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jaberi
join:2010-08-13

jaberi

Member

Most university undergrads now taught by poorly paid part timers

Kimberley Ellis Hale has been an instructor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., for 16 years. This summer, while teaching an introductory course in sociology, she presented her students with a role-playing game to help them understand how precarious economic security is for millions of Canadian workers.

»www.cbc.ca/news/canada/m ··· .2756024
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universities are just puppy mills, sweat shops without hope...... the board of governors etc etc have no pride........many are presidents of the big banks.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Exact same thing happening in the US.

College students taught by poorly paid part-time faculty, who usually don't even have offices on campus, and who have no job security and certainly no academic freedom.

Meanwhile those same students are being charged obscene tuition....
DSA
join:2013-04-27
Brantford, ON

DSA to jaberi

Member

to jaberi
This is a reply I got tonight regarding a laptop I have for sale on Kijiji, all I could do was shake my head.

Hello, im trying to get a new laptop cause mine is super slow and not fast enough to do anything so i was just wondering if this laptop had the following: CPU: intel core 2 Quad 2,4GHz, AMD Phenom X3 2,1 GHz RAM: 2,5 GB windows XP 2,5 GB windows Vista VGA: 512 MB NVIDIA 8600/ 512 MB ATI 3870 OS: windows vista- service pack 1/ XP- service pack 3 HDD: 18GB+ sound: direct X compatible ODD: DVD-ROM if this laptop has the following i was wondering if you would trade it for my ibm thinkpad because im a grade 12 student with no job so unfortunately i have no money to buy

DKS
Damn Kidney Stones

join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON

DKS to jaberi

to jaberi
This is always as it was. TA's were always the low end of the university totem pole. Some rose to prominence and others did not. I see one of my TA's from by BA days at U of T in the early 70's is now a legal scholar of global reputation and has been awarded the Order of Canada.
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

1 recommendation

mr weather

Premium Member

These aren't TA's. These are sessional instructors, full-blown PhD holders with little hope of securing any professorship. Universities like them because they work cheap and are easily disposable.

cc4v
@69.165.165.x

cc4v to DKS

Anon

to DKS
said by DKS:

This is always as it was. TA's were always the low end of the university totem pole. Some rose to prominence and others did not. I see one of my TA's from by BA days at U of T in the early 70's is now a legal scholar of global reputation and has been awarded the Order of Canada.

exactly; it is really not all that different than an apprenticeship in a trade…
jobr
join:2004-10-21
Halifax, NS

1 recommendation

jobr to DKS

Member

to DKS
It's worse now than it used to be. One reason is that the share of the university budgets going towards administration has risen dramatically in the last few decades. And why would the upper administration pay for a $80,000/year assistant professor when they can have the courses taught by a $25,000/year sessional lecturer? It's all the same to them.

ground
join:2008-01-16
Toronto, ON

ground to jaberi

Member

to jaberi
said by jaberi:

universities are just puppy mills, sweat shops without hope......

Any job is like that now, welcome to the new world.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1 to mr weather

Premium Member

to mr weather
said by mr weather:

These aren't TA's. These are sessional instructors, full-blown PhD holders with little hope of securing any professorship. Universities like them because they work cheap and are easily disposable.

Exactly.

At least down here they are often called "adjunct faculty" which used to be a dignified title but now usually means "temp worker".

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I don't know if this is the case in Canada or not, but down here in addition to student tuition going to pay obscene CEO-type salaries for university presidents, huge amounts of money are spent on sports/athletics.

My state university, Rutgers, has sold its soul to pursue big-time football.

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron to jobr

Premium Member

to jobr
said by jobr:

And why would the upper administration pay for a $80,000/year assistant professor when they can have the courses taught by a $25,000/year sessional lecturer? It's all the same to them.

Universities are publicly funded institutions, this is one place where the government can make them do whatever it pleases in order to continue receiving funding.

I'm not saying they [the gov't] will, but this is one area where they clearly have the purview to do so.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

said by El Quintron:

said by jobr:

And why would the upper administration pay for a $80,000/year assistant professor when they can have the courses taught by a $25,000/year sessional lecturer? It's all the same to them.

Universities are publicly funded institutions, this is one place where the government can make them do whatever it pleases in order to continue receiving funding.

I'm not saying they [the gov't] will, but this is one area where they clearly have the purview to do so.

The problem is that the right of centre here, constantly demand tax cuts , and like I always say there is a price to pay for those cuts, this is just another one of them.

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron

Premium Member

said by elwoodblues:

I always say there is a price to pay for those cuts, this is just another one of them.

I'm fine with salary cuts, as long as they're at the top. A university would be a great place for executive salary caps and some type of "top exec can only make "x" times the salary of the lowest paid employee" system, seeing as they are usually both publicly funded and not-for-profit.

dirtyjeffer0
Posers don't use avatars.
Premium Member
join:2002-02-21
London, ON

dirtyjeffer0 to elwoodblues

Premium Member

to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:

The problem is that the right of centre here, constantly demand tax cuts , and like I always say there is a price to pay for those cuts, this is just another one of them.

you keep saying that, but come to think of it, i don't recall any of us "right of centre" people in here demanding tax cuts in recent years...responsible spending??...absolutely..."lower my taxes"??...no one has said that.

your claims are nonsense...get back to us when you pay your share of taxes.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues

Premium Member

Sorry, but Municipalities have no say in education, the education taxes are set by the province.

DKS
Damn Kidney Stones

join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON

DKS to mr weather

to mr weather
said by mr weather:

These aren't TA's. These are sessional instructors, full-blown PhD holders with little hope of securing any professorship. Universities like them because they work cheap and are easily disposable.

They were known as TA's in my day. They were indeed sessional instructors. We were also taught by adjunct faculty; people with significant professional expertise but not tenured. Often semi-retired.
mr weather
Premium Member
join:2002-02-27
Mississauga, ON

mr weather

Premium Member

The nomenclature must have changed because in my chemistry grad school days (1995-2000) I was a TA which meant I ran undergraduate labs and marked lab reports but never gave lectures. There were also sessional instructors (PhD's) who gave lectures but never TA'd labs.

When I was an undergrad (1991-1995) none of my courses were taught by non-tenured faculty. Maybe that was a chemistry thing I dunno.

HamLurker
@209.222.61.x

HamLurker

Anon

A TA was a grad student that helped grade assignments/exams and did the labs. At least that was my recent experience (2007). If i remember correctly the profs that did not have tenure were "associate professors".
NCRGuy
join:2008-03-03
Ottawa, ON

NCRGuy

Member

said by HamLurker :

A TA was a grad student that helped grade assignments/exams and did the labs. At least that was my recent experience (2007). If i remember correctly the profs that did not have tenure were "associate professors".

You are correct. TAs are grad students, at both the MA and PhD level. Depending on the level of class, and the level of the grad student, they may have different levels of responsibility, but you are generally correct. It's assisting with marking, leading seminars, and giving the odd lecture.

There are different levels of professor on the tenure track. You start as an Assistant Professor, can move up to an Associate Professor, and when you achieve tenure you are a Professor or Full Professor. Beyond that you can get into fellowships and the like.

Neither of these categories is the subject of the article.