[aminbandali]

I've been fortunate enough to have Andrew (the author) as my Physics prof, last year.

Although I've always enjoyed and understood physics (to my own share) before, the way he taught it all of a sudden made everything much more clear. I could see the connections between each concept and the next.

To be able to teach this well, indeed requires a lot of experience; and as much hard work and passion; and Andrew does/has all of that, despite all these issues.

> I would like to give my students the very best learning experience that I possibly can.

I could't agree more. Not only is he knowledgeable, but he's also great at conveying it.

I'm writing this comment in a hurry but I really felt I had to write it. I'll write a follow up in near future; and I'll try to explain the situtation from a student's point of view too. All I can say right now is that this is not what he (and many other Contract Instructors) deserves.

If you ever read this, Andrew, I'd like to thank you again for all you've done for me, and many others. Please keep aspiring and inspiring us.

[eigenvector]

In my experience in governance at A Highly Ranked Canadian Research University, where most top administrative posts were held by tenured professors, they tend to take the view of "well, I successfully negotiated the gauntlet of obtaining tenure through my research, if you can't do the same, tough luck."

Dean, department head and provostial positions are heavily weighted toward highly successful researchers who have effectively "retired" into administration and seem not to consider teaching to be one of the university's core functions.

It's easier to convince these people to hire another janitor @ $70k/year than to give a contract teacher a full-time job at the same salary since to them bringing non-researchers into the ranks of permanent faculty is equivalent to letting the barbarians into Rome.

[kylebrown]

The last paragraph from one of his follow-up articles, The Importance of Going Viral, is relevant:

"In fact the response has been overwhelmingly positive from everyone, except regular faculty. Not one message of support from anyone in a tenured position, in Physics or any other department. The status quo has considerable appeal when you are in the position of privilege."

[theorique]

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" (Upton Sinclair)

[markhahn]

$70k janitors, what a hoot! yeah, not so much.

[stevenbedrick]

When you count in the cost of benefits, retirement, overhead, etc., I can easily imagine a full-time janitorial position costing the university 70k.

[markhahn]

Fair enough. But this guy is talking about his takehome, not the fully-encumbered price for his position.

[mooreds]

I think part of the point is that the attractiveness of a contract instructor is that the fully encumbered price is very much closer to the take home salary than for a tenured professor (or indeed, even a janitor).

[driverdan]

Write to the school and tell them how you feel.

[antr]

The best way to help him is by contacting the school and telling them how f-ed up the system is. The school needs to feel the pressure from every side.

[bsenftner]

Now, isn't the school simply reacting to the current fashion of Western Governments underfunding education? It is not like Universities are profitable, they operate on government funding, which is reducing year after year. He needs to take his situation to the public at large and get policy change at the national government level.

[antr]

You are probably right. But let me put my "free capital markets" hat on, and I'm specially refering to:

I have tried to have my job turned into a permanent one. The University has turned me down, and told me that giving me a permanent job is against “the strategic direction of the University, Faculty of Science and the Department”. The permanent faculty in the department will not support me because I am a teacher now, not an active scientific researcher.

The University, above anything is a place to teach. Yes, research is important, but above anything a place to teach. Striking the right teaching/research balance, specially in the sciences is difficult. But in my opinion most of the university budgets should go to teaching, and research should be secondary.

If lack of public funding is really the issue for not paying teachers, in my opinion, it's then when public universities should think like private institutons. Sure you can't compete with endowments like Hardvard, MIT or Stanford, but I think that the future of higher education is by finding the right private sector partners to carry out research.

[driverdan]

Seriously? The school in question is Carleton University. They charge CA$5,600-10,700 per semester or CA$1,000-1,800 per credit hour[1]. That's plenty to hire and pay professors properly.

Educational institutions of all levels bloat themselves with overpaid administration. If funding is an issue that is the first place they should look to cut.

1: http://carleton.ca/studentaccounts/tuition-fees/fw-ug/fallwi...

[mgingras]

Those are yearly costs.

[andrewr_physics]

I read it. Thanks.

And to all those people saying walk away - that's the easy thing to do. The right thing to do is stand up and say "This is wrong" - not just for me, but for lots of other University teachers.