“When ‘Uberization’ Comes to Education” by Jonathan L. Beller

This recent article “When ‘Uberization’ Comes to Education” by Jonathan L. Beller from the Chronicle of Higher Education is a tongue-in-cheek look at snagging adjunct gigs through an “Uber” type app. Unfortunately for those who do slog from campus to campus gathering up enough classes to pay the bills, maybe it’s not so funny.  As one of the comments brings up, this was a concern addressed years ago by Ben Yagoda with an “intellectual taxi-cab” service in a Newsweek article.  Dr. Beller from Pratt talks about the coming of driverless cars and I wish more tenured faculty were able to connect the dots and realize that contingent labor is a problem which doesn’t just affect the part-timers and those of us without tenure. It is widespread evidence that higher education is in crisis. Wonder how many “UberEd” gigs one needs to qualify for health insurance and retirement benefits?   — Pamela Herron