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I agree with students who want tuition adjusted/lowered based on going online. I *also* agree with faculty who say their salaries should not be lowered because teaching online is 10x more work.
But I also don’t think these are competing claims.
But I also don’t think these are competing claims.
By virtue of being remote and closing university campuses budgets in higher ed will look different. They’ll have costs but overhead costs for some things (e.g. lights, internet, maintenance, etc.) might actually be lower in some instances.
While salaries are among the largest parts of university budgets, there are immense salary disparities in higher ed. In some universities the salaries and benefits of three administrators are the same (or more) as the salaries and benefits of 25 faculty members.
Instead of reading student calls to adjust tuition based on online learning as taking away from faculty salaries, what if we read it as an opportunity for faculty and students to question salary and labor disparities in higher ed?
This is an opportunity to question the administrative inflation of higher ed, the salary disparities, and even begin conversations about maximum salary caps and unionization.
I do think student tuition fees should be adjusted in light of an online transition. I also think faculty should be paid the same if not more for online teaching which actually is more work. To me, these calls *both* help us question the neoliberalization of higher ed.
For schools that receive state/city funding, this is also part of the conversation that has to be discussed: how much is being spent on police versus people’s salaries?
https://twitter.com/n_th_n_/status/1277771475173474304?s=21 https://twitter.com/n_th_n_/status/1277771475173474304
https://twitter.com/n_th_n_/status/1277771475173474304?s=21 https://twitter.com/n_th_n_/status/1277771475173474304
I want to clarify something here. I’m not saying all expenses will be lower nor that lower expenses in some areas will make up budget deficits (esp in state schools). I am saying budgets are in flux w/ new costs/savings so reassessing tuition makes sense. https://twitter.com/jjrodv/status/1278078742607343621?s=21
The spirit of this thread is that I’m very skeptical of this uncritically accepted notion that because of the pandemic budgets automatically need to be cut, faculty automatically fired, and tuition automatically raised/kept the same. That smells like disaster capitalism to me.
And a consequence, in my view, of this notion being so readily accepted and spread in higher ed is that the interests of various stakeholders within institutions (e.g. students and faculty) are placed in opposition to one another when there might actually be solidarity.
