<nettime> de/fund/ed digest [rosler, hopkins]

["nettime's_educrat" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

Re: <nettime> funding education?
     martha rosler <navva@earthlink.net>
     John Hopkins <jhopkins@uiah.fi>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 22:38:44 -0500
From: martha rosler <navva@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: <nettime> funding education?

wait, this is not really an answer.
i really would like to know HOW someone teaching in the humanities is 
expected to find money to support their research.
  It makes no sense because there is nothing to motivate funders.

form the link you forwarded:

'Despite significant increases in private donations to the UA's 
endowment fund in recent years, White said, it's unrealistic to 
expect private sources to make up the $34 million shortfall'

the above is in reference  to donations to a general fund, not monies 
gone after by individual faculty members such as happens in the 
sciences.

Unlike you, i seem to think it makes NO sense because it cannot 
work--who would fund language teaching (German, not chinese)? In the 
60s the DOD funded language RESEARCH because of its interest in AI 
and related technical developments, but even they did not fund 
language teaching. The army teaches in its own schools, such as the 
monterey linguistic institute or whatever it is called these days.
  So please enlighten me if I am wrong.
I teach, by the way,as a full-time nonadjunct.

martha rosler

>It seems to me that you interpreted it exactly right.
>
>I teach as adjunct at a state university here in Oregon.  There's just no
>money for hiring tenured faculty when budgets are shrinking, costs are
>rising, and there's a glut of suckers like me who will teach as adjunct for
>a fraction of tenure-track full-time pay.
 <...>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 13:50:04 +0100
From: John Hopkins <jhopkins@uiah.fi>
Subject: Re: <nettime> funding education?

Hallo Aileen

>The requirements for this "tenure track position" for an assistant
>professor of German at a US university include: "The ability to teach
>using new technologies and to produce external funding are expected of
>each applicant."
>
>Does this mean that someone who wants this position would have to organize
>its financing themselves? What does "the ability to produce external
>funding" have to do with teaching ability? Is this kind of requirement
>conventional in other fields?
>
>I find the implications disturbing, but maybe I am just misunderstanding
>the requirement.

Absolutely necessary in the corporatization/marketing of education. 
Academic science research has already implemented this concept to a 
large extent.  Large research universities generally put teaching 
second and definitely behind splashy PR- (and $$-) grabbing research. 
Being a good and attentive teacher is seldom rewarded while getting 
ANY form of publicity(=$$) for the university is a screaming success. 
Sadly, often teaching is seen as an irritating side effect of having 
a University position.  And, in the end, even research suffers in the 
constant pursuit of funding.  I have many friends in the science 
research loop which keeps them hyper-stressed every few months doing 
applications for 'soft money' grants from the Defense Department, 
other governmental sources, or private (corporate) foundations.  The 
constant career-survival stress makes clearing a creative space in 
mind difficult.

You shouldn't be surprised.  You live in the Market.  German 
universities are beginning to move in this direction, if you haven't 
noticed.  Free education is not a luxury that a (socialized) state 
taxation system can afford when competing with cheap global labor...

sorry to confirm the bad news...

JH
-- 
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tech-no-mad::hypnostatic:: mediating idiosyncracy in Prague
domain: http://neoscenes.net
travelog: http://neoscenes.net/travelog/weblog.php
NEW EMAIL: <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net