My first job out of prison was as a warehouse laborer earning minimum wage. The job was mind numbing and backbreaking, and didn't offer benefits. Then, I received a call from the local university for a clerical position; it was the opportunity I desperately needed, and it changed the trajectory of my life.
When the Koch network recently announced a new coalition focused on providing work opportunities for the formerly incarcerated, one employment sector was conspicuously absent: higher education. It's disheartening. My first job out of prison was as a warehouse laborer earning minimum wage. The job was mind numbing and backbreaking, and did not offer benefits. While I was […]
Increasing public pressure and a growing union presence have driven higher ed institutions to improve the experience for part-time faculty and staff. Adjuncts, for example, are now more likely to get pay raises, have job stability and be welcome in faculty circles. On the health insurance front, however, the situation is not so rosy. Here […]
Leaders of the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative strive to provide students with more than just college access and employment. Graduation and a well-paying career—in fields such as health care, education and industrial maintenance—top the list of goals for the low-income parents who participate. "We don't just want to put people in minimum-wage jobs or in […]
When adjunct faculty assembled in November 2017 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, it wasn't for curricula conversation. Instead, after voting to form a union earlier in the year, they were rallying for better pay. The instructors called for more advancement opportunities and greater recognition of their contributions to the institution. Adjuncts made headlines […]
In 2008, former Yale professor William Deresiewicz wrote a scathing essay titled "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education." It quickly went viral, gaining more than 100,000 views in a matter of weeks (and many times that since). "The system manufactures students who are smart and talented and driven," he noted, "but also anxious, timid and […]
