The soon-to-be SIL is in coming near the end of his PhD in Math. He loves teaching, is very good at it and has taught steadily through his (top-tier) program. He has great reviews from both students and faculty, and is leading the department re-structuring of the core math sequence. When I see job postings like this I am so disheartened for him, and for all the students on CC who envision teaching at uni level as a career. He would be fully qualified for this ‘job’- but to take it would require financial support.
I have no words. I can’t believe anyone actually came up with this as an idea. I can’t believe HR even posted this. I am absolutely stunned, and my opinion of UCLA just dropped.
This is horrible! Even paid adjunct positions are often below minimum wage when taking the actual hours worked into consideration.
And yet, I’m sure they will have applicants as it gives practical experience that will make those adjuncts more competitive in the job market. The academic job market is brutal!
Are UCLA profs allowed to place tip jars in their classrooms ?
Maybe place a price list in the room for tutoring services ?
Is it possible that this position might be for one trying to establish credibility at a world class university in order to attract research grant funding and/or to qualify for paid positions ?
P.S. Reminds me of another’s experience about 18 or 19 years ago. This person’s compensation was over $100,000, but lost job due to a total shutdown. Applied for positions in the industry with over 20 years experience & an internationally recognized leader in the industry offered this person a position at $6.50 per hour & tried to bully the person to accept the offer.
One suggestion: the posting may be one for an inside candidate who already has funding through a research grant or fellowship.
The university is required to post all open positions publicly by law so the job description is written so that only one candidate actually qualifies for the position.
Stuff like that happens all the time. (D2 was hired at UMich through a posting written so only her qualifications met the job descriptions.)
Just one perspective, but when my humanities professor spouse started grad school, we had no appreciation for how brutal the job market was, and it’s only gotten worse over the last 20-30 years. I have a career as well, but we still struggled financially because his salary is so compressed. We used to wonder why most of our faculty friends didn’t worry about money the way we did. Then we realized that most of them came from independent wealth – their families bought them a house, supported them during visiting gigs, paid for private schools and college for their kids etc.
There was a period of time when I am talking to my undergrad kid at least once a week to not go into academia. Recently he was told by his prof (highly accomplished guy in the field), that my son should go into academia not because he loves the stuff, but because he’d be miserable if he went into anything else. At that point, there is no hope for you, and he may as well go into academia. If he can be happy doing anything else in life, please go do it. Don’t come into academia – this was the prof’s advice. I love the Prof !!
My thoughts exactly. Happened to me during a postdoc appointment. Was already fully funded through a research grant and was asked to teach an undergrad class which I was happy to do. The department made a job description that was pretty similar to the one posted so I could apply to teach. It was a great couple of years.
Yes, my professor spouse’s advice is similar – that the only people who should pursue an academic career are those who truly cannot imagine any other life (and preferably, have family support to soften the financial risk).
Thank God for the wise folks on College Confidential explaining this or I would still be clueless. UCLA did a crappy job of clearing that up. Perhaps they should hire @WayOutWestMom to head their communications team … at a salary, of course.
I think the reason the “clearing up” is still not clear is because it is still kinda of crappy:
“We have a research grant to pay you a salary to do research — but in addition to your grant position, we want you to agree to do some extra teaching for free.”
It may be common, but it still strikes me as trying to get more work out of someone beyond the scope of duties contemplated by the grant without additional compensation.
