WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF WORKER EXPLOITATION? Big City, Ph.D Position, $28,000 Salary.
The average monthly rent for an apartment in Chicago is $1,770, according to real-estate website Zillow.
If you were to take a recently advertised position at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and take an apartment at the average rate, you’d have about $600 left over after paying rent each month, not including money that goes to taxes or food.
The position in question is described as a “visiting lecturer-German basic language program director for AY 2017-2018.” The position is listed with a preference for a candidate holding a Ph.D., and one with experience in language direction experience, although those still working on their dissertations are welcome to apply.
And it pays $28,000 a year.
The job is billed as a “67 percent” position, meaning it’s not quite a full workload. But based on the work description, some are calling that into question, as well as the salary for a position based in a major city.
“I’ve been reading pretty much every ad for a job in German studies for almost a decade, and many of them have robust workloads and modest pay,” said Rebecca Schuman, a writer and former academic with a Ph.D. in German, who publicized the job ad and set off considerable criticism of it. “I have never seen anything like this in all of my years … with such a high workload, that someone disingenuously advertises itself as part-time, and just egregiously low pay.”
Schuman was forwarded the job posting from a Listserv and broke down the workload description in a Sunday blog post that she said had garnered 20,000 views as of Monday. She estimated the workload — coordinating 14 sections of courses ranging from first to fourth semester, supervising and training about 10 teaching assistants, teaching three advanced language and culture courses, and participating in departmental events — could easily top 50 hours a week.
As I’ve said before, I think Betsy DeVos should target worker exploitation at American universities. Perhaps a cap of no more than 25% of total credit hours offered by non-tenure-track faculty as a condition of receiving federal funds. . . .
UPDATE: From the comments: “I wonder how much the diversity officer makes a year there.”