The comment above illustrates the frustrations expressed by part-timers in their open-ended responses to my survey.¹ In the introduction I discussed the faculty crisis in Canadian universities, which began in the 1970s, and its formative role in part-timers′ discontent. In contrast to the 1970s, however, ′the 1960s were a ″golden era″ for [U.S.] education in general, as well as for the academic profession′ (Bowen and Sosa, 1989: 147).² In Canada, too, there was a parallel strengthening of the academic profession, but increased rates of inflation and a decline in public funding in the 1970s and 1980s translated into a tightening...

The above quotation encapsulates the experiences of many qualified academics working as part-timers and frustrated by their job search. University central administration and full-time faculty are often in the dark about part-timers′ career aspirations, their motivations, and other aspects of their work life, although they are visibly working among, and along with, them in academe. It is obvious that the full-time faculty do not share a similar plight in job search and work status, but this is only part of the reason why their interests have diverged from those of part-timers.

As we saw in chapter one, universities′ financial shortfalls...

Unlike their full-time counterparts, part-time faculty women are not statistically reported on. Although more numerous proportionally than women full-timers, women part-timers are less visible. Full-time faculty women are significantly fewer than full-time men. Compared with part-time faculty women, however, full-time faculty women are far more visible and are recognized both as individuals and as a group. In this chapter I will examine women part-timers′ situation: who they are, the rhetoric of women′s work as voluntary, the realities of their work, and their influence.

Historically, the proportion of women among full-time faculty in Canadian universities has been abysmally low, but from...

Significantly different profiles of two types of part-timers emerge from my survey. Those who have full-time non-academic jobs I have called ′Classics,′ and those who hold mainly academic part-time positions ′Contemporaries′ (see chapter 2, p. 68). The two groups have distinct reasons for teaching part time and differing work needs and motivations. Classics and Contemporaries have fundamentally different work, career and decision-making roles within academe. Although both groups are part-timers, most are covered under the same terms and conditions of work, and, where unionized, belong to the same union, they have little in common. Their comments show that they are...

After explaining briefly how I selected full-timers for the survey, in this chapter I present results of regression analyses from the survey of fulltimers, isolating areas of conflict between them and part-timers. The two groups are hierarchically organized, each with its own interests and unique demands on the university. Full-timers hire part-timers and regulate their work. There seems to be a marked segmentation of interests among full-timers and also sharp conflicting relations between full- and part-timers. Of all the factors analysed, rank segments full-timers in their attitudes towards part-timers. Rank is a significant predictor in my regression models (discussed below)...

To what extent do these comments represent part-timers′ experiences in the university? To find out, we need to explore the attitudes of academic administrators and their interactions with part-timers. In the literature, the predominant image of part-timers is one of invisibility and marginality in academe. However, few studies of full-timers or part-timers elaborate on the various factors that shape their situation - the university′s mission, full-timers′ goals as academic administrators, their perceptions of part-timers, and their treatment of part-timers. Indeed, academic administrators′ relationships with part-timers are governed substantially by the complex interactions of these full-timers- cum-administrators with managerial responsibilities as...

The above comment from a part-time member of the faculty is not an isolated perception. With the introduction of a new type of teacher, the faculty collegium has turned from a rank-privilege structure into an authority-power hierarchy. Although full-time faculty may treat their part-timers with consideration and take them under their wings to protect them from the excesses of university administration, collegiality does not extend to the part-timers. Conceptually, ′sweated labour′¹ describes exploitive production relations in which one section of workers produces a surplus whose use is controlled by other sections that hierarchically control the workers below them (Himmelweit, 1983:...