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Book Editors Donate Royalties
The editors of Steal This University: The Rise of the Corporate University and the Academic Labor Movement have announced that they will donate all royalties from the book to support the AAUP's efforts on behalf of contingent faculty. Specifically, the editors want to promote knowledge of and adherence to AAUP policy on contingent issues, assist contingent faculty engaged in collective action, and support leadership development for adjunct activists. The editors are Benjamin Johnson, a history professor at Southern Methodist University; Patrick Kavanagh, a staff member at the Communications Workers of America; and Kevin Mattson, a history professor at Ohio University. The Association has established a special fund, the Contingent Faculty Fund, dedicated to supporting work on contingent faculty issues.
Johnson, Kavanagh, and Mattson's decision to donate their royalties stemmed from their desire to strengthen the contingent faculty movement. Through research and personal experiences, says Kavanagh, "we recognized that the AAUP is taking the lead nationally on this issue; it just made perfect sense to support the AAUP in its efforts."
Steal This University is a collection of scholarly essays and personal narratives that examine the changing face of the academy. Essays in the volume analyze higher education's overreliance on adjuncts and teaching assistants, the debate over tenure, the merits of merit pay, and efforts to organize unions. The book addresses the influence of corporate models on the university and demonstrates how full-time professors have been replaced by a "pool of underpaid contingent laborers with little, if any, benefits and no job security." A review of the book appears on pages 97-99. To purchase a copy of Steal This University, visit the publisher's Web site <www.routledge.com>.
"The editors' generosity in donating their royalties to the Association is most commendable," says AAUP president Jane Buck. "The overuse and abuse of contingent faculty is one of the greatest threats to academic freedom and to the quality of higher education, and the Contingent Faculty Fund will be of inestimable value as we continue the struggle for equity for our contingent colleagues."
Direct contributions to the fund are welcome and may be mailed to AAUP, P.O. Box 96132, Washington, DC 20077-7020.
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