My union posted this: “During bargaining this week at UCSB, the UC’s chief negotiator Nadine Fishel said this about Lecturer positions: ‘No one says it’s a gig you want to sign up for.’ WOW. You may ask, is that how little she respects our contribution and commitment to teaching and to our students??
“To her, we say: We consciously made the choice to become teaching faculty at UC. We teach 30%+ of the student credit hours across the UC. We are proud of our students and the work we do everyday. #WeTeachUC“
I’m offended, of course, at the lack of respect the UCs are showing to us. But it’s not surprising, since they’re trying to change our contract to remove the word “faculty,” to take away our offices, to make it impossible to get a merit raise (it’s only nearly impossible now), and to fire us without cause or warning.
But here’s why you should be offended, especially if you’re a student or if you care about students.
Lecturers teach 30%+ of the courses across the UC, and remember that we’re the only teachers whose primary job is teaching. The other classes are taught by research faculty and graduate students.
Now, some of those people are good teachers. And many of them are not. Some aren’t just bad at it; they hate teaching. Most have no training in how to do it. Some graduate students don’t speak English well enough to answer students’ questions. But it doesn’t matter. And once someone has tenure, they can fail their teacher evals, and nothing will happen to them.
We are hired and retained based on one thing–our ability to teach.
The UC representative just re-clarified the UC position–that those of us who prioritize teaching, that those of us who are required to prove we are “excellent” at it, are losers who have signed up for a job in which we shouldn’t even expect to be treated well or fairly.
The UC is admitting that we are treated poorly. They’re saying it’s a feature, not a bug.
Students, you should be insulted that they consider teaching you so beneath them that they actively oppress those of us dedicated to it.
