The Faces of APSCUF
"The Faces of APSCUF" campaign is being kicked off with the release of four posters featuring a variety of faculty members from around the SRU campus. Posters can be seen in departmental offices, on bulletin boards, and in other places on campus. Additional posters will be released in the next few weeks--so keep an eye out for new additions.
The goal of the campaign is to remind students that their professors are active members of a labor union that continues to support quality education at low cost. The SRU faculty believes that teaching is the most important part of their job. And APSCUF wants students to know that it is the time faculty spends with students each day that matters most to faculty because everyone cannot help but gain when we all engage in the learning process together. In fact, when dynamic conversation among students and professors takes place inside the classroom, in the hallways, and in a variety of organizational settings where faculty serve as mentors and advisors, learning cannot help but happen. And learning together is, at Slippery RockUniversity, like other institutions of higher education across the country and around the world, the heart of the matter.
So when you see a poster of the APSCUF faculty members who teach students day-in and day-out, remember that we are all in this together, teaching and learning, learning and teaching.
posted by Melba Tomeo at 7:15 PM
4 Comments:
Great posters! Beautifully done. I'm looking forward to more.
Honestly, I can't stand seeing these posters around campus. I am a student and I saw your 'busy schedules' in a day of a professor. Well, I should post a day in the life of a student or how about a day in the life of a janitor who whipes up shit stains from professors who are making 20 times the amount that they are. The janitors probably work a second job just so they can put food on the table but all professors can think about is their busy life 'checking emails' (they forgot to mention not only from students but also their friends/family. Stop being whiny little bitches and be happy that you are making so much!
In my opinion, both jobs are hard and should be compensated fairly, just as I hope the career you are preparing for compensates you fairly.
Gee, I find the posters of APSCUF faculty to be delightful. For me it is a reminder that my colleagues are not only teachers, advisors, members of committees, and mentors, but have also been able to commit to the faculty union--which means they believe that working together to effect change is a good road to travel.
As for the busy schedules of faculty members posted on the website, I'd have to say that the point of posting the schedules is to remind everyone, management, students, community members, and faculty, that getting through each day is often a careful and complex balancing act. Every faculty member has been a student and recalls the difficulties of working, going to school, and meeting the demands of family and friends. In fact, most faculty members have been students for about 10 years past high school. And in part, that is why they receive the pay they do.
Faculty members have invested an enormous amount of time and money into obtaining an education, and they've got bills to pay, and student loans to retire, and medical costs to cover, and so on, just like students. There is no doubt the facilities staff at SRU and everywhere works hard for their money, and they should be compensated fairly for their difficult work just as faculty should. It would be great if this country had a living wage in place that would serve as a safety net for those who are at a different place on the socio-economic spectrum than faculty, but, sadly it doesn't. It is unfair to exaggerate the compensation levels of faculty, too, since there is no faculty member that makes even six times the amount that a member of the facilities staff makes, let alone twenty!
With regard to the "checking emails" comment--that does seem to be a little over the top. For many professors, email communication has all but replaced communication by telephone, and email is definitely a tool that is used in a myriad of ways to enhance and extend the learning process and build stronger relationships outside of the classroom which lead to even better learning experiences inside the classroom.
Checking email for me usually means responding to students' questions, reviewing drafts of papers, offering advice, clarifying confusion, and so on. It is work, just like everything else we do.
Finally, the "whiny little bitches" remark seems to be rather harsh. The author of the comment needs to be aware that the faculty union at SRU is about 400 people, both men and women, strong. Our desire for a fair contract doesn't make us whiny in the least.
Asking for fair treatment seems to me to be a more than reasonable request.
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