ABOVE: Film director Gerry Potter addresses attendees during the post-premier panel.
Emotions ran high at the premier of “In Search of Professor Precarious,” a film about the increasing lack of job security among instructors at post-secondary institutions.
The film, directed by retired contract instructor Gerry Potter and released in 2020, premiered at an event co-sponsored by AASUA on May 3 at CO*LAB in downtown Edmonton. It was followed by a panel moderated by Glynnis Lieb, Executive Director of the University of Alberta’s Fyrefly Institute.
The film includes candid interviews with multiple subjects including Sandra MacDonald, a retired MacEwan contract professor in massage therapy, who after over two decades of teaching fought a pay cut that would have slashed a quarter of her and other sessional instructors’ wages.
Though MacDonald and her colleagues saw their wages restored, she shared that “something inside of me broke” as a result at the attempt to reduce sessional staff earnings so significantly.
“Trust had been broken,” MacDonald said, “I’d been teaching for 23 years, and been extremely committed and loyal. This was a part of my very being, a part of how I identified myself as a person. It was a violation. And it was never the same again.”
In recent years post-secondary institutions have continued to increase spending on high-level executive salaries all the while increasing the number of academic staff on contract. While contract instructors used to make up a small percentage of academic staff at a university, “Professor Precarious” highlights that they’re now sometimes in the majority.
These instructors often don’t receive benefits, meaning they are often put in a position where they are unable to take their children to the dentist or get physical therapy when they need it.
While the impact of precarious work on those trapped in short-term contracts is clear, there is also an impact on their tenure-track and tenured faculty colleagues.
One documentary subject highlighted the issue succinctly: if sessional are only paid for their teaching hours, other aspects of academic staff work, such as service, officially falls on the shoulders of an increasingly smaller pool of people.
Students are being charged more for their degree, but this money isn’t going to the people teaching them.
“How can I justify to my students that their degree costs $100,000 when I’m serving them breakfast at a Denny’s?” One attendee asked.
Many filmgoers shared their personal experiences with precarity, adding to the film’s emotional impact.
MacDonald, who spoke on the panel in addition to appearing on screen, said there is a reason contract instructors stay in their jobs.
“We believe in education,” MacDonald said. “That’s why we do it. Because it makes society better.”
She highlighted hypocritical claims by university leaders that their institutions are working to champion inclusivity and support marginalized people.
“What about sessional faculty?” She asked. “We’ve been marginalized for decades.
“Rainbow sidewalks are awesome, they are necessities in life, but isn’t it just a little tongue in cheek? I hope for a better tomorrow … the human cost of only preaching inclusivity on the surface is so big.”
AASUA is looking to screen In Search of Professor Precarious again in the Fall as part of the annual Fair Employment Week campaign. Stay tuned for updates for a change to watch the film.