In solidarity and gratitude, we are sharing a series—”Studies in Precarity”—of stories from departing contingent faculty, who still have much to teach us. Scores, perhaps over 200, of Miami contingent faculty have received notices of non-renewal for 2020–21. Many may soon find themselves unemployed and without health insurance in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis.
These non-renewals cannot be attributed only to COVID-19. They follow many years of spending on areas outside our core academic mission (athletics and sky-high upper-administrator salaries) that could have served to protect our educational mission from the damage of the current crisis. To the visiting assistant professors, instructors, and part-time faculty who taught long hours, built relationships with students, and contributed to our intellectual and social lives: Your absence will diminish our students’ educational experiences and opportunities, and you will be missed. Thanks to all of you for your work at Miami. #OneFaculty
Our colleague prefers to remain anonymous, but has provided links to the below that we can share with permission.
I was a VAP at Miami for four years and was told I am not being renewed. I ran a very successful research center that involved more than 70 students and a dozen centers and university programs. We were midway into two grants, we have a student-authored book under contract, and were writing policy reports for prominent institutions. With the loss of my job and the project’s institutional home (and source of student researchers), it will have to close down. Students will lose valuable connections they have made with practitioners, academics, and institutions around the country and what took us countless hours to build and refine will stall.
– I also ran an internship which paired students with Board members of the […..] Association. This internship program ran for 4 years and involved 28 students. Students were assisting in a variety if roles which will all now have to be shut down. This stops my work with the Ohio [….] Studies Network, where I represented Miami, and will prevent Miami from being apart of the annual organizing of the International Conference on [….] Education, which I managed through the […] Association. I ran both this internship and the […] research program in addition to my 3-3 teaching load and with no additional compensation. I did it because I loved the work and the students were engaged.
– I am a highly ranked professor according to my student evaluations. I have been awarded the teacher of the year award from our department based on student input. Three times the university press has written stories about my work, praising it for its contributions to students. I have co-authored with students, helped students present at conferences, guided them through several journal publications, and traveled with them to attend […] and other conferences.
– I am a parent of four young children, and our family of six will have a great deal of difficulty making ends meet with half our income. My partner who also works in higher education will remain employed albeit with a salary decrease. Since universities are laying off so many people, I have little prospect of finding work in my area in a timely manner, and most likely will have to take a job in the service sector to provide for our family.
I’d prefer to remain anonymous. I find that when I am named in things like this, I get a reassuring flurry of emails, but in the end these make more emotional work for me as I have to then explain my situation again and again to well-meaning folks which is draining. So feel free to use my ‘story’ how you’d like, and I’m happy to be quoted here or there if it is a chorus of voices…but I’d like to stay out of the limelight so that my family and I can move on from Miami as it has left me with no path forward.
Leave a Reply