dr. bernhard rosenberg commented on Harassment incidents continue to rattle Rutgers -----Original Message-----
From: chaimdov
To: ejccbethel
Sent: Thu, Mar 15, 2012 10:13 am
Subject: Fwd: video DR. ROSENBERG SPEAKS OUT






I would like to explain why I have been asking for your assistance regarding my teaching at Rutgers. This is about dignity. Quite often i send out information regarding available jobs for the unemployed. It is indeed a horrible feeling to have a lost a job for anyone who spent many years in a position. That is why I spend so much time trying to help congregants get jobs. Often, leaving a position involves bullying, harrassment and poor treatment. Therefore I ask you , because I love teaching in college and my students love my classes, to speak out. Please send out the video, sign the petition and spread the word. rabbi rosenberg















The Life of a Part-Time Lecturer: Underpaid, Uninsured and Unstable
By Matt Hunger • Oct 9th, 2006 • Category: Featured, News
Share/SaveEnormous white-framed aviators, a tight red, faded elementary school t-shirt, jeans cut into shorts mid-thigh. Flip-flops, the beginnings of a moustache. A nose-ring, gelled hair, fashion-mullet. A Tom Cruise-ian air of machismo confidence, pre-Scientology. This is Dr. Paul D’Agostino.
It’s dark in the PJ’s coffee shop D’Agostino has agreed to meet me at, and when he opens the door to enter, the blinding mid-afternoon sun frames him in the silhouette of a dramatic pose.
“Hey man, is this Highland Park or the West Village?”
He turns to see who says this, but just catches the rear end of a green Mustang convertible driving away.
There’s an air of resignation in his walk as he crosses the mostly empty coffee shop to where I’m waiting.
“I can’t catch a break in this town, can I?” he asks, sitting down across from me.
Until this fall, D’Agostino was a part-time lecturer (PTL) at Rutgers University, Ph.D. of Italian Literature from same said University, book reviewer, author, ex-barista, ex-semi-professional skateboarder, ex-employed.
Before I can even begin to look at my list of questions, he’s already started talking, and by the time I’ve ruffled through my laptop bag and found my tape recorder, I’ve missed half of what he’s said — something about Baudrillard, corporate coffee shops, and memetics. But it’s no problem. This is a man with a lot more to say and plenty of time to say it.
Efficiency and downsourcing
To dwell on the specifics of New Jersey’s budget cuts and the impact on Rutgers University here would be superfluous – dozens of other articles in newspapers across the country have reported the key details of the plan. These journalists have taken different approaches, have varied the perspectives of their articles to fully illustrate the devastation of the impact: sports programs cut, courses cancelled, funding lost for a plethora of programs in each and every department. This is a reasonable approach — professional, objective journalism. Those famed five or six (maybe seven?) questions journalists are supposed to address.
But what these newspapers presuppose, unfortunately, is that this is a matter of course. Perhaps an unfortunate course – certainly not one without detrimental consequences – but the “Why?” they address isn’t, “Why would a state university that channels $2.8 billion per year back into New Jersey’s economy be treated like an unwanted step-child?”
The answer may lie in the typical criticisms of government-run institutions: that they’re wasteful; that this wastefulness comes, in part, from the lack of competition, which would, ostensibly weed out those not working to the level of efficiency required.
Whether Rutgers, a state institution, is lacking in efficiency as compared to a private institution is something to be considered in a different article. What is important here, however, are the consequences of this mindset. When an educational institution is forced to balance a reasonable tuition with a shortfall in state funding, it can’t help but take cost-cutting measures to meet that bottom line and stay “competitive.”
Consequently, it has to treat its most important employees, namely the faculty, in a way comparable to ways big businesses treat their employees — limiting benefits offered, eliminating subjects that aren’t deemed “important,” and cutting the jobs of hundreds of part-time faculty, which in turn diminishes the quality of education at the University.
Of course, this is why the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was created. The AAUP looks out for worker rights, because even scholars need their rights – like tenure and academic freedom — protected.
However, for the 700 PTLs at Rutgers, who are responsible for 30 percent of the university’s instruction and have no chance of tenure, many rights do not exist. These employees, as a result, become something more akin to independent contractors working for a business. You have to wonder about the quality of teaching when many of the teachers are underpaid afterthoughts.
“I know a lot of part-time people, and many of them just don’t take their jobs seriously,” says D’Agostino. “I truly like teaching, and I’d like to think I did a good job. But often when you don’t get paid that well, you don’t necessarily work that hard.”
Many of these PTLs and teaching assistants (TA) are graduate students, most of them provided with a tuition remission and a stipend in exchange for their services as teachers. There is a clear benefit to having graduate students teach, or assist in the teaching of classes. It allows them to more fully engage in the subject matter they’re studying, it prepares them for their future as professors, and it provides them an income so less time has to be devoted to a job not directly related to their schoolwork. But those are, of course, only benefits for the graduate student, not the other PTLs.
“[This practice is] sort of a downsourcing, not an outsourcing,” says D’Agostino. As a PTL, he usually makes $3,300 per course ($1,100 per credit, with most courses being three credits). However, he points out, “the stipend I received as a graduate student was $15,000 per year, for teaching one course per semester.”
In addition, most graduate students receive tuition remission. In-state cost (tuition and fees) for one semester of Rutgers graduate school is $4,994.15, and for students moving to New Jersey from out-of-state, it is $6,402.60.
Graduate student teachers are not only paid more than PTLs, but they also have benefits.
“As a TA I actually had health insurance,” D’Agostino notes. “I even went to the dentist a few times.”
While it’s hard to blame a university for assisting its graduate student population, on the whole, this practice is questionable.
Of course, not all PTLs try to subside on just a few courses they can teach at universities. Often PTLs are professionals in other fields and teach on the side. D’Agostino argues that, for him, not being a full-time academic makes him a better educator.
“I use my so-called free time to continue interests that, while not necessarily directly related to the subject I teach, are essential to me as a person,” he says. “And a person who can actively engage in many of his interests can avoid the cynicism so closely associated with teachers. When big universities look scornfully at part-time employees, what they fail to realize is that the quality of education is proportional to the professor’s growth.”
A week after I interviewed Dr. D’Agostino, and a few days before the start of the school year, he called me.
“Hey Matt, I hope this doesn’t screw up your article, but Rutgers just called to offer me two courses in the fall,” he said. “I have a few days to get everything ready.”
At first I had to admit to being a bit concerned. Was my concept of corporate education was off-base the entire time? Did this new information kill my whole article?
Then I realized this stringing-along even more completely illustrated my point. Funding was found, value was placed in providing more classes for the students, and that’s fantastic. But treating 700 of your employees in such a fashion is no way to run a business. Nor is it an intelligent way to run an institution of higher learning.


-----Original Message-----
From: Jamie Lesko
To: president
Cc: chaimdov
Sent: Wed, Mar 7, 2012 10:41 am
Subject: Concerned Student Over Teachers Mistreatment


Dear President McCormick,
We are writing to you as the President of Rutgers University, because our attempted communications with others have yielded no favorable results other than a mere ?Thank You?. We understand that Dr. Rosenberg being a part time lecturer has been informed that he has no rights, but we as students do. We do not understand how our beloved instructor who has proven to be the best teacher that we have had in college can be harassed and bullied by members of this school. While his union may have said this is okay, we as students on moral ground refuse to accept this. You have accused him of showing his instructional YouTube video in class and have found some way to make that an issue. We understand that one student has complained on the first day of class, but how can one student represent the majority of students in one class? By turning a mole hole in a mountain you have stripped us of an educational opportunity that we would have only received by taking his class.

Dr. Rosenberg has posted several YouTube videos of himself speaking on the internet and we have used these videos by copying his mannerisms to make us better teachers. Through his weekly appearances on radio and television, where he is asked to speak on various issues, we have come to realize that he is one of the best speakers that we have come to observe. We have found those who oppose Dr. Rosenberg?s position to be illogical; it is a clear-cut case of defending the indefensible. He is easy to understand and is filled with tremendous insight.
He is not teaching this summer, and was not even given the courtesy of being notified. He has been teaching summer courses for numerous years and we know for a fact that many of our fellow students have been waiting anxiously to take his class, since every semester, his classes are filled to capacity. Every summer, students from other colleges take his course due to his reputation. We do not understand the explanation that was given, ?summer course registration was low,? because his would definitely have been filled.

There are those that argue that he gives out grades too easily, but did it ever occur to those people that students succeed in his class because his instructions are clear and concise and easy to be followed? Even those who fear public speaking become comfortable and eloquent in his class. We would respectfully request the opportunity to meet with you or someone of your stature in a face-to-face manner to resolve the injustice that we believe may be imminent.









DR. ROSENBERG SPEAKS OUT. THE TEACHER WHO CARES. THE ROSENBERG REVOLTION SHARE WITH OTHERS. REGARDING RUTGERS

dr. bernhard rosenberg commented on Harassment incidents continue to rattle Rutgers om it May Concern,

We are writing to you as the overall head of School of Communication because our attempted communications with others have yielded no favorable results other than a mere “Thank You”. We understand that Dr. Rosenberg being a part time lecturer has been informed that he has no rights, but we as students do. We do not understand how our beloved instructor who has proven to be the best teacher that we have had in college can be harassed and bullied by members of this school. While his union may have said this is okay, we as students on moral ground refuse to accept this. You have accused him of showing his instructional YouTube video in class and have found some way to make that an issue. We understand that one student has complained on the first day of class, but how can one student represent the majority of students in one class? By turning a mole hole in a mountain you have striped us of an education opportunity that we would have only received by taking his class.
Dr. Rosenberg has posted several YouTube videos of himself speaking on the Internet and we have used these videos by copying his mannerisms to make us better teachers. Through his weekly appearances on radio and television, where he is asked to speak on various issues, we have come to realize that he is one of the best speakers that we have come to observe. Those who oppose Dr. Rosenberg’s position we have found to be illogical, is a clear-cut case of defending the indefensible. He is easy to understand and is filled with tremendous insight.
There is a reason that his class is filled regardless of the semester. There are those that argue that he gives out too easy of grades, but did it ever occur to those that students succeed in his class is because his instructions are clear and concise and easy to be followed; even those who fear public speaking become comfortable and eloquent in his class. We would respectfully request the opportunity to meet with you or someone of your stature in a face-to-face manner to resolve the injustice that we believe may be imminent.

Cordially,
Concerned Students