Re:A Brief History of the College Textbook Pricing Racket
by chrisbennet on Wednesday August 31, 2016 @10:15AM
(#12398441)
I agree completely.
The trend is to pay sub-minimum wage to part time college professors [1] and as a result these part time instructors are often busy hustling multiple teaching jobs in order to scrape by. They often aren't paid enough to afford to have decent office hours never mind write textbooks for a class they might never teach again. Maybe the colleges think that buying the package of books/workbooks/slides/etc will let them treat their part time instructors as interchangeable parts?
"What’s more, poor salary and benefits are the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Unhappy, underpaid, overworked, and sometimes under- or differently-qualified instructors provide less-than-ideal instruction. Contingent faculty are often staffed at the last minute, a circumstance that prevents them from properly preparing for the classes they teach. In order to make enough money to make ends meet, many teach at two or three universities, often taking on far more than four classes, which is a more-than-full load. NTTF often have little choice in the classes they teach, meaning they often teach outside their areas of specific expertise. Many are limited in their freedom to develop new curricula and are forced to follow syllabi that may be outdated, ill-conceived, or inferior. In short, the combination of lack of time to prepare, lack of freedom, a heavy workload, and commuting between two or more schools leaves these faculty members with little time to bring their best work to the classroom."
The trend is to pay sub-minimum wage to part time college professors [1] and as a result these part time instructors are often busy hustling multiple teaching jobs in order to scrape by. They often aren't paid enough to afford to have decent office hours never mind write textbooks for a class they might never teach again. Maybe the colleges think that buying the package of books/workbooks/slides/etc will let them treat their part time instructors as interchangeable parts?
"What’s more, poor salary and benefits are the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Unhappy, underpaid, overworked, and sometimes under- or differently-qualified instructors provide less-than-ideal instruction. Contingent faculty are often staffed at the last minute, a circumstance that prevents them from properly preparing for the classes they teach. In order to make enough money to make ends meet, many teach at two or three universities, often taking on far more than four classes, which is a more-than-full load. NTTF often have little choice in the classes they teach, meaning they often teach outside their areas of specific expertise. Many are limited in their freedom to develop new curricula and are forced to follow syllabi that may be outdated, ill-conceived, or inferior. In short, the combination of lack of time to prepare, lack of freedom, a heavy workload, and commuting between two or more schools leaves these faculty members with little time to bring their best work to the classroom."
[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/noodleeducation/2015/05/28/more-...