Rethinking The Academy:

Obvious Difficulties

The first difficulty that comes to mind is this: what happens when a project is complete? Do all the participants in the project suddenly lose their livelihood and are forced to scramble to find another position?

If so, we have simply replicated the current and oppressive situation that face many compositionists who are hired on an adjunct basis, often two or three days before classes begin, and who may not be rehired until just before the start of the next semester. Further, such positions rarely include benefits and no structure that fails to offer health insurance can be called just or even tolerable.

So we must build in some sort of job security, some expectation that project personnel will be left on the payroll. One possibility is to combine teaching duties with project performance: that is, people interested in working a project-type position would be given release time from a standard, contracted teaching load to work on projects that are both interesting and necessary. There is precedence for this already as many faculty members are given release time from teaching for administrative duties such as Director of Graduate Studies, or Acting Head of the Department.

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Last Modified: August 2, 1996

Copyright © 1996 by Keith Dorwick