender studies and queer studies, and even my
>>>own discipline - philosophy - would be axed as not efficient. It is not
>>>a surprise that the colleges without tenure are also primarily
>>>professional programs or polytechniques - those are programs in which
>>>the curriculum can be set by the administration without faculty input.
>>>Peter Bradley '96
>>>McDaniel College
>>>
>>>Mark David Higbee wrote:
>>>> Michael posed a question, a good one, asking why faculty members should
>>>be able to have
>>>> Tenure, when
>>>> virtually no other category of employee in our society has such job
>>>security.
>>>>
>>>> The reason is simple, but often overlooked. Without tenure, there is no
>>>possibility of
>>>> academic freedom. Any
>>>> faculty member could be fired by management for refusing to teach
>>>objectionable ideas (say,
>>>> that the earth was
>>>> created in 6 days) that some administrator favors, or for persisting in
>>>research projects that
>>>> are unpopular with,
>>>> say, the major funders of a university. Tobacco money has been known to
>>>dictate the
>>>> conclusions of research,
>>>> and recently there was a case over lumber industry money allegedly
>>>being used for the same
>>>> purposes; without
>>>> academic freedom, scholars would have essentially no possibility of
>>>resisting orders to
>>>> manufacture
>>>> conclusions that suit the paymasters of a university.
>>>>
>>>> These threats are not as hypothetical and distant as one may imagine.
>>>The protections
>>>> against such threats
>>>> provided by are the bulwark of academic freedom in the United States.
>>>The practice of
>>>> tenure goes back only to
>>>> about World War I. Antioch College, under Pres. McGregor in the 1950s,
>>>fired faculty
>>>> members for their
>>>> political beliefs, which shows that even tenure is less of a protection
>>>than it is sometimes
>>>> imagined to be.
>>>>
>>>> A secondary but still important justification for tenure is that
>>>professors' salaries, relative to
>>>> that of other
>>>> professions requiring comparable levels of education and expertise
>>>developed over years and
>>>> years, are very
>>>> low. This is not a complaint, just a fact. Without some reasonable
>>>assurance that faculty
>>>> members who are
>>>> successful, who meet the standards of their profession and thus "earn
>>>tenure" - which is not
>>>> automatic and is
>>>> denied in many instances - it is unlikely that talented people would
>>>devote themselves to
>>>> pursuing lots of
>>>> education that will result in poorly paid jobs (relative not to
>>>janitors, but say doctors and
>>>> accountants) that have
>>>> little or no job security.
>>>>
>>>> And, back to academic freedom - this includes the duty of faculty to
>>>speak up professionally
>>>> to advocate for the
>>>> best interests of their students and colleges, without undue fear of
>>>retaliation.
>>>>
>>>> An Antioch College without a tenure track faculty? That would mean a
>>>corporate university
>>>> modeled on the
>>>> University of Phoenix, IMHO.
>>>>
>>>> --Mark Higbee, Antioch 1983
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: alumni-chat-request at w3.antioch.edu
>>>> Date: Monday, June 25, 2007 9:13 pm
>>>> Subject: Alumni-chat Digest, Vol 4, Issue 89
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> Today's Topics:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. The 501(c)3 thing (Hope Anne Nathan)
>>>>> 2. Re: The numbers don't add up (Christine Smith)
>>>>> 3. Forty million? (Rowan Kaiser)
>>>>> 4. Re: Forty million? (Matthew Arnold)
>>>>> 5. New Alumni Board? (Thaddeus Russell)
>>>>> 6. Re: Forty million? (Matthew Arnold)
>>>>> 7. Re: The numbers don't add up (Laura F.)
>>>>> 8. Re: Faculty Tenure (Stephanie Scott)
>>>>> 9. Re: The numbers don't add up (Patrick Cates)
>>>>> 10. Re: Faculty Tenure (Christine Smith)
>>>>> 11. Re: 501 c3 status and sponsorship information
>>>>> (Sistersara at aol.com)
>>>>> 12. Re: Re: [Alumni-chat] Faculty Tenure (Peter Bradley)
>>>>> 13. Re: 501 c3 status and sponsorship information (Sistersara at aol.com)
>>>>> 14. Re: The numbers don't add up (Robert Devine)
>>>>> 15. AIF (Robert Abrams)
>>>>> 16. Tenure = Haves, Non privledged People = Non Tenure
>>>>> (TheBangaloreBlue)
>>>>> 17. RE: 501 c3 status and sponsorship information (Thelma Seto)
>>>>> 18. RE: Tenure = Haves, Non privledged People = Non Tenure
>>>>> (Michael Olenick)
>>>>> 19. RE: The Land? (Thelma Seto)
>>>>> 20. Re: The numbers don't add up (Robert Devine)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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