When my dog got a job that paid more than mine, I finally realised I had perhaps been barking up the wrong tree trying to see university teaching as a life-sustaining career.
It was not the fact that he was a dog and better paid that I objected to, but rather that he could earn so much more without even finishing high school. Riley received $150 for some two hours of evening work without having to put in any preparation time or to have a PhD, but what got to me more was to see the respect and affection accorded to him when he arrived at work. Once there, he enjoyed collegiality with all — from the internationally regarded artist for whom he was working, the nine-person crew on location and also those employed along with him on the shoot.
Never was he seen as a mere extra. On the contrary, his boss affectionately referred to him as the male lead, inquiring as soon as he arrived on set what he would like in the way of food and refreshments to keep him focused and happy while he worked. The requests that followed from Riley and his fellow actors were then executed by the studio’s operations manager without question or hesitation. In addition, and despite the fact that significant sums of money were being spent on lighting and location rental, there was always meticulous consideration for the actors’ well-being and job satisfaction. Indeed, Riley and his fellow actors were made to feel very important, as evidenced by a remark from one of the actors one evening when, referring to the artist for whom they were all working, he said:
“His work is world class, right? That makes us world class, right?”
Riley’s boss recognised the simple fact that happy and appreciated employees make for fine work. It is a fact increasingly being recognised in the business world.
So why do many of this university’s academic departments seem not to recognise this?
It is not uncommon to hear non-tenured faculty in the social sciences and humanities report that they feel greatly undervalued, under-appreciated and insecure. And indeed their objective circumstances with regard to pay, support and security are in accord with their perceptions.
The acid test, of course, to establish whether an institution values a task, or a society values a profession, is to look at what those doing the job are paid.
With the new minimum salary scale (it is only a minimum and departments can, and some do, pay more) for UBC sessional faculty, all contract teaching faculty are now paid at least $3,049 for three-credit, 16-week courses, according to the Faculty Association. Contract teaching faculty with as much as seven years’ UBC teaching experience (such as myself) can still earn less than $5,000 (and thus around the same as a teaching assistant) for the four-month period (working out to less than a third of the rate paid to Riley). And, as we all know, the 16-week duration of the contract is far exceeded when one includes all the work involved in course design that should pre-date the teaching of any course.
If it appears from administering the acid test that non-tenured teaching faculty seem not to be valued, could this be — strange as the thought may seem — because teaching itself is not valued at universities?
“Teaching,” I was recently told by an academic, “is not the currency of the university.”
Despite my first-hand knowledge of the lack of currency for those employed as non-tenured teachers, I nevertheless felt compelled to test this claim. I rushed to consult The Penguin English Dictionary, which I carry with me. There I was told: “university, n. corporate institution giving instruction in advanced learning and empowered to confer degrees.” The Collins Dictionary of the English Language gave a similar picture. It said: “an institution of higher education having authority to award bachelor’s and higher degrees, usually having research facilities.” Both seemed to indicate that most certainly teaching was, or should be, the currency of the university.
Not sure of what to make of this contradiction, and without mentioning a name, I brought up the assertion in conversation with another academic. I received the response: “But you knew that, didn’t you?”
I did not know that and, like others who have the training and passion for teaching and see good teaching as just as important as good research, I believe it should never be so. The sessional contract with the university is to be renegotiated this spring and, as pointed out above, departments have the option of paying more than the bare minimum to their non-tenured teaching colleagues.
The time has surely come for tenured faculty and administrators to set in motion the circumstances for a different result to the acid test.
© S Fuller 2011