The Educator – March 2015

This is one of the largest issues we have ever published. There is something for everyone. Darryl Bedford provides hard news about the College’s decision to support a family tuition program and a powerful analysis of the failed TriOS privatization project. Rachel McCorriston shines light on the union budget. Fred Vakaris and Mark Feltham provide valuable analyses of the college system and its operation. Their articles taken together form a primer for college faculty who wish to be well-informed. Matt Farrell and Thomas Barnes examine such issues and concerns as our ongoing disengagement from democracy and the role and definition of soft skills in college teaching. Members also receive timely information from Kathryn Tamasi and Mark Feltham who jointly explain the important and increasingly fraught Return to Work (RTW) process. Mike Boisvert muses about the perennial problem of student inattention, and Jamie Austin takes on Naomi Klein and the pretensions of public intellectuals. We also have a timely reminder for Partial-Load faculty on page 16 concerning free benefits.

Finally, Jennifer Boswell provides a review of a provocative article by Keith Holler concerning the crisis of contingent employment in postsecondary education. Holler’s positions are extreme and controversial. I personally believe Holler’s article misidentifies the cause of the current crisis and leads us away from the most effective strategies to combat it, but I fully recognize the frustration and anger generated by contingent employment and the need for the union to hear it and address it