From Dr. Kezar: Resisting the Gig Economy

There is little notice of or conversation about the significant – perhaps catastrophic — employment changes taking place at colleges and universities.  After decades of ignoring the adjunctification of faculty, we now see the transformation of almost every employment category in higher education – graduate students, postdocs, research faculty, and staff.  These groups are being outsourced, facing contingency and marginalization, just as adjunct have been.  My colleagues and I have labeled this phenomenon the Gig Academy and document its rise and impact in a forthcoming book –The Gig Academy.  This is at the same time as research continues to emphasize the perils of these employment conditions for student success, particularly those students who have long been ill served by higher education.

As a research center dedicated to the success of low income, first-generation, and underserved minority students, we find this trend deeply troubling.  I personally have dedicated over a decade of work to demonstrating the ill affects of neoliberalism, contingency, and the deprofessionalization of faculty and staff.  In this newsletter, we highlight a few of the latest efforts to alert higher education policymakers and leaders to the growing problems that these trends present for meeting the mission of higher education.  As the Pullias Center enters a new era under my leadership, we will be dedicated to examining issues like this that have long been under-explored but are central to student success. We remain one of the few research centers to be critics of neoliberalism, and see this as an essential role to help higher education in staying true to its mission and purpose.

It is exciting to see that some other organizations have also developed an awareness of the important role of faculty and the teaching/learning experience that have been left out of the student success movement.  These organizations are joining our long-time voice on this issue and are sounding a call to action.  For example, Karen Stout, President of Achieving the Dream, issued a bold call for student success efforts to explore reforms in teaching and learning and the central role of faculty to student success.

Pullias will remain a center that is on the cutting edge and front line of trends that shape the academy.  Over the next year, our monthly newsletters will provide insights into issues that all leaders should be aware of if they want to support student success and maintain integrity as institutions of higher learning.  So much is at stake right now as the soul of higher education is eroding.  We must resist.   If we do not, higher education will become further unmoored, so much so, there may be no reclaiming its best parts.  Please join us in our many efforts to resist neoliberalism, to resist the Gig Academy, and take part in our community by reading our research, sending your thoughts, and participating in our projects.