P*****t
发帖数: 4978 | 1 好可怜呀。
An op-ed went viral Wednesday, in which the last days of Duquesne University
adjunct instructor Margaret Mary Vojtko were described as emblematic of the
plight of part-time contract faculty. But the college where she taught says
that depiction is far from the truth.
Daniel Kovalik, senior associate general counsel for the United Steelworkers
union, wrote in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette column that he was likely the
last person to speak to Vojtko prior to her death. Although Vojtko had
taught at Duquesne for more than 20 years, Kovalik said that she only earned
around $3,500 per three-credit course at the private Catholic university.
As Kovalik describes it, Vojtko was not making enough to get by -- less than
$25,000 annually, with no health care benefits -- and her class-load was
reduced while she was battling cancer. Then the university let her go in the
spring.
Kovalik wrote:
On Aug. 16, I received a call from a very upset Margaret Mary. She told
me that she was under an incredible amount of stress. She was receiving
radiation therapy for the cancer that had just returned to her, she was
living nearly homeless because she could not afford the upkeep on her home,
which was literally falling in on itself, and now, she explained, she had
received another indignity -- a letter from Adult Protective Services
telling her that someone had referred her case to them saying that she
needed assistance in taking care of herself. The letter said that if she did
not meet with the caseworker the following Monday, her case would be turned
over to Orphans' Court.
Vojtko died at age 83 on Sept. 1, two weeks after a heart attack, Kovalik
wrote.
"I was incredulous after reading Daniel Kovalik's op-ed piece about Margaret
Mary Vojtko," said Rev. Daniel Walsh, the Duquesne chaplain and director of
campus ministry, in a statement. "I knew Margaret Mary well. When we
learned of problems with her home, she was invited to live with us in the
formation community at Laval House on campus, where she resided for several
weeks over the past year. Over the course of Margaret Mary's illness I,
along with other Spiritan priests, visited with her regularly."
But Walsh also criticized Kovalik's version of the article, adding that his
"use of an unfortunate death to serve an alternative agenda is sadly
exploitive, and is made worse because his description of the circumstances
bears no resemblance to reality."
John Plante, vice president for university advancement, emailed the campus
disputing the article, and insisted that school officials tried to help
Vojtko in her "last trying days." Plante said individuals familiar with the
situation "recognized this op-ed as a reckless attempt to use Margaret Mary
Vojtko's death as a means to further the self-interest of Mr. Kovalik's
external organization."
Plante said in his email:
These individuals have expressed both outrage and sadness that Margaret
Mary has been used in this way. Then there are those with no direct
knowledge of the actual circumstances. They have also expressed outrage,
using social media to attack Duquesne based on their acceptance of Mr.
Kovalik's published mischaracterizations. Our defense is the truth. Mr.
Kovalik has tried to frame this as an issue of human resources policy, but
he is wrong. The support provided and offered to Margaret Mary Vojtko was
broad, involving the Spiritan community, student housing, EAP, campus police
, facilities management, and her faculty and staff colleagues. It was wholly
unrelated to her employment status or classification, or to any issues of
adjunct unionization.
Kovalik's union has worked to unionize adjuncts at Duquesne, but he said the
university "fought unionization, claiming that it should have a religious
exemption. Duquesne has claimed that the unionization of adjuncts like
Margaret Mary would somehow interfere with its mission to inculcate Catholic
values among its students."
Adjunct instructors make up the majority of faculty nationwide, in a trend
away from the dominance tenured professors claimed 30 years ago. Most
adjuncts are not unionized and few receive benefits. Colleges nationwide are
increasingly curtailing adjunct hour workloads to avoid providing health
care as required under the Affordable Care Act, a shift that has added heat
to the debate over part-time professor pay and unionization.
The portion of Kovalik's story highlighting low adjunct pay has struck a
chord with other instructors online, who Inside Higher Ed writes began
sharing the story on listservs and social media with the hashtag #
iammargaretmary.
Kovalik pushed back on the response from Duquesne officials, telling Inside
Higher Ed that Vojtko needed a real salary, not just "intermittent charity
and prayers," and that the university is "not really disputing my account at
all."
Robin J. Sowards, an adjunct instructor at Duquesne, told the Chronicle of
Higher Education that Kovalik's account of Vojtko's situation rings true for
many non-tenured part-time faculty. (The Chronicle notes that Sowards is a
member of the United Steelworkers-affiliated bargaining unit the Adjunct
Faculty Association, which Duquesne's adjuncts voted to form a year ago.)
"The situation, in the long term, is what a lot of us ultimately face,"
Sowards said. "When your employer is done with you, you get tossed to the
curb." | n*******l
发帖数: 2911 | 2 关于那些Adjunt instructor, 要么他们接受低工资，要么去找一份高收入的工作，
其实没人逼迫他们做adjunct instructor。
人生就是这么残酷。
University
the
says
Steelworkers
earned
【在 P*****t 的大作中提到】
: 好可怜呀。
: An op-ed went viral Wednesday, in which the last days of Duquesne University
: adjunct instructor Margaret Mary Vojtko were described as emblematic of the
: plight of part-time contract faculty. But the college where she taught says
: that depiction is far from the truth.
: Daniel Kovalik, senior associate general counsel for the United Steelworkers
: union, wrote in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette column that he was likely the
: last person to speak to Vojtko prior to her death. Although Vojtko had
: taught at Duquesne for more than 20 years, Kovalik said that she only earned
: around $3,500 per three-credit course at the private Catholic university.
| r**c
发帖数: 1334 | 3 一门课3500USD其实不少了，我超课时还不到这个数呢。但是兼职就是兼职啊，不能就
指望几门课活一年啊。真是可怜。
【在 n*******l 的大作中提到】
: 关于那些Adjunt instructor, 要么他们接受低工资，要么去找一份高收入的工作，
: 其实没人逼迫他们做adjunct instructor。
: 人生就是这么残酷。
:
: University
: the
: says
: Steelworkers
: earned
| F********y
发帖数: 7139 | 4 我们学校一门课还没有那么多了
还是full timer比较舒服些 | a***9
发帖数: 1884 | 5 前两天看到我们这里小密的工资, 真低啊, 3万不到, 坐班时间比我们都长. 隔壁的椅
子教授, >$200k.
Adjunct一般都有自己的正常工作吧(我知道的几个都是业余时间到学校教门课). |
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