advocate - national education association higher education advocate 3 performance funding for public...

NEA Higher EducationAdvocateVOL. 31, NO. 3 MAY 2014

“Teaching Naked”+Welcome to NEA! Rhode Island adjuncts vote for union

Take the pledge: Degrees not debt!

Beware of performance-based funding in higher ed

Disruptive innovations for contingent faculty

NEA Members Insurance Trustand Plan Summary Annual Reportpage 15

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NEA HIGHER EDUCATION ADVOCATE2

WATCH OUT! 3Performance-based funding forhigher education is a bad idea onfire.

THRIVING IN ACADEME 6Teach naked! Or at least find outhow to put down your phone.

WHY I VOTED YES 10Why adjunct professors in Rhode Island joined NEA Higher Ed.

BY THE NUMBERS 11Take the new Degrees Not Debtpledge!

THOUGHT & ACTION 12Disruptive Innovations for AdjunctFaculty.

THE STATE OF HIGHER ED 13Layoffs in Maine prompt studentsto walk out of classes.

OP-ED 16What one professor thinks aboutorganizing contingent faculty.

Advocate (ISSN: 1522-3183) is publishedfive times a year, in September, November, January, March, and Mayby the National Education Association,1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.20036. Periodicals postage paid atWashington, D.C., and additional mail-ing offices. The Advocate is mailed toNEA Higher Education members as abenefit of membership. Postmaster:Send change of address to Advocate,1201 16th St., N.W., Suite 710, Washing-ton, D.C. 20036. Copyright © 2014 bythe National Education Association.

National Education Association

Dennis Van RoekelNEA PRESIDENT

Lily EskelsenGarciaVICE PRESIDENT

Rebecca S.PringleSECRETARY-TREASURER

John C. StocksEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

NEA Center forCommunications

Ramona OliverSENIOR DIRECTOR

Steven GrantASSOCIATEDIRECTOR

Mary Ellen FlanneryEDITOR

Alice TruedPRODUCTION

Groff Creative GRAPHIC DESIGN

Prepared withthe assistance ofNEA staff:

Nilka JulioNancy O’BrienMark F. SmithValerie WilkPhadra Williams

NEA files brief on behalf of contingentfaculty seeking a union

WHY CAN’T FACULTY at private institu-tions join unions? In a 34-year-oldSupreme Court decision, NLRB vs.

Yeshiva University, the judgesruled that faculty were too muchlike managers to be eligible forunion membership under the Na-tional Labor Relations Act. But a

brief recently filed with the National Labor Relations Board(NLRB) by NEA’s Office of General Counsel points outrightly that times have changed in the three decades sinceYeshiva. As huge numbers of near-powerless contingent fac-ulty have replaced tenured faculty, faculty’s power at manyinstitutions has ebbed. Shared governance is almost a legend.In response to one of the current cases before NLRB, of Pacific Lutheran University contingent faculty who seek aunion, NEA’s Counsel asks NLRB to systematically examinewhether the governance structures of an institution suggestthat professional administrators, not faculty members, actu-ally manage the university. A reformulated approach alongthese lines could allow more faculty to enjoy the protectionsof a union that they so desperately need.

Accountability for for-profit collegesABOUT 20 PERCENT OF FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES could eventually losefederal funds under the Obama administration’s proposed“gainful employment” standards, released in March, whichconsider debt-to-earnings ratios among each college’s gradu-ates. For years, NEA has been meeting with officials from theU.S. Education Department and the White House’s Office ofManagement and Budget, urging them to adopt rules thatwould protect students and taxpayers from the predatorypractices of some colleges. As the rules are finalized, NEAwill continue to provide comments.

Guidance forteacher ed programsNEW GUIDANCE, developed

with the help of NEA Higher Ed faculty and NEA Secretary-Treasurer Becky Pringle, was released in late March to helpteacher-prep programs implement edTPA. (edTPA is a multi-ple-measure assessment of new teachers.) Understandingthat education faculty need time to build capacity aroundedTPA, states should start off with “low stakes” participationthat includes opportunities for faculty to learn more aboutthe assessment, the new guidance says. The new recommen-dations are available at www.edtpa.aacte.org.

MISSED SOMETHING?READ PREVIOUS ARTICLES ONOUR WEBSITE

ARE THE KOCH BROS. ONYOUR CAMPUS YET?

A new report from theCenter for Public Inte-grity investigates the efforts of the billionaireKoch brothers to investin academic programs.One public university inVA has received tens ofmillions of dollars.neatoday.org/2014/04/06

FAIR WAGES FOR ALLWOMEN

Passage of the MinimumWage Fairness Actwould go a long way tohelping the two-thirds ofminimum-wage workerswho are women.www.educationvotes.nea.org/2014/03/26/

ADDICTED: IS HEROIN ONYOUR CAMPUS?

Heroin prevention pro-grams, including onefrom a NEA Higher Edmember, are taking aimat the growing numberof young adults usingopiates.http://neatoday.org/2014/03/21/

FIGHTING BACK AGAINSTPENSION ATTACKS

Big-money interests aretrying to cut public pen-sions. Find out howNEA and its membersare fighting back.www.educationvotes.nea.org/2014/02/27/

MOOCS MOVING INTOHIGH SCHOOLS

Despite little success inhigher ed, MOOCS arespreading to K-12.www.neatoday.org/2014/02/12/

Headline News

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NEA HIGHER EDUCATION ADVOCATE 3

Performance funding for public colleges and universities

is a bad idea on fire these days. Even as more research clearly shows the

plans don’t work as intended, nearly 30 states, most recently Florida, haveadopted punitive approaches to paying for higher education. “They have this one-size-fits-all vision for higher

education, and they have one idea about what a model university should be,” said Tom Auxter, president of

the United Faculty of Florida. “They don’t get that different universities have different missions, and different

constituencies that they serve.”

PERFORMANCE FUNDING

OUT!Watch

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The way performance-based fundingtypically works is a state will setaside 5 to 50 percent of their higher-ed funding, and then use those mil-lions of dollars to rewardinstitutions with the most graduatesor course completers. AlthoughNCSL encourages states to also “re-ward colleges that graduate low-in-come, minority and adult students toensure that institutions keep servingthese populations,” most states donot have benchmarks that acknowl-edge some students take longer tograduate or may need additionalsupport along the way.

In Florida specifically, the new planprioritizes the percentage of gradu-ates with jobs; the average wages ofgraduates; the cost per degree; thesix-year graduation rate; the numberof STEM degrees; the percentage ofstudents with Pell Grants, and a fewother factors. The three (out of nine)universities that perform worst ac-cording to these metrics will loseprobably 1 percent of their fundingthis year—or about $200,000 a year,under pending legislation—while theother six get more money.

All of these new plans replace tradi-tional formulas, which financed insti-tutions according to how manystudents they served, and how manyfaculty, staff, and other resourcesthey needed to deliver a high-qualityeducation. But those traditional for-mulas are expensive, and anyway,states haven’t fully funded higher ed-ucation in a long, long time.

WHERE’S THEMONEY?“(State legislators) are evading thequestion, and the question is: whatdoes it take to adequately fund ourcommunity colleges?” said JoeLeBlanc, president of the Massachu-setts Community College Council. InMassachusetts, up to 50 percent ofstate funding for two-year collegesnow depends on graduation ratesand other metrics. Meanwhile, fund-ing for Massachusetts higher educa-tion plummeted 38 percent between2008 and 2012. “We’re not even closeto fully funded,” LeBlanc scoffed.

Not surprisingly, Florida is rightthere, too, with a 41 percent cut over

the past four years. And they’re noteven the worst. During those sameyears, funding to higher educationwas chopped by half in Arizona andNew Hampshire. Making mattersworse, those cuts have come on topof decades of previous cuts. As a re-sult, public colleges in the U.S. haveessentially become privatized. At theUniversity of Oregon, for example,just 5 percent of the school’s operat-ing costs will be covered by the statethis year.

“To work, even in theory, perform-ance-based funding depends on re-warding the most successful, so itdepends on more funding,” said MarkF. Smith, NEA senior policy analystfor higher education. “But there aremuch better investments for that ad-ditional funding that would actuallyhelp students learn,” he pointed out.(Academic counseling, for example,has been shown to increase studentpersistence and graduation rates.)

AND IT DOESN’TEVEN WORK…The big question is: Does it work? Ifthe aim of performance-based fund-ing is to elicit more college gradu-ates—something the United Statesneeds in the multi-millions to keep upwith its workforce demands—thenwe should see increasing graduationrates in states with those plans, yes?

The answer is no, according to sev-eral studies, including one by DavidTandberg of Florida State University.In a co-authored paper, “State Per-

ore likely than not, you’re working at an institution

in a state that has rushed to embrace the trend to-

ward performance-based funding. Twenty-five states

currently have some kind of performance-based

funding system for their public colleges and univer-

sities, and five (Colorado, Georgia, Montana, South

Dakota and Virginia) have approved plans not fully

in place yet, according to the National Conference

of State Legislatures. MOUT!

Watch


formance Funding for Higher Education:Silver Bullet or Red Herring?” Tandbergfound that performance funding “moreoften than not” failed to effect degreecompletion.

In fact, in the few instances where it didhave an effect, it was more likely to benegative—graduation rates actually de-clined. The authors concluded: “Ouranalyses revealed that performancefunding is not the silver bullet some aremaking it out to be. Instead, it may be ared herring, distracting policymakersfrom dealing with more fundamental pol-icy problems, such as inadequate statefunding or student financial aid.”

Meanwhile, another study shows the ef-fects of performance funding might beparticularly harmful at historically blackcolleges and universities (HBCUs),where often students take more time tograduate because they’re also workingor taking additional developmentalcourses. Should those schools, which in-clude Florida A&M University (FAMU),be punished for helping students along a

more complicated path to college de-grees, wonders UFF’s Tom Auxter.

“This is the mentality of people who hadall the advantages of life when they wentthrough school: ‘Let’s punish FAMU! Let’spunish the urban universities, where it’sa real accomplishment when studentscomplete their baccalaureate degreewhile holding down a full-time job!’”

While it’s likely not the intent of legisla-tors to specifically punish HBCUS, thedanger with any kind of performance-based plan is the unintended conse-quences. “Of course we want to seemore students earning degrees, but wealso want to make sure those degreesare meaningful,” warns NEA’s Smith.“This shouldn’t just be a numbers game.”

The unintended consequences of out-comes-based funding plans have beenmade very clear in K-12 education,where big rewards for high-stakes read-ing and math test scores have ledschools to set aside other subjects, likescience and art. But unintended doesn’t

mean unanticipated—in the 2011 NEAThought & Action journal, Diane Ravitchwarned higher-ed faculty and staff aboutthe likely consequences of chasing “out-comes” for funding.

“This is the pursuit of numbers for thesake of meeting a quota, not for the sakeof learning,” she said. “If numbers areour goal, we can give every student acollege degree and not subject them tothe trouble (and expense) of going toclasses. In fact, with the rapid spread ofonline ‘learning,’ that seems to be thewave of the future.”

There’s also the cautionary tale of theSoviet shoes, often recounted byRichard Rothstein, of the Economic Pol-icy Institute. To meet impossibly highKremlin quotas for shoes, Soviet factoryworkers just made smaller shoes!

Unfortunately, they didn’t fit anyone.

BY MARY ELLEN FLANNERYEditor, NEA Office of Higher [email protected]

AL

AZ AR

CA

AK

CO

FL

GA

ID

IL IN

IA

KS KY

LA

ME

MI

MN

MS

MO

MT

NE NV

NM

NY

NC

ND

OH

OK

OR

PA

SC

SD

TN

TX

HI

UT VA

WA

WV

WI

WY


In place at two-year institutions

In place at four-year institutions

In place at two-year andfour-year institutions In transition

Performance-Based Funding for Higher EducationSTATE ACTIVITY

AS GU MP PR VI

VT

NJ

DE

DC

RI

CT

NH

MA

MD

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures. Initial data as of March 5, 2014. Subject to change.



Teaching Naked

It’s not what you think! The best place for technology is outside of

the classroom, as a content and assessment delivery system that

will give you more time in the classroom with prepared students.

Putting technology in its place.Make no mistake, technology has a place. That place just happens to be the dorm room orlibrary, where it can give students compelling reasons to engage with class materials. Thatplace is not the lecture hall, where we too often rely on PowerPoint presentations andother passive technologies to speed through content by hour’s end.

This is not first century B.C. When Plato or Cicero wanted to pass along information to alarge group of students, their most efficient technology was an amphitheater and a loudvoice. But today, students don’t need a professor in the room if they’re just going to sit andlisten to a lecture or watch a film.

It is clear today that what’s of value to students is student-to-faculty interaction: smallgroup discussions, individual attention and unstructured, interactive learning. By usingnew technologies outside the classroom—including online content, games, course man-agement systems, and the instant communication that students now expect—you can create more time for more learning inside the classroom.

You can’t do it all at once, but here are some easy ways to ensure students are better preparedfor class, get more feedback, and learn more of the cognitive skills employers say they crave.

BY: JOSÉ ANTONIO BOWENSouthern Methodist University

Thriving inAcademeREFLECTIONS ON HELPING STUDENTS LEARN

Thriving in Academe is a joint project of NEA and the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education(www.podnetwork.org). For more information, contact the editor, Douglas Robertson ([email protected]) at

Florida International University or Mary Ellen Flannery ([email protected]) at NEA.

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Email for first exposure Social media can be a teaching tool, allow-ing students to connect ideas to other ideas.It is also a place where you can show yourpassion: students perceive your messages(as long as you don’t over do it!) as support-ive and caring. You can also make connec-tions for students. Try asking students touse your Twitter hashtag (#mycourse) andpost one connection, or web link, a week.Students often don’t even look for the con-nections between your class and the outsideworld. In fact, if you don’t ever contact stu-dents outside of class, you are reinforcingthe idea that college is an ivory tower andwhat happens there stay there. It’s not

Vegas: first connect.

Email is also a way to personalize and localize content for your students. Whilethe internet offers almost limitless onlinecontent, none of it is specific to your stu-dents. Use email to offer short motivationalintroductions to reading, study questions,encouragement, connections, additionalthoughts, and further explanations.

Content for first exposureTry searching for content in your coursesas if you were a student—pretend it is coldoutside and you have an 8 a.m. class, butyour laptop is in bed with you! If you don’t

know OpenYale, iTunesU, Khan Academy,CrashCourse, Utubersidad (with Spanishlanguage academic lectures) or Merlot.org,start with those. For most subjects, the inter-net offers a broad range of video lectures,

José AntonioBowen is presidentof Goucher College.Bowen has wonteaching awards atStanford, George-town and Southern

Methodist University where he wasDean of the Meadows School ofthe Arts for eight years. Bowen haswritten over 100 scholarly articles,edited the Cambridge Companionto Conducting (2003), and is aneditor of the 6-CD set, Jazz: TheSmithsonian Anthology (2011). Hehas appeared all over the worldwith Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie,Bobby McFerrin, Dave Brubeck,and many others, written a sym-phony (nominated for the PulitzerPrize in Music in 1985) and is theauthor of Teaching Naked: HowMoving Technology out of yourCollege Classroom will Improve Student Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2012),winner of a Ness Award. StanfordUniversity also has honored him as aDistinguished Alumni Scholar. Formore teaching ideas, see his blogat teachingnaked.com or followhim on Twitter #josebowen.

I TALES FROM REAL LIFE > IT’S A DIFFERENT WORLD

Meet José Antonio Bowen

W hen I went tocollege, mymother gave

me a bag of dimes andtold me to call home on Sunday. But oneSunday, I forgot. Itnever occurred to methat I could call onMonday. Does thephone even work on

Monday? I waited untilthe following Sundayand called home. “HiMom, It’s your son!” “A son? I have a son?”Guilt, in my home, wasa dish best served withirony.

Contrast this to the stu-dent who recently got

trapped in a campus elevator and instead ofcalling the emergencynumber listed, calledher mother, three statesaway, who called theuniversity president,who called facilities,who called the emer-gency number. Just thinkabout the radically dif-

ferent assumptionsabout social proximity.

If you really want to un-derstand your studentsask them about Tinderor Lulu (or downloadthe app if you are reallybrave). Lulu is for girls,and has profiles forevery boy on your cam-

pus with ratings fromthe girls who have dated(yes, that’s an euphe-mism) him. It soundshorrible, but they thinkit is normal, and theycan’t imagine sitting bythe phone, or going tooffice hours.



explanations, examples, songs, animations,games and unique ways.

If you don’t want to spend a lifetimetrolling through millions of online lectures,then set up a wiki for your course and askyour students to create a community studyguide using the resources they find. If youoffer to make up your final exam from thiswiki, you will add an extra incentive.

If you want to make your own content,then skip video capture. A podcast (or anyform of presentation that allows for chap-ters or segments) offers you the power ofredundancy. You can now explain or talkfor longer than you ever could in class, butmore importantly you can include all theexamples you want.

Use exams to focus An unwatched video is no better than anunread book, but you can encourage stu-dents to interact with the material by creat-ing online exams before every class. Givingstudents several “thought” or “study” ques-tions before each class can both guide theirlearning and give you feedback. It alsogives students some control over theirlearning (itself a research-based pedagogy).Many forms of questions can be graded automatically in your learningmanagement system (LMS) so both you andstudents can see the results instantly. Trymaking all of your quizzes due one hour

before class (your LMS can ensure this“happens”) and you will then have resultsthat may shape your use of class time.

There are, of course, other ways to reachthe same goal. Ask students to post strate-gies for solving problems on the coursewebsite, or make their own video summary,or post on the course discussion board.

Writing to reflectWriting requires practice. So assign it beforeevery class. I use index cards and ask stu-dents to write short paragraphs or argu-ments about the reading or video content,paraphrase the strongest argument or iden-tify three mistakes, argue for the importanceof a theme, or copy a quote and explainwhy it is essential for the persuasiveness of this reading.

Students then bring these index cards toclass and swap with a neighbor, who readsthe card and maybe turns it over to write arebuttal, rewrites the argument from an-other perspective, or asks some clarifyingquestion. Part of the point is to write, but

equally important is that students will bethinking (critically) about the material before class, and trying to find multiple perspectives in what they read.

Bad content is part of the real world. Sensi-tizing your students to the need to questionthe quality of their sources is both an impor-tant part of critical thinking and an essentiallife skill. The world is an open book. Youlook for summaries, abstracts, and short-cuts online; they should too. Help them getbetter at evaluating sources.

Class to challenge Just imagine: you now face a room full ofprepared students. What will you do?! Startwith all of the things you always wish youhad time for: discussions, applications,problem solving, connections or challeng-ing of student assumptions. Can you struc-ture your class more like a lab? Read StephenBrookfield to improve your discussions. Ifyou are ready for more, try playing one ofthe sophisticated games developed by MarkCarnes, known as “Reacting to The Past.”

Your preparation will now become moreabout the design of an experience, and lessabout covering content. Remember thatmore content, more reading and more “exposure” does not necessarily result inmore learning. Especially in introductorycourses, less content and more focus on

W hile not the samething as forcingstudents to cre-

ate their own arguments,multiple-choice questionscan help students breakdown problems (and ofcourse, they save time ingrading.)

Don’t worry about cheating.If you ask questions that Sirican’t answer, they will haveto think. Make these onlineexams worth a few pointsso that students have an in-

centive to do them, but notso many points that theywant to argue about everyquestion. More testing,more often will providemore feedback for you andstudents, give them morepractice with thinking skills,and lower their anxietyabout tests.

These sorts of questions arehard to write, but Bloomlevels and verbs provide atemplate for questions thattest knowledge, comprehen-

sion, analysis, evaluation,and more. For example,“Which of the following areimportant theories of X?”“Which of the following develop the thesis of X further?” or “Which of thefollowing represents thestrongest argument forwhy…”

Your LMS will also allowyou to embed immediatefeedback, which can alsohelp stimulate studentthinking. These questions

are mostly diagnostic so it is important that they get atcrucial issues and guide stu-dent thinking. If they wantto argue about the answersin class, that is fantastic.This is your window tomove them from thinkingabout facts or opinions intothe complex and importantworld of judgments.

JUST IMAGINE: YOU NOWFACE A ROOM FULL OFPREPARED STUDENTS.WHAT WILL YOU DO?!

I BEST PRACTICES > WRITING BETTER MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS



how to study and apply can create moremotivated learners for upper-divisioncourses. Very little kills academic motiva-tion more than a freshmen “survey”course that skims the surface all semester.

Cognitive wrappers toself-regulateThe goal of college is to help students develop more complex mental models. Weare preparing the mind for the unknown.Ultimately, we want to graduate studentswho are able to self-regulate their ownlearning process. John Dewey called it“thinking about your own thinking.”

A great way to do this is to use cognitivewrappers (a generalized approach basedupon Marsha Lovett’s exam wrappers).When handing back a paper, a problemset, an exam, or the audition results, alsoprovide students with a sheet of paperthat asks them to reflect on three things:(1) How did they prepare, (2) Where didthey lose points, and (3) How might theyprepare differently next time. (There is afree template at TeachingNaked.com.)Students will start to see that these threethings might be connected.

eCommunication toreinforceSocial media gives you more opportuni-ties to connect, support and interact withyour students, but oddly, it also gives youa way to demonstrate the power of slowthinking. Students think that because youare smart and know lots of things, youmust always know the answer. They willbe shocked and surprised when you wantto “think about that question” or “first domore research” and then respond in anemail to the entire class. The point of faculty interaction is that you are a rolemodel. Only you can demonstrate to themthat what really makes you smart is thatyou are open to new ideas and allow themto give you new perspective. You nowhave even more super-powers: you canchange your mind.

REFERENCES & RESOURCESBowen, J. A. (2012). Teaching naked: Howmoving technology out of your college

classroom will improve student learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brookfield, S. D., & Preskill, S. (2005). Discussion as a way of teaching: Tools andtechniques for democratic classrooms, 2nded. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fink, L. D. ( 2013). Creating significant learn-ing experiences: An integrated approach todesigning college courses rev. ed. (Originalpublished 2003) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H., & Whitt, E.J. (2005). Student success in college: Creatingconditions that matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Langer, E. J. (1997). The power of mindfullearning. Cambridge: Da capo Press.

Pink, D. H (2011). Drive: The surprising truthabout what motivates us. Riverhead Trade.

Pintrich, P. R., & Schunk, D. H. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory, research,and applications (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle. NJ:Merrill Prentice-Hall.

Siegel, D. J. (2014) Brainstorm: The powerand purpose of the teenage brain. Tarcher.

Weimer, M. (2013) Learner-centered teach-ing: Five key changes to practice (2nd ed).San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Websites:

TeachingNaked.com

Content and Games: KhanAcademy,Merlot.org, Reacting to the Past: http://reacting.barnard.edu/, CrashCourse, Exam Wrappers:http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/examwrappers/

Summary sites: sparknotes, Wikipedia, CliffsNotes, PinkMonkey, gradesaver, enotes,bibliomania.

I ISSUES TO CONSIDER

WHERE DO ISTART?Do I have to be on Facebook?

NO! But you should pickone social media platformand make a determinedeffort to learn this newperspective on life. If weclaim that teaching ispreparing the mind forthe unknown and thatcritical thinking requiresthe ability to see prob-lems from multiple per-spectives, then this is aperspective we need.Like any new technology,learning one will alsohelp you with the nextone. If you decideLinkedIn is better, youwill have some basis forcomparison.

But what about reading!?!

Mindful reading is stillenormously important,although the reading oflong texts is certainly onthe decline in most pro-fessions. If you want stu-dents to read, you needto assign shorter portions,especially in the firstyear, read them in moredepth, practice how youread in an academic set-ting (in class) and then

discuss and use all ofwhat you assign (untilstudents get better at di-gesting reading on theirown). Tell them why theyare reading (both yourcourse content and read-ing in general), and helpthem get better at it. Ifreading is important foryour discipline, then youneed a progressive multi-course plan that teachesstudents how to do this.Assign more and moredifficult reading eachyear.

I was not trained as amotivator. Shouldn’tthat be the student’sjob?

Indeed, motivation wasnot your problem. Youliked school so much thatyou are still here. Thinkof what matters to yourtypical student; ask them(often!) if you don’t know.You don’t need to be anexpert in popular culture,but you need to knowwhat matters to yourstudents, what they wantout of life and what theyvalue. This will help youconnect with them, butalso it will give you toolsfor motivating them (andthat is most of the jobreally). They don’t see the

usefulness of biochem-istry to their life? Teachthem how to make beer.

How do I make a podcastthat is better than a lecture video?

Pick a difficult topic in anupcoming class. Create anew PowerPoint file withjust a few slides. Click on“Insert/Audio” and talk.Then add another 10,twenty or even more examples of the sameconcept, but radicallydifferent types of exam-ples: sports, fashion,transportation, cookingor local geography. Teachto the many, not themiddle. Then next year,recycle and add evenmore examples (or havestudents create their ownnew analogies). Save thisas a PowerPoint, do notexport to YouTube; thenit just becomes one longmovie. GarageBand onthe Mac also has a“chapter” feature thatexports mp4 files.



DEGREES NOT DEBT

Why I took theNEA Degrees NotDebt pledge—and why youshould, too!

“M y biggest fear is that the student debt accumulated by me and my family will handcuff my grandchil-

dren’s ability to reach the middle class,” says John

Belleci, a leader of the new “Degrees Not Debt”campaign, and president of the Student CaliforniaTeacher Association. “How can I help themthrough school, while my daughter and I will bepaying off our loans for decades?” As a graduatestudent of history at California State University,Fullerton, who is researching the War on Drugsand the new Jim Crow inLos Angeles, Belleci hasracked up $80,000 worthof student debt. Mean-while, his daughter alsopiled up more than$65,000 in student loansduring her undergradu-ate program at the Uni-versity of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is currently aHead Start teacher struggling to make ends meeton her meager salary. With the Degrees Not Debtcampaign, Belleci aims to see increases in the pur-chasing power of Pell Grants, and expansions infederal loan forgiveness programs and institu-tional aid. At the same time, he said, federal stu-dent loan interest rates should be cut to match thelow rates at which corporations can borrow fromthe federal government. Eventually, he hopes,higher education should be free for everyone. Tomake that happen, “everyone—students, faculty,staff, parents, and administrators—need to worktogether,” said Belleci. To join him in this work, take the Degrees Not Debt pledge at nea.org/

degreesnotdebt.

Carol GoldCOMMUNITY COLLEGE OF RHODE ISLAND

Before I became an adjunctprofessor, I worked in CCRI’sHuman Resources Depart-ment for 28 years. What Ilearned is that when em-ployees are aware of andunderstand their benefits,rights, and responsibilities,they can spend more timeconcentrating on their jobs.Union contracts have helpedprovide that knowledge, un-derstanding, and peace ofmind for most employees at

CCRI – but not for adjunct faculty. We have no benefitsor rights and, depending on a particular department,may not even be sure of our responsibilities. We mayor may not be invited to department meetings; we donot serve on committees; we have no input into cur-riculum development; we have no say as to howcourses are assigned or what we are paid for teachingthem. The adjuncts at our sister institutions, Universityof Rhode Island and Rhode Island College, are union-ized and have a voice. We did not. Now we do. TheCCRI adjuncts voted overwhelmingly in early April tojoin NEA. Now we begin the process of building an or-ganization of energetic and committed members whowill work to ensure consistent and equitable treat-ment of the talented adjunct faculty here at CCRI. Adjuncts working together can make a difference.

By Carol Gold, CCRI adjunct, English

WHY IVOTED YES

TO A UNION!

NOT DEBT

$

$

$

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BY THE NUMBERS

Take the Pledge! Degrees not Debt!

THESE DAYS STUDENT DEBT isn’t just a burden. It’s a barrier. Because of it, too many Americans can’t access the highereducation they need to get good jobs, own a home, and take part in the American Dream. “We’re all taking out loans,and we’re all working, and it’s just choking us,” says California Teachers Association-Student President John Belleci.That’s why NEA faculty, staff, and student leaders have launched the new Degrees Not Debt campaign. Will you jointhem? Start by taking the Degrees Not Debt pledge at nea.org/degreesnotdebt.

THE POOREST STUDENTS OWE THE MOST:

88%OF PELL GRANTRECIPIENTS

HAVE LOANS,WITH AN AVERAGE

$31,200PER BORROWER.

NOT DEBT

$

$

$

In 2012, a typical

worker with a BA degree

EARNED 79%MORE than aworker with a high school

diploma.

The U.S. will need

22 MILLIONMORE college-

educated workersby 2018.

Workers who haven’tgraduated

from college are THREE

TIMES MORELIKELY to be unemployed.

THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF STUDENT DEBT IN THE U.S. IS NOW GREATER THAN

$1,200,000,000,000

In 2012, seven in 10college graduates owed money

On average, each owes a whopping $29,400In 1993, average debt was just $9,450

Student loan default rates have risen

6YEARS IN A ROW

Tuition at four-year public

colleges has risen

27%SINCE 2008

Source: The Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access and Success, www.projectstudentdebt.org.

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Disruptive Innovations forAdjunct Faculty

By Gary Rhoades

The employment practices, working conditions, and curricular delivery models being pa-raded through higher-education policy circles and campuses nationwide as so-called “newrealities” and “innovative answers” make no sense. In truth, these practices have long been

failing our students and country educationally, democratically, and economically. They undermine the common good.At their core is the “new faculty majority” of adjunct or contingent faculty, who now constitute two-thirds of the overallfaculty workforce nationwide. Particularly prominent are faculty in part-time positions, who now constitute 49 percentof all faculty.

The patterns that particularly affect these

contingent faculty members, and increasingly

all faculty in some regards, are harmful to stu-

dents and should be creatively challenged and

changed by faculty. Specifically, there are at

least three patterns that undermine educa-

tional quality: 1) the “just-in-time” hiring of fac-

ulty a few weeks or days before classes start;

2) the “at-will” conditions of employment that

disconnect contingent faculty from their peers

and students in time and place; and 3) the

growing promotion and use of depersonalized

curricular delivery models that separate and

alienate faculty and students from educational

programs they utilize. Each of these patterns

works against the interests not just of faculty,

but also against the needs of students and the

nation. Worse, these practices and patterns are

particularly ill-suited to the changing demo-

graphics of the United States.

We must challenge and change the em-

ployment practices, working conditions, and

curricular realities of the majority of the in-

structional workforce who disproportion-

ately serve the growing majority of students.

It is necessary, but not sufficient, to identify,

document, and decry the current problematic

conditions in the academy. It is up to aca-

demics to creatively find ways to counter

those conditions, and to also change them.

To enable that action, this article offers

three no or low-cost disruptive innovations for

contingent faculty, both unionized and not, that

are grounded in common sense, in what we

know works educationally for our students.

These innovations can be advanced and under-

taken by groups of faculty (unionized and non-

unionized), including contingent faculty. They

are reasonable and immediately achievable al-

ternatives to nonsensical conditions of teach-

ing and learning in higher education.

The three innovations are:

1. Countering just-in-time employ-

ment with virtual visibility;

2. Countering at-will employment

practices with actual due process and

virtual hiring halls;

3. Using metro/rural online curricu-

lar cooperatives to produce metro-rele-

vant courses.

Each of these is a common sense step to

advancing the common good. To find out, in

greater detail, how to put each innovation into

place, visit nea.org/thoughtandaction.

THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL

EDITOR’S NOTE:

This is an excerpt of aThought & Action article

by Gary Rhoades, direc-tor of the University of

Arizona’s Center for theStudy of Higher Educa-

tion. For this article,Rhoades won the NEA

Democracy in Higher

Education Prize. Toread the entire article,

visit www.nea.org/

thoughtandaction.



Protests, layoffs in MaineThe University of Maine system plans to layoff about 165 faculty and staff members thisyear, and they started this spring at the Uni-versity of Southern Maine (USM) with a hugeswipe at liberal arts faculty. Hundreds of stu-dents walked out of class in protest and at-tempted to block the provost’s office so thathe couldn’t meet with faculty. (He fired themby email instead.) The Associated Faculties ofthe Universities of Maine (AFUM) announcedplans in April to file a grievance over the lay-offs, challenging the university’s math andclaiming that the university has singled-outspecific faculty members. Meanwhile, USMstudents have formed a statewide advocacygroup, called #UMaineFuture. “We’re goingto make public higher education an electionissue this year,” promised USM Student VicePresident Marpheen Chann.

More madness in MichiganA bill, which passed a state Senate panel inlate March, would smack a $500,000 penaltyagainst any Michigan state institution thatdares to teach labor history. “We’re almostencouraging labor disputes, and I don’t thinkthat’s appropriate,” said Rep. Al Pscholka.

A first in Missouri!After seven years without a raise, faculty atHarris-Stowe State University finally are get-ting a 2 percent boost this year, followed by1 percent next year, thanks to their first-evercollectively bargained contract. The HSSU faculty formed their union in 2013, and votedoverwhelmingly in March to approve thisfirst contract. The new agreement also con-tains a provision that obligates faculty torecord a certain number of hours in advisorymeetings with students.

Next time, OhioEven as they teach up to 80 percent of highereducation classes, part-time faculty in Ohioare specifically forbidden by state law fromforming unions and collectively bargaining toimprove their miserable working conditions.This year, in an attempt to give those facultymembers a stronger collective voice, two billsthat would have empowered part-time fac-ulty to collectively bargain were introducedinto the General Assembly. Although the billsdidn’t pass this time, awareness of theseimportant issues is growing greatly in Ohio—and elsewhere.

Welcome, RI adjuncts!!About 400 contingent faculty members at theCommunity College of Rhode Island havejoined NEA Higher Ed. Learn why they votedyes on pg 10 of this issue of the Advocate.

Trouble in TexasAs the state-ordered 2015 merger of Univer-sity of Texas-Brownsville and University ofTexas-Pan American moves forward, facultyat both institutions are looking to the TexasFaculty Association (TFA) for help. One bigquestion: will tenured faculty keep tenure attheir new institution, UT-Rio Grande Valley?Administrators say not necessarily; just be-cause you have tenure at the old universitydoesn’t mean you’ll have it at the new one.Meanwhile, TFA also has filed suit allegingage discrimination in the firings of three fac-ulty members who were dismissed when UT-Brownsville and Texas Southernmost Collegedissolved their joint operating agreement.“When faculty rights are violated, we aregoing to defend them,” said TFA ExecutiveDirector Mary Aldridge Dean. “Tenure is aproperty right, and it is not to be taken with-out good cause or due process, and these in-dividuals were denied both.”

THE STATE OF HIGHER ED

I TWO-MINUTE INTERVIEW > PEDRO NOGUERA

You’ve been critical of thefocus on ‘grit’. Is the discus-sion fundamentally mis-guided or is it just mainly adistraction?

The problem with focusingtoo narrowly on grit as it’sbeing conceived is that itoverlooks the real obsta-cles that some studentsface. It can come across as a“pull-yourselves-up-by-the-bootstraps” approach. All

the grit in the world can’tcompensate for obstacles inlow-income communities.All the grit in the world isnot going to get your dad ajob, or regain the home yourfamily just lost. So I’m nothearing in the conversationabout grit an acknowledg-ment of the effect povertyand income inequality hason student achievement.

Do you think it’s a way toavoid talking about the opportunity gap?

I think so. That’s why it’svery important that wesend the right messagesand keep the focus where itneeds to be. We want edu-cators and others to under-stand that even withbarriers and constraints,there’s still the possibilityfor action. But we don’twant to send a messagethat’s only about studentsworking hard. It’s alsoabout them needing helpnavigating those barriers.

When is grit useful?

Grit is useful when it's dis-cussed in the context of ac-knowledging and meetingthose challenges. Agency isa much more useful con-cept. It’s set within an un-derstanding of the obstaclesstudents face. It’s about tak-ing action, but it’s a collec-tive attribute, not just anindividual one.

By Tim Walker

For more about grit, and tohear from its proponents,visit neatoday.org/2014/

03/25/

While not exactly a new notion, “grit” has become thebuzzword du jour in influential education circles overthe past year. But Pedro Noguera, New York Universityprofessor and co-author of Schooling for Resilience,warns that too much emphasis on “grit” can distract

educators at all levels from the real challenges faced by low-income students.


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2 To qualify for the $20 bonus offer, the applicant must: (i) be an Eligible NEA Member (an individual who is an NEA member as of the account application date, or any of the following individuals who is related to such an NEA member as of the account application date: parent, spouse, domestic partner, son, daughter, parent of the spouse/domestic partner), and (ii) open either an NEA CD or NEA Money Market Account through Discover with an initial minimum deposit of $2,500 or an NEA Online Savings Account through Discover with an initial minimum deposit of $500. NEA affiliation subject to verification. Offer limited to one per Eligible NEA Member, per product, per calendar year. NEA IRA CDs are not eligible for this offer. Bonus will be awarded via account credit within 60 days following the end of the month in which the account is funded and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT. Account must be opened at time of account credit. Offer may be withdrawn or modified at any time without notice.

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How to take down the two-tier system

I find it horrifying that someone who stands in

front of college classes and teaches is on welfare.

—Chronicle of Higher Education commenter, quoted in

“Equality for Contingent Faculty...”

I WISH I HAD READ Equality for Con-

tingent Faculty: Overcoming the Two-

Tier System, edited by Keith Hoeller, lastfall when the 15th highest paid adminis-trator on my campus ($183,025) lamentedduring a negotiations session that no oneat our university had a salary raise in fouryears—except, of course, the members ofthe adjunct bargaining unit whose raiseswere promised by the contract.

Her observation did not account forthe fact that our fewer classes filled withmore students amounted to more thansalary stasis for faculty. For my family, itamounted to a $15,000 loss. Making thatargument won me the characterization ofbeing fragile from the fifth highest paidadministrator ($220,889).

Had I read Hoeller’s section on salariesin his chapter “The Academic System ofFaculty Apartheid,” I would have beenbetter able to disassemble the administra-tor’s attempt to establish equivalence.Hoeller’s section picks apart the salarytruths that university administratorswork hard to hide by; for example, not re-sponding to adjunct salary surveys. Ofthe Modern Language Association surveyon non-tenure track salaries in the acad-emy, Hoeller reports that “[t]he responserate was only 42 percent, when the nor-mal rate for returns was 90 percent.”

Between the lines of the 11 chaptercontributors are the stories of warriors

who have continued to fight within theirlocal, state, and national unions; withintheir colleges and universities; and withthemselves for the health of the univer-sity and college system, for academicfreedom, and the democratic health ofthe United States.

In “The Case of Instructor Tenure:Solving Contingency and Protecting Aca-demic Freedom in Colorado,” Don Eronargues that in the balance of contingencyis academic freedom. He explains thatstudent evaluations, almost the solemeans of evaluating teaching, threatenhow teachers work. Offering an unpopu-lar or unsolicited opinion during a staffmeeting could be another cause for non-appointment. The tenuous nature of em-ployment reflects the tenuous nature ofacademic freedom.

Although most contingent faculty havelived what these writers report, thesechapters fortify our efforts, offer strate-gies for building solidarity, and tell thestory to a wider audience with the aim ofwresting the academy from the clutchesof big business. Anyone who cares aboutthe future of higher education shouldread this book.NEA’s Office of Higher Education

is now on Facebook. To keep upwith current news and discuss

events with your colleaguesfind us atwww.facebook.com/neahighered.

Beverly Stewart is vicepresident of the Na-tional Council forHigher Education, andan adjunct professorof English at RooseveltUniversity in Chicago.She also has served onthe board of directorsof the Illinois Educa-tion Association.

1201 16th St., N.W.Washington, DC 20036-3290

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