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Antiwork

My college is doing some pretty sketchy shit, and I think people should know about what happens in academia

I attend Canisius College. This is a recent article written in the school newspaper: https://www.griffinnewspaper.com/post/editorial-students-demand-fairness-for-professors-say-no-to-au-terity-town-hall-highlights-where Administration has claimed a “predicted deficit” and used that to fire MANY tenured professors, against rules in the faculty handbook. Our college president (what is the point of a college president anyway?) has basically claimed that in times of budget crisis he can ignore the rules. It's pretty sickening that these professors, and many of the professors at my school are wonderful, passionate people who are deserving of, you know, keeping their jobs after earning tenure, are just able to be “liquidated.” I find it really upsetting and disheartening as someone who has considered getting a PhD and going into higher education that even if your job is protected, it really isn't protected. I know that a lot of students complain about how tenured professors are immune to any consequences or being fired or getting…


I attend Canisius College. This is a recent article written in the school newspaper:
https://www.griffinnewspaper.com/post/editorial-students-demand-fairness-for-professors-say-no-to-au-terity-town-hall-highlights-where

Administration has claimed a “predicted deficit” and used that to fire MANY tenured professors, against rules in the faculty handbook. Our college president (what is the point of a college president anyway?) has basically claimed that in times of budget crisis he can ignore the rules.

It's pretty sickening that these professors, and many of the professors at my school are wonderful, passionate people who are deserving of, you know, keeping their jobs after earning tenure, are just able to be “liquidated.” I find it really upsetting and disheartening as someone who has considered getting a PhD and going into higher education that even if your job is protected, it really isn't protected. I know that a lot of students complain about how tenured professors are immune to any consequences or being fired or getting into any trouble, but many of these people have earned their position and they deserve not to be at-will employees. Shouldn't their jobs be protected?

This is a separate issue, but I also know many people who have transferred because their major no longer exists here, or is now so underfunded and poorly managed that they can get a much better education elsewhere. All of this has happened since I started attending here. It's my third year. I don't need to worry about this because my major is one of the most popular ones here, but it's still screwed up and is basically ruining the college's reputation. Apparently constant PR crises are are not good for enrollment. I won't even get into the unrelated lawsuits and problems here.

I'm probably grossly oversimplifying the situation, but I'd suggest you also look into how adjunct professors are paid and how many US colleges and universities have insane amounts of administrators but still underpay professors, as well as other college faculty and staff. I have no idea if this is a problem elsewhere in the world, but American higher education is a capitalist shitshow.

If the promise that you can become a tenured professor and be protected from being laid off due to very probably nonexistent budget deficits is a lie, then what other capitalist lies about work have we been fed?

Some more articles on the issue:

https://theprofessorisin.com/2020/08/28/canisius-professor-fired-purge/

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/02/23/canisius-professors-fight-keep-tenure

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