[update below]
The NYT had a salutary article the other day on a subject practically no one knows a thing about—except for the relatively small number of those directly concerned—, which is the plight of professors who teach in American study abroad centers in Paris—of their precarious conditions of employment, lack of benefits, and low salaries (and which one would presume is the case with American study abroad centers elsewhere as well). The increasing use of expendable, low paid, no benefit adjuncts in American universities is a well-known scandal—and that the article mentions—but is generalized in the study abroad centers of those same universities—and with lower pay to boot—, even though welfare states like France are supposed to offer working people a higher level of job protection and benefits. Not surprisingly, most of the professors interviewed for the NYT article did not wish to be identified by name, out of fear of losing their jobs. An administrator at one of the larger Paris programs declined to comment for the article. Of course he declined. What was he supposed to say? The responses of those who did comment on the record recounted a certain amount of bulldust. Two of the offending institutions mentioned in the article I know personally (their administrators and administrating faculty—almost all Americans—situate themselves on the political left almost to a man or a woman but when it comes to their actions as administrators and the values that guide them in their relationships with those whom they have the authority to hire and fire, they would be right at home on Wall Street or in any corporate boardroom). And then there are some particularly egregious offenders—real bad apples—the article didn’t mention. The situation is not all somber, it should be said, as there are study abroad programs that do indeed show commitment to their teaching staff (and their loyalty is duly reciprocated), but, malheureusement, these are in the minority.
UPDATE: AJE has a relevant article (April 11) on “Academia’s indentured servants.”
I read the article in its IHT edition in the plane. What I would like to say is that the situation does not seem like a monopoly of American Universities’ study abroad centers. The only thing I could add is that there is a vast fauna of temporary teachers, interns, PhD students doing teaching work, “vacataires” and the like in French academic centers as well. And their situation is dire, a veritable academic proletariat. In Northern Europe or Germany, these “academic poors” are kept afloat by a system of ad hoc private or semi-public foundations and grants, but in France there is nothing outside full-time official posts.
Absolutely right, Louis. This situation is hardly unique to American study abroad centers. The condition of the army of vacataires in French universities is, if anything, even worse than chez les Américains, as they are paid even less – indeed much less – and have to wait for many months before even seeing a paycheck. At least in the American establishments one is sure to receive a wire transfer to one’s bank account at the end of the month.
“Summer abroad” programs seem to have changed. Ours was a way for the two schools and their professors to make some extra money over the summer. The one I attended in my final year had a couple of our regular faculty who wanted extra money and a free trip to England teaching but mostly it was the faculty of the host school teaching abbreviated versions of their regular subjects. That was the main attraction of the program.
Mitch: These aren’t summer abroad programs, though they all have programs in the summer. They’re regular year round programs for students – from more than one university (I’ve had classes of a dozen students each one from a different university in the US) – coming to Paris to spend a semester or year in Paris taking a full load of courses, and where the professors are local hires. These programs existed when I was a college student (in the 1970s) but there are many more of them nowadays, not only in Paris but throughout the world. Study abroad has become a big business (and with labor practices similar to those of the business world).