Submitted by wight martindale, Dec 30, 2007 09:16

Good for Spitzer. But the faculty will never tolerate this diminuition of their personal status and power. Their greatest influence has always been in the hiring of new faculty--which they use to enhance their own perceived status (I am as good as these new people) and extend their personal political agenda (hire more gays, more liberals, more minorities, more young people dependent on my guidance and higher standing, etc.). They seldom hire great scholars, which is really a separate search outside the 2,000 new teachers.

What the system needs is new teachers, people to teach the freshman and sophomore courses that are so draining. This is the real work of the college, the reason they exist (not to perform research, which outside of medicine and the physical sciences is dubious at best), is to teach. To prepare high school students for a competitive business world in which skills matter. Adjuncts are already good at this, and the best of them should be welcomed with open arms. After all, they will always be needed, even after the 2,000 new jobs are filled. The new teachers will avoid the difficult teaching just as senior faculty do.

Let's get real here. Spitzer is asking for what is really needed, and filling the jobs in the best manner. But once again, he is running up against an established power block. Can he fight it? Will he fight it ? Is he really a fighter, or just another politician who sees reelection as most easily accomplished by playing ball with the power blocks?

we'll see.

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