Adjunct Law Prof Blog

SMU Law: Federal Circuit and Patent Law Symposium

The SMU Dedmon School of Law will host its 10th Annual Symposium on Emerging Intellectual Property Issues on March 22, 2013, with a presentation titled "The Federal Circuit and Patent Law."  The one day symposium includes four panel discussions - The Federal Circuit's Stewardship of Patent Law: A View from the Bench; Institutional Roles: The Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court; Allies or Competitors: The Federal Circuit and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and Innovation, Disruptive Technologies and the Federal Circuit.  Bernard J. Knight, Jr., General Counsel, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is scheduled to deliver the luncheon and keynote address.  A complete brochure for the symposium is here.

Craig Estlinbaum

Profology and Other Adjunct News

Profology

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that Bob Ertischek, an adjunct professor at Monroe Community College in Rochester, has created a social media network for people working in higher education.  The site is called Profology.  The site describes itself as "a place where faculty and other higher education professionals can meet, exchange ideas and work to improve pedagogy, research, classroom technology and assessment, and more."  The platform actually opened in beta in 2011, and went fully operational sometime last year, but I just heard about it, so it's news to me.  And now, maybe to you.

IRS and Adjuncts

The IRS has posted guidance in the Federal Register relating to compensation for adjunct faculty, according to a Huffington Post report earlier this month.  From the HuffPo story:

The IRS noted in the Federal Register that "educational organizations generally do not track the full hours of service of adjunct faculty, but instead compensate adjunct faculty on the basis of credit hours taught." In short, most colleges are only paying part-time instructors for time spent in a classroom, and nothing for time spent grading or preparing.

The Treasury Department and the IRS are considering and "invite further comment on how best to determine the full-time status of employees" like educators, who may work many hours after students leave the classroom.

Correctly classifying adjunct, part-time or non-tenured faculty has taken on increased importance as the Affordable Care Act provisions relating to employer coverage come into effect.

Adjuncts and Governance

A joint subcommittee of the Association’s Committee on Contingency and the Profession and the Committee on College and University Governance, approved a final version of a report, "The Inclusion in Governance of Faculty Members Holding Contingent Appointments."  The report includes a broad range of recommendations designed to address the fact that more and more teaching at college and universities is performed by adjunct, part-time or non-tenured faculty.  Collene Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed has a summary and commentary on the report here.

Craig Estlinbaum

Do College Professors Work Hard Enough??

David Levy, a former Chancellor at New School University, wrote an op ed article in the March 25, 2012 Washington Post where he basically argues that professors get paid too much for the work they do. As he states:

With the 1970s advent of collective bargaining in higher education, this began to change. The result has been more equitable circumstances for college faculty, who deserve salaries comparable to those of other educated professionals. Happily, senior faculty at most state universities and colleges now earn $80,000 to $150,000, roughly in line with the average incomes of others with advanced degrees.

Not changed, however, are the accommodations designed to compensate for low pay in earlier times. Though faculty salaries now mirror those of most upper-middle-class Americans working 40 hours for 50 weeks, they continue to pay for teaching time of nine to 15 hours per week for 30 weeks, making possible a month-long winter break, a week off in the spring and a summer vacation from mid-May until September.

Paul Krugman responds by writing an op ed for the New York Times. Professor Krugman, who teaches a Princeton, take is that "the idea that faculty at big state schools, let alone community colleges, have it easy is just mind-boggling."

    My take on this is that anyone who thinks being a professor is easy because it only involves teaching 3 classes a semester does not know what most professors do. Teaching is only a small part of what they do. To teach 9 hours a week, the professor must prepare. They must also keep abreast of the latest developments in their fields. Many also spend a considerable amount of time doing research, meeting with students and serving on faculty committees. 

Are some professors dead wood. Of course, but some doctors, lawyers, accountants, journalists are deadwood as well. 

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

College Student Suspended For Writing About Being Attracted To Professor

Oakland University (near Detroit) reportedly suspended a student for 3 semesters because he wrote in a class assignment that he found his instructors attractive. The course specifically permitted students to write creatively about any topic. In one entry titled "Hot for Teacher," the student tells a story about being worried because he is distracted in class by attractive professors. From the Press Release I saw, nothing vulgar was written. I do not know how many stories were written.

The student has retained a lawyer and is apparently bringing a First Amendment case to challenge his suspension. He is supported by an organization called Foundation For Individual Rights in Education, or "FIRE." You can read more about this bizzare story here.

UPDATE: February 13, 2012

It appears that some of the participants in this matter have chosen to comment. Their comments appear below.  

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

4th Circuit Holds Garcetti Does Not Apply To Public Universities

Adams v. Trustees of the Univ. of North Carolina-Wilmington, ___F.3d___ (4th Cir. April 6, 2011) is an important First Amendment case, particularly in higher education. 

Readers will recall that the Supreme Court in Garcetti further narrowed the First Amendment rights of public employees by drawing a distinction with respect to speech which was part of an employees job and purely private speech, with the only the later being constitutionally protected. Garcetti, however, also stated that the Court expressed no opinion whether that holding applied with respect to academic freedom issues because academic freedom is a special concern of the First Amendment. 

Now the 4th Circuit has spoken on this issue and held that Garcetti does not apply in the context of academic freedom. The plaintiff professor still has to meeting the public concern test as well as the Pickering balancing test, but he or she does not bear the additional burden under Garcetti of possibly facing dismissal if the speech was concerning the individuals employment. 

I agree with Professor Secunda over at Workplace Prof Blog who indicated that this case may be headed to the Supremes.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein 

Academic Pay Hit By The Economy

So you want to be a professor? If you do, you should not be interested in this career for the money-particularly in these times. An April 11, 2010 New York Times article states that faculty salary  increased by 1.2% which is the lowest increase in fifty years.  As the article states:

Academic pay has been squeezed by the recession, according to the annual salary survey by the American Association of University Professors.

Over all, salaries for this academic year are 1.2 percent higher than last year, the smallest increase recorded in the survey’s 50 years — and well below the 2.7 percent inflation rate from December 2008 to December 2009.

The survey found that average salary levels actually decreased this academic year at a third of colleges and universities, compared with 9 percent that reported lower average salaries in the previous two surveys. Private and church-related universities reported shrinking average salaries more often than public institutions.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

On Last Minute Pre-Exam Questions

If you are a law professor, adjunct or otherwise, your exam season is likely either here or just around the corner.  Professor Jessie Hill (Case Western Reserve) at PrawfBlawg today posted, "Could you please summarize civil procedure for me?" -- a timely post seeking comments on how to handle email questions from students as the final exam approaches.

I do not keep regular office hours - once the last class ends, I only take questions by email, but I send the answer to all the students who give me an email address, mostly on the premise that if one student has the question, others probably do too.  My normal class has 15 students, give or take a couple, most of whom are 3L's, so I'm not normally bombarded with questions (knock on wood).  I have had good luck with answers that do not directly answer the question so much as provide the student leads on where the answer might be found.

Of course, no student has ever asked, "Could you please summarize civil procedure for me?" either.

Craig Estlinbaum

Electronic Texts Are Here!

The New York Times reported on Feb. 21, 2010 that electronic texts are here. That article can be found by here, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/business/media/22textbook.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Thought the article is about college texts, seems to me that electronic texts are even more valuable to law professors in that case updates can be immediately inserted, links can also be provided etc. It also seems to me that all of this can be done in a MS Word document as well, cutting out the publisher completely. Perhaps, Profs can sell their documents directly resulting in a better and more cost efficient product for everyone.

The article describes electronic publishing as follows:

In a kind of Wikipedia of textbooks, Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes.

Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.

While many publishers have offered customized print textbooks for years — allowing instructors to reorder chapters or insert third-party content from other publications or their own writing — DynamicBooks gives instructors the power to alter individual sentences and paragraphs without consulting the original authors or publisher.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Kenneth Starr to Baylor University

The Los Angeles Times reports this afternoon that Kenneth Starr, former United States Solicitor General, is leaving his post as Dean of the Pepperdine Law School to become president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Craig Estlinbaum

Master's Degree Explosion

Ten Master's of the New Universe is an interesting Jan. 5, 2010 article from the New York Times. It highlights the fact that there has been an explosion in the amount of Master's degrees. As the article states:

And then came the quiet revolution. Spawned by a realization in university circles that master’s programs could be wildly profitable — especially within low-cost departments of continuing education — and a growing sense that in a shifting employment market the best jobs would require specialized training, such degrees have exploded. Nearly twice as many master’s degrees were awarded in 2008 than in 1980.

These programs provide a field guide to the zeitgeist. There are degrees to fit every niche and new twist in the culture, whether homeland security, social networking, hybrid cars or narrative medicine. The following pages highlight just a handful of them. While there is an argument to be made — and plenty of intellectual heavyweights have made it — that the tight focus on highly specialized career training dilutes the mission of the academy, many say the trend is merely a recognition of modern realities. Colleges are strapped for cash, and master’s programs are a low-cost way to get it: they don’t require undergraduate services like dorms or the high student-teacher ratio of doctoral programs. Master’s candidates, unlike Ph.D.’s, almost always pay full freight, often $30,000 or more a year.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

University of Hawaii Cuts Faculty Salaries

From the Associated Press:

The University of Hawaii has decided to unilaterally slash faculty salaries by 6.7 percent beginning this week to cope with state budget cuts, the school announced.

University President M.R.C. Greenwood on Monday said in a letter to faculty that the cuts would take effect Friday and would be reflected in paychecks issued Jan. 15. Faculty will be informed of details in a payroll notification that the school plans to distribute early next month.

The school must act because it's been unable to reach a settlement with the faculty union on a new collective bargaining agreement during 15 months of negotiations, Greenwood said.

Read the full story.

Craig Estlinbaum

Plagiarism Scanner

Here is a new one. A company actually is marketing a plagiarism scanner. It can be used by students or profs. It only seems to scan the internet so it is of limited utility for lawyers and law professors. A link to it can be found here.

It is questionable that such a program can be of any use to a student (college or law student) as they have no need to check if something they wrote was improper. I can see profs making some use out of this service because they can check on students. I suppose journals and tenure committees could also make use of such a scanner to check on the profs. 

A plagiarism scan does not come cheap, but it is not overly expensive either. The prices are as follows:

       Personal - 10,000 words, $14.95
Personal - 20,000 words, $24.95
Personal - 50,000 words, $44.95
Instructor - 100,000 words, $69.95
Instructor - 200,000 words, $129.95
Instructor - 500,000 words, $199.95

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Professor Insurance

Peter Schmidt wrote an excellent Oct. 2, 2009 article for The Chronicle Of Higher Education entitled "Professors Are Pitched Lawsuit Protection." (registration required). It discusses an issue that professors do not like to talk about-being sued. Professors can be sued for defamation or worse yet for sexual harassment. Fortunately, as the article states, insurance can be purchased at very affordable rates. Unfortunately, most profs do not take advantage of this.

The article features a law professor who was threatened with a defamation lawsuit for something she wrote in a law review article. As the article states:

Merle H. Weiner, a professor of law at the University of Oregon, received two rude surprises after the University of San Francisco Law Review published her article about how international courts treat domestic-violence victims.

The first was that the plaintiff in a case she had cited in her footnotes accused her of defamation and threatened to sue her if she did not remove a reference to him in versions published online.

The article is not written for lawyers. Therefore, we do not why the university was not responsible. Seems to me that with respect to scholarship, the university is generally responsible because the prof is working within the scope of his or her employment. Sexual harassment cases are a bit different, but I am even aware of cases on the secondary level holding that school districts have a duty to defend such suits.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Facebook, Law Students and Professors

On Sept. 28, 2009, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran an interesting article entitled Facebook, The New Classroom Commons?(registration required for full article).The article highlights the pros and cons of friending students on Facebook.

On the one hand, it crosses social boundries and may give students access to private information about the professor. On the other, it may give the professor an insight to student opinions about class and the subject matter being taught. As the article states:

A neighbor is busy, a colleague is tired, a long-lost friend wants to know which 80s band best describes me. A few of my students are stressed about their forthcoming internships, and another is working on her research. I know this because their Facebook postings tell me so.

Without a doubt, my Facebook page provides plenty of minutiae. But is it useful in the context of academic relationships, specifically with students? Is Facebook a new commons keeping us connected?

I for one believe there is a happy medium. Profs who use face book should set up a separate page for class work and not friend anyone but students. They can have a separate friend page for personal use.

On a different note, I have noticed that more and more profs are friending each other on face book. I think this is a good thing. It encourages communication and the exchange of ideas.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Univ. of Calif. Profs To Walkout Over Furloughs

As it has been reported, the Univ. of California is requiring its employees to take between 11 to 26 furlough days -- amounting to a salary reduction of 4 to 10 percent. The Faculty Lounge has an excellent September 5, 2009 story about this plan which it correctly describes as a pay cut-plain and simple. It reports that many professors are planning to walk out on the first day of classes-but it is unclear whether this will effect any scheduled courses.

The Univ. of California is, of course, a public institution. In California, public employees have a limited right to strike. Is this a strike? If classes will be canceled-perhaps. More fundamentally, this planned protest may be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement-which in some jurisdictions might provide cause for the job action to be enjoined.

On the other hand, the furlough plan itself may be a violation of the CBA which probably contains set wage rates. Perhaps, the furlough plan itself is subject to being enjoined. One also has to look at some recent case law enjoining pay reductions under the Contract Clause of the Constitution. Adjunct Prof Blog covered a very recent case from Maryland concerning that exact issue here.

Now, in all candor I have not seen the CBA and I do not practice in California. However, it seems to me that these are important issues that have been left out of the equation.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Adjunct Prof Gov. Spitzer's Salary

As reported on Adjunct Prof Blog, former Gov. Spitzer has accepted a position as an adjunct professor of political science at CUNY. The New York Times reported on Sep't. 3, 2009 that Gov. Spitzer is donating his entire salary back to CUNY. Spitzer is being paid $4,500 for the semester so its not much of a donation for him to make.

The article points out an important fact of adjunct life. Adjuncts are grossly underpaid-even Gov. Spitzer. Most adjuncts teach out of the love for teaching and that is probably why they are considered amongest the best teachers at many colleges and law schools.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Professor Salaries

Top Notch Professors, Coaches Don't Come Cheap is an interesting article from the Chicago-Sun Times. This newspaper article published the salaries of several profs and coaches at the University of Illinois. Presumably, the newspaper obtained this information from the Freedom of Information Act as this university is a public one. Some of the salaries are surprising-paying a coach nearly one million dollars. The article contained a chart of salaries which provides as follows:

HIGHEST PAID DEANS

Joe Flaherty: UIC medical school, $435,000

John Dorsey: SIU medical school, $373,392

David Mayer: UIC medical school, $363,082

Ilesanmi Adesida: U. of I. engineering, $319,166

Sarah Mangelsdorf: U. of I. liberal arts & sciences, $287,525

Dwight McBride: UIC liberal arts & sciences, $285,000

Stefanie Lenway: UIC business school, $268,750

Bruce Graham: UIC dentistry school, $258,865

Peter Nelson: UIC engineering, $256,724

Richard Wheeler: U. of I. graduate school, $251,068

HIGHEST PAID COACHES

Ron Zook: U.ofI. head football, $958,324

Chris Lowery: SIU head football, $750,000

Bruce Weber: U.ofI. Men’s basketball, $650,215

Michael Locksley: U.ofI. asst. football, $479,233

Jolette Law: U.ofI. women’s basketball, $340,263

Jerry Kill: NIU football, $340,008

Ricardo Maurice Patton: NIU men’s basketball, $300,000

Jimmy Collins: UIC men’s basketball, $280,706

Reginald Mithcell: U.ofI. asst. football, $207,198

Eric Wolford: U.ofI. asst. football, $204,057

6-FIGURE CLUB

5,200 employees of Illinois public universities and Chicago City Colleges earned more than $100,000 in 2007-2008.

Salary range

$100,000/$200,000: 4,634 employees

$200,000/$300,000: 455 employees

$300,000/$400,000: 76 employees

$400,000/$500,000: 18 employees

More than $500,000: 17 employees

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Michigan State Faculty Unionize

Inside Higher Education reported on June 1, 2009 that the non-tenured and adjunct faculty voted to unionize. The bargaining unit appears to not include tenure track profs and the union is the AFT. Additional information is available from the union's press release. It is unknown to me whether the unit includes non-tenured profs at the law school.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein  

So You Want To Be A FT College Prof

So You Want To Be A Professor is an interesting April 23rd Wall Street Journal Op Ed which discusses just how difficult it is to land a tenure track gig at a University. The article does not discuss law profs and the point of the editorial is that universities are producing more P.h.d.'s then there are faculty positions and they know it. One of the reasons for this is the increased use of Adjuncts. As the article points out, many P.h.d's wind up adjuncting at several schools and need a FT non-teaching job to make a living because adjunct pay is so poor. 

At the end of the article, the author questions whether adjunct teaching is any better or worse than  FT teaching.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

  

Free Cloud Computing For Professors

Legal Writing Prof Blog has an interesting story about Amazon.com offering free cloud computing services for professors, available here. Seems like this service functions exactly like Blackboard and TWEN except that there are no links out perform legal research. For colleges, this service might be worth a try. However, for law schools, I would stick with TWEN or LEXIS Blackboard. Personally, I prefer TWEN.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein