Thread by @steph_pettigrew

As promised last week, I’ve got a new thread 🧵 for you: sessionals, the academy, and job action. Strap in, cause I’ve got a LOT of feelings about this one. #ulfastrike #PSE #worthfightingfor /1

Let’s begin with a primer: what is a sessional? Well, me, I’m a sessional right now at ULeth. I was hired for a single term to replace someone who had to take sick leave, which is one of the reasons why I’m participating in this strike from NB. /2

But at the moment, I’m not really representative of sessionals at ULeth or in Canada. Sessionals are academics with the same credentials as full-time tenured faculty (PhD, publications, etc) who have been hired for a short-term contract to teach a course at a PSE institution. /3

In our early days after defending our dissertation, we are expected to “take what we can get,” and that is often sessional contracts. There are so, so many reasons why this is problematic. /4

First, the pay. The average salary offered for a sessional contract in this country is about $6,500 per course (obv that varies wildly depending on where you are in the country). Most universities have a max number of courses a sessional can teach. /5

Let’s say that number is 3 per semester, that leaves a sessional with a salary of 19,500 per semester. 3 courses for 2 semesters is 39,000. Sounds ok, right? /6

This is the absolute best-case scenario, though, in which a sessional would be given the maximum course load at a single institution. What ACTUALLY happens, much more frequently, is sessionals end up taking multiple contracts at multiple universities just to make ends meet. /7

To say nothing of the constant anxiety of not knowing if you’ll be gainfully employed at the end of the term. And if you’re not, you’re expected to move to wherever the next “opportunity” is, despite having no money to move. /8

Sessionals do not have benefits. If they have health conditions, better hope they have spouses with health insurance to help pay for that. They cannot apply for most grants, but are still expected to keep up with research in order to get the coveted “tenure-track” job. /9

Publications, conference presentations, research trips – all of these things cost a lot of money, but they are told over and over again that there is no chance of landing a permanent position if you do not pursue research and publication. /10

So, what does any of this have to do with job action? You may remember in one of my threads last week, I mentioned that ULeth had already eliminated over 100 full-time positions by simply not filling vacancies. This problem is endemic all over Canada. /11

University management is taking advantage of contract employment to save on costs. Even with a full course load, a sessional without benefits is much cheaper than a full-time tenured faculty member. That’s like a 50-60% costs savings, easy calculation if you’re a CEO. /12

But for sessionals, the costs are high. Really high. The constant anxiety of having to re-apply for jobs, having courses cancelled without any warning and thereby finding ourselves without income, denied funding for research, unable to collect EI. /13

The hours travelling between institutions and home, working 60-80 hour weeks just to get course work done along with our own research projects to feel like we are getting ahead or getting by. The isolation from family and partners. /14

The result is massive burnout. It’s not sustainable. Most people who spend more than a year or two in this endless cycle end up rage-quitting academia altogether, because let’s face it, sessional pay isn’t even enough to pay rent and student loans. /15

This untenable situation results in heavier workloads for tt-faculty as well. If universities stopped cutting full-time positions, there would immediately be more full-time faculty to take on service work such as committees that do critical work. /16

These cuts to full-time positions affect enrollment, they affect the retention of talent, and they deeply affect how well an institution is run. Sessionals do not do committee and service work for very good reason. /17

That’s why you see many faculty associations include clauses regarding contract and sessional appointments at the bargaining table. The issue of contract academic work ties in with the burden currently being placed on everyone to make universities work for students. /18

For more information on how sessional and contract academic work is impacting @ULFAssociation collective bargaining, see ulfa.ca/bargaining_upd… /19

And for more on precarious work in the academy its impacts on the profession and on enrollment, see @activehistory, Precarious Historical Instructors’ Manifesto /20 activehistory.ca/2020/02/precar…

This has been a long thread already; so next time we'll talk more about academic work loads and how cutting full-time positions places a strain on everyone. 21/21