LIBERAL BIAS IN ENDORSEMENTS

In reference to “Getting the facts on liberal bias in higher education” (November), as one who has been teaching in college for 36 years, I can assure you that there is very strong liberal bias in academe. This is not necessarily bad, but why deny reality unless you find it embarrassing? Note that of the 71 candidates endorsed by the AFT elsewhere in the issue, 70 are Democrats. Only Olympia Snowe of Maine is not, but she is so liberal that she may as well be one.

That statistic alone is clear proof of the liberal bias in academe!

Philip B. Linker
Suffolk, N.Y.

THE ADJUNCT AS ROMANTIC

Many adjuncts, especially those of a certain age, followed what may best be described as the detour, the path not taken by most because it was so risky. Adjuncts are people who didn’t postpone their passion. There’s no guaranteed future for anyone really, but when you have followed the path with heart … when you continued to paint, dance, write, or remain engaged in political work without thinking of a career trajectory, you were living without a map. When you left the Ph.D. path to take care of children or parents or were forced to devote twice as much time to getting your degree while earning enough to pay the rent, eat, etc., adjuncting seemed to offer a way to keep your focus and your obligations intact. When structural barriers intervened (fewer hires, widespread adjunctification) teaching continued to sprinkle its own nectars. Adjuncts keep teaching for the same reasons as full-timers do: It’s honest work, you feel you’re doing some good, and you’re still in touch with your passion.

Is that romantic? It’s not exactly a happy ending … having no security and health insurance is different when you’re 60 than what it was at 25 or 30. However, shouldn’t these migrant scholars be treasured rather than pitied or castigated? They are the troubadours, the adventurers, the believers. We teach our students to honor the grass roots, the folk that Whitman celebrated, the extraordinary in the ordinary person … here we have such folk in our midst. When is the last time you asked an adjunct for her or his life history?

Marcia Newfield
New York, N.Y.

TURNITIN IS ONLY A TOOL

In “What teachers should know about plagiarism software” (November Technology commentary),Charles Lowe and Ellen Schendel make a very loose and short-sighted argument against Turnitin.

Of course, Turnitin is not going to teach the students “proper citation” or “academic dishonesty.” The purpose of the software is to check for plagiarism, not teach the students. I have used Turnitin software many times. What an exceptional tool we have as our aid in this day and age of advanced technology.

And yes, I would no doubt find that most any high school and perhaps college student cohort would cringe at the idea of being checked for plagiarism. Control C to control V without hesitation is standard protocol for the quick writing. Go ahead and be brave and interview your students for honesty. Find out how many wrote the paper the morning before it was due. Spell check and cut and paste is now the way and software such as Turnitin is only a small viable tool for used as an honesty check. The check, if used properly, can be turned into a good teaching tool with high impact both in structure and correct content.

It is our duty as educators, the duty Lowe and Schendel alluded to, to teach the students the essence of good writing and to differentiate between proper citation and plagiarism. Authorship in the technological age will perhaps, in the next 20 years, acquire a new meaning, as the cyber highway becomes clogged with duplicate articles, each taking bits and pieces of other authors’ works.

William Wallace
Aptos, Calif.