This article describes how universities are currently organized, with full professors conducting research and teaching higher-level students, and undergraduates being taught by sessional (aka adjunct) instructors and teaching assistants. The presumption seems always to be that it is wrong to have so many sessionals and assistants. Maybe, but maybe the problem is simply that their working conditions are so poor. The author blames unions for the unfair wage distribution, and argues "there is little opportunity for a tenured professor to sit with a group of undergraduate students." This to me is a pretty clear argument for unionization for lower level university employees (I actually tried to organize this when I was a graduate student president in the early 90s). Instead of trying to find lower-cost labour, universities should be trying to serve more students and a broader range of students.
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