Marc Bousquet
How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation
Foreword by Cary Nelson
New York University Press: New York, 2008

A How-To for Adjuncts and Tenureds Alike

How the University Works (HTUW) is mentoring in action. Marc Bousquet’s text is tight, intelligent, convincing, well-structured, solidly supported, and engaging. No doubt about it, as academic texts go, HTUW is a great model. If you are trying to get published, select one of his six essays, examine it closely, and you have a great model to follow. If you are curious about how to put a book together on a general theme, but you have a collection of different but related ideas, then HTUW demonstrates how this can be done as well. More importantly, if you find critical thinking, critical education, or activism important, Bousquet demonstrates how you can combine your ethos, pathos, and logos, bolster your vita, and work towards a better society.

Marc Bousquet’s book is not just for adjuncts — it is a great model for tenureds. HTUW demonstrates an effective way to be an ally of the contingent academic labor movement. This is seen in exactly what Bousquet does not say. Bousquet does not dwell upon the oppression or extraction that he and other full-timers experience — the emphasis is placed on the subject: adjuncts. Few adjuncts want to read about the abuse of tenureds — that’s already been well-researched, documented, and discussed. Adjuncts are the growing and invisible giant in academic labor, and there is very little written about us. If a book claims to be about adjuncts, it should focus on adjuncts. Bousquet’s book does just this.

Fortunately, Bousquet does not tell the contingent academic labor movement what to do. Few things are more condescending or tiresome than the paternalistic, “I remember when I was an adjunct…. You really ought to do X.” Really? Thanks for asking. Adjuncts, by definition, are subordinate. We do not need to be reminded of that by “allies.” When you look at the course loads we carry and the contributions we make to higher education, we are equals. We are colleagues in all but pay, benefits, academic protection, and name. A large number of adjuncts carry course loads and responsibilities that exceed our tenured colleagues. Bousquet acknowledges many of these points and does not pretend to be an adjunct’s friend or boss. Instead, HTUW positions him as a model ally.

Finally, Bousquet provides history and context for the academic labor struggle, the evolution of extractive Toyotism in academia, and the creation of a hegemonic management culture bent on infesting the professoriate with administrative surveillance and reporting methodologies while loading this work on professors. Bousquet’s exposure is essential because it dispels the illusion that higher education somehow fell into its current predicament. We are where administration wants us. But like all managers, they want even more profits. Simultaneously, administrators have not been content in allowing their Toyotism and Total Quality Management to trickle down like their profits. Instead, administrations’ fire hose tactics blast their practices, theories, and methods into crowds of instructors — anyone who protests or resists is blasted to the ground. Those who attend administration-sponsored workshops get financial, political, and professional kudos; those who do not are punished by being ignored, having funding reduced, or being considered tainted goods.

Reading How the University Works provides much more than the elements above. Bousquet packs so much good information in his text that a single review cannot cover all of the content. Fortunately, picking up a copy gives you the chance to read, reread, and review some of the sources he cites. Not only is this text a powerful model in so many different ways, it also acts as a truth-teller: administrations have been waging a focused, brutal, and directed class war against academic labor — adjuncts in particular.

Our exploitation is not an accident. And, as Bousquet echoes in his text, only collective action can change the status quo.

Thanks to a recent discussion on the WPA list, I learned about three interlocking Wikis. First, there is the general Academic Job Search Wiki. Wow! Just reading the universities to fear and universities to love links is a refreshing visit to human nature. Second, is the Composition/Rhetoric Job Listings Wiki for the 2007-2008 hiring cycle. Last, but not least, is the Composition and Rhetoric Wiki, which has useful information about applying for work in the field. For a non-Ph.D. like me, it makes me think some parts of my life are much easier than my doctorated colleagues.

Marc Bousquet, in his book How the University Works, uses the phrase “adjunct culture.” Over the past couple weeks, I have been contemplating just what “adjunct culture” means. Well, at least what adjunct culture means to me.

Here are some early results. If you have your own opinions or ideas, please let me know or post them to your blog (and let me know as well so I can link the discussions!).

Adjunct Culture means physical community.
Community in the department.
Community in the division.
Community in the college.
Community in the region.

All of these places — or senses of place — offer adjuncts a means or excuse to be in touch with and identify with one another. These are factors that can be used to leverage or generate solidarity.

Adjunct Culture means electronic community.
Creating community through online list-serves.
Creating community through blogs and networks of blogs.
Creating community by writing, posting, and responding to online texts.
Creating community by organizing and unionizing online.
Creating community by blowing off steam and/or seeking advice online.

Adjunct Culture means creating cultural artifacts.
Creating films about adjuncts and their lives.
Creating poems and plays about contingent academic laborers and their conditions and issues.
Documenting or fictionalizing the lives of adjuncts to give voice to our experience.
Creating and speaking in adjuncts’ voices for ourselves rather than have others speak for us.

Adjunct Culture means realizing our diversity and variety.
There is just no way that any single dynamic or descriptor can identify who we are.

The most important aspect of the idea, of the reality, of “Adjunct Culture” is that it is culture created by and for adjuncts who are active in their lives and communities — that it is not some paternalistic pap handed down from people who think they know or “remember” what it was like to be an Adjunct. Sorry. Adjunct Culture should be created by and meant for Adjuncts.

This notion, this naming of “Adjunct Culture” is a powerful and important act. Perhaps it has happened many times already, or perhaps it will be forgotten next week. Regardless, as adjuncts, it is vital to our sense of community, identity, and organizing that we become more prolific and productive in our generation of cultural artifacts and happenings. Rather than act or behave as if we are wanna-be-tenureds, we ought to act and behave as what we are: contingent academic laborers. Forget the delusion; nobody likes a poseur: we should act, teach, and create based upon who and what we really are.

Yet again, Web Worker Daily comes to the rescue! Within sixty seconds of scanning the article, I learned a new trick: how to close a tab using the scroll wheel. This article has nine more tips that will up your Firefox efficiency. Good stuff, this is.

In this powerful piece, Tina Trent discusses adjuncting in Florida.

Almost every adjunct I know wants to get full-time work. Most adjuncts would like to find full-time work with one of their current employers. That opportunity is very rare. So we send out vitae and applications to several if not a dozen schools looking for a tenured gig. Most of our adjunct colleagues do exactly the same thing. And as most of us usually get along with our colleagues, the application process can create a bit of tension.

Do you tell your colleagues which schools you are applying to?
Do you tell your colleagues where you found the job listing?
Do you share with your colleagues the writers of your letters of recommendation?
Do you let your colleagues know when you scored a telephone or in-person interview?

When we are broke, it is easy to want to hide the resources, hide the openings, and take tight control of the information. We horde it so that one or two or five less people know about the job. Such behaviors appear to make for less competition, but that’s not a good way to treat colleagues. That’s cut-throat competition, and it is not something I believe in or endorse. It also generates a subtle shift in one’s overall attitude and interactions with colleagues — deceit and manipulation are given credibility by such actions.

Yes, I have engaged in both deceit and manipulation. Of this I am not proud. Yes, I did not tell colleagues about openings in the past, and I felt like garbage afterwards. Maybe I’m touchy-feely, or maybe the Seventies stole my soul, but I believe that there is nothing to be gained from deceit, deception, and white lies — especially when it has to do with my colleagues. When I apply for open positions, I do the best job possible. When I teach, I do the best job possible. And when I am a colleague, I do the best job possible. Sharing job listings and resources is part of being the best colleague possible.

And if I am labeled a softy, I really don’t care. My integrity matters more to me than most things. What I am is honest, and I am honestly following my sense of ethics and my code of honor. In sharing resources, I am not only living up to my own expectations, I am fighting one small battle against the forces of corporatization and management culture. I am working to retain the open and fair exchange that has helped define Composition as a discipline.

Fortunately, I know I am not alone.

So please, when you are looking, applying, or interviewing for work, remember what kind of colleague you want to be. And then be it.

Normally I do not review, promote, or discuss products for sale. However, my recent quest for a strong and portable laptop that is cheap (under $500) and easy to use yielded some great feedback on the ASUS Eee. While I read reviews online, I trust the reviews from the TechRhet and WPA-lists. The following reviews were so good that I went and ordered an ASUS Eee immediately — this is not something I do. Ever.

Both authors of the convincing emails, Tari Fanderclai and Charlie Lowe, were kind enough to grant permission for me to reprint this here.

Once you read the reviews below and consider the price — $300-$400 per model — it becomes clear how much more accessible these are for adjuncts. Not only that, but departments that are a bit more flush in cash could offer their adjuncts ASUS Eees as a perk for teaching. This way, the department demonstrates some fiscal goodwill and helps supply the technology necessary for teaching instead of expecting the adjuncts to supply all of their tools and cover all of their expenses.

Per Tari Fanderclai:

I have one of these. It’s fabulous. I waited until January to buy it so that I could read reviews by all the people who got them as holiday gifts. Almost everyone raved; all the negative reviews I read were from people who apparently didn’t read the specs and had expectations that the thing isn’t designed to meet.

I bought the 4G, and I love it.

It does exactly what it’s advertised to do, it does it extremely well, and it does it in a package that weighs less and takes less space than a lot of paperback novels. You don’t need a separate computer bag (unless you normally only carry a tiny purse or pouch, which probably describes dno one on this list). You can probably put it in the bag you already carry and bring it everywhere “just in case” and not wish you’d left it home every time you pick up your bag. If you accept the tradeoffs that come with that, you’ll probably love the Eee, too.

It’s great for email, surfing, writing, chatting via Skype. Although it has Openoffice, you probably aren’t going to manipulate complicated spreadsheets or work on multi-media presentations — it would be too slow and probably too frustrating with the screen size. I haven’t tried putting music on it, but if that’s important to you, I would definitely see what people have to say — I would expect there are limitations. Personally, I would load up the iPod using a different machine and not fill up the Eee with big ol’ music files.

Here are a few other things I say if people ask for advice:

– It runs hot, and you really shouldn’t use it on your lap for any length of time. This is actually true of any “laptop,” though you might think this is the hottest laptop ever (unless you also have a Macbook). I don’t find this a huge issue, because it forces me to find a table and not hunch over my own lap until I can’t stand up straight. Also, it’s really small, so in a pinch you can just put a book on your lap and set the machine on it. I’m just saying, if you picture yourself slouched on the couch with your feet on the coffee table and this thing on your lap, then you should also picture your pants on fire and your machine burning out.

– If you have upgraded your desktop in this decade, the Eee is slower than your desktop. Appreciably slower, though not unbearably slower. While you wait for things to load, think about how much more your old laptop weighs.

– You probably aren’t going to do a whole lot of multitasking. You will probably have to finish with one or two things, close them, and then open something else.

– The keyboard is small, and I’m happy my hands are not bigger than they are. I have to slow down some when I type on the Eee — not a lot, but enough to avoid the fat finger effect. They mostly made sane use of the reduced keyboard space, except for one thing: The right Shift key is to the right of the Page Up key. Until you train yourself to reach past that Page Up key and actually hit the Shift, you’re going to be accidentally moving your cursor up a lot, which for me means I often end up typing in lines above where I think I’m typing. After awhile you start to automatically compensate for this issue, but boy is it a nuisance at first.

– In that same vein, the screen is a wonderful small screen. But most of what you’re going to be looking at is not optimized for a small screen. I think some people don’t think about that enough before they buy tiny computers. If you haven’t had a small screen before, realize that the reduced real estate is annoying and never really stops being annoying — you just start to accept it, like that chronic pain in your knee. This is a good time to think some more about how much your old laptop weighs.

– You probably read this already, but just in case you haven’t seen this bit of info yet: if you buy the 2G, you can’t upgrade the memory. That’s one of the big reasons I bought the 4G, although to date I have not felt the need to upgrade. I just felt that if I was already spending $300, I might as well spend $400 and not have that limitation, because $400 is still an insanely cheap laptop at this point in time. However, I have extremely geeky friends who are very happy with their 2G machines.

In short, read all the specs, and believe them, and then read the negative reviews on various sites so you can make sure you know what it doesn’t do that some people wish it did. If you can possibly put your hands on one before you buy it, do that.

If you have accurate expectations and you’ll be happy with a machine that meets those expectations, I think you’ll love the thing.

Per Charlie Lowe:

To add to what Tari has said, I’ve had the 701 4G since December, and it has been a great machine. Let me add some more feedback:

* Heat. The heat hasn’t been an issue for me, but it might be because I use it differently. I tend to sit at a table with it so I can use a wireless mouse for extended use. Mostly it’s only in my lap when I’ve got ten or twenty minutes here or there to check and respond to email or read my news aggregator. At those times, it’s not really on my lap; I balance it comfortably on one leg (yes, it’s that small). It may be cooling better this way since the bottom surface is not completely in contact with my body. And I may not be running it long enough for it to get really hot.

* Which model and performance. I also have found that it is noticeably faster than my 2 year old HP AMD laptop. It boots in about 30 secs and shuts down just as fast. Applications open just as fast or faster. Also, the Linux geeks at the Eee PC User forums have decided that more than 512MB makes no difference if one has only a few applications open. I’ve upgraded mine to 1GB and can’t tell the difference. Yet, I would recommend the $399 version because the built-in webcam works fairly well. It’s nice for Skyping. It has a higher capacity battery than the cheaper 2G and 4G Surf models. It has the little neoprene sleeves. Some of the 4G Surf versions also do not have an access cover for the memory if deciding to upgrade later (I think it’s the white one). The only way to upgrade the memory is to take the chassis apart. So I agree. It does seem worth the extra $100.

* Keyboard. Now, some of the negative reviews focus on the smaller keyboard. I have very large hands (I wear an XXL glove), and I’m gradually getting used to it. It feels more comfortable now, although admittedly I am a little slower and a little more error prone. This experience is also supported by what people are saying at the Eee PC User forums. Some people who use the Eee PC almost exclusively instead of a regular keyboard are claiming that they now type faster on the Eee PC than on a full sized one. Seems that their fingers feel that the keys are too far apart on the larger keyboard. So I would put little emphasis on those reviews which complain about the keyboard size; it just takes some getting used to.

* Portability. As friends and colleagues have told me, I now have a nice “man bag” (lol) for to carry my Eee PC in when I don’t need to carry a lot of other things. There is a very long thread at the Eee PC User forums on various small bags that work for carrying it around:

To finish, here is the long thread EeeUser community on carrying bags: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=849

Two other things to note:

* That community is fantastic. All the information one should need there on the Eee PC.

* One drawback. I like the Eee PC so much that now I find I carry it, too, when I have to heavy production work (e.g., InDesign) on my other laptop. I guess that makes me a real geek with two machines in my backpack. LOL

Inside Higher Ed has a great story titled “Teaching and Tae Kwon Do.” I am glad to see it, and I encourage you to go read it!

I was delighted to receive my copy of College Composition and Communication today. On page 451, it features an article by Barry M. Kroll titled “Arguing with Adversaries: Aikido, Rhetoric, and the Art of Peace.” Yes! I can only hope that we see more articles blending martial arts and composition.

Yet again, Dr. Dave has generated great content at AcademHack. He continues an earlier discussion on Twitter by expanding it into Micro-Blogging.