Oppressor Is Me

If you know anything about higher education staffing, you’re familiar with the phenomenon of so-called “freeway flyers” or “road scholars,”—the low-paid, part-time faculty who teach almost half the classes at most colleges and universities, even more at your average community college like Cascadia.

It sucks for them; they do the same work with students as fulltime faculty like me, but they’re paid significantly less and don’t qualify for healthcare benefits unless they teach at least two classes a quarter—and they’re generally not guaranteed that they will.

While those of us on the faculty have additional responsibilities, like committee work and institution-building, it’s not at all clear that this justifies the inequity in pay, benefits, job security, and office accommodations.

I realize that—because the use of part-time faculty saves the college money—this inequity helps support my position, so—at least indirectly—I am benefiting from a situation that is arguably unfair and unjust.

So, what should be my response to this? Ought I to refuse to be party to it? Should I resign and insist that equity be achieved? Ought I mobilize my students to sit-in or walk-out until the situation is rectified?

Or do I try to work within the system to make changes, knowing full well I am being co-opted all the while?

Admittedly, as an American, this is just one of many such situations in which I find myself, whether it’s as a consumer of natural resources, a buyer of globally-manufactured products, or even a fan of any major (or for that matter, minor) sport; it’s hard to deny that my good fortune depends, more or less, on the misfortune of someone else.

If I were a better person, I’d do more to rectify the situation; if I were smarter, I’d have a better idea of what do to.

Admitting my complicity may be a step in the right direction; writing and posting this, though, probably doesn’t earn me any points.