" ... faculty are far more complicit in the sacking of public higher education than we are prepared to acknowledge. One of the best indexes of this is the arrogance that ladder-rank faculty display towards adjunct/part-time faculty/"lecturers" in our own departments. As with the caste system, there are so many categories for them, all of which serve the purpose of the Brahmins in the Academic Senate.
We -- and here am I tempted to specifically include you [on the list] alongside myself in this condemnation, but won't because there's always a small chance that some of you/us are exempt from these generalizations--in fact appear to take some pride in treating adjuncts as an inferior caste. It is the norm for adjuncts to be excluded from faculty meetings and to be deprived of any say in the management of departments. Instead of resisting the "adjunctification" of the professoriat by incorporating these colleagues -- because they are colleagues -- into the university and our respective departments, we tolerate them as useful proof of our Brahmin status. They are our untouchables.
And we treat them accordingly."
It's true that we don't receive the same pay and definitely no benefits. We live on a semester to semester basis -- never completely sure if we'll get classes and how many.
What's even more shocking ... upon reading up more on this topic ... is that adjuncts account for 50-75% of the academic workforce.
I can only tell you what I've experienced in this realm. I taught full-time for 12 years with benefits. I was exhausted by all the extra duties and conflicts between instructors. But I did have those benefits. I decided to take a break and try something else. I had great difficulty in finding another job. I was told I was "too" qualified. I didn't have any "managerial" experiences -- don't get me started. My work experience (although faithfully working at one job since graduation) was not in the business world. So, apparently, I had nothing to offer the workforce. The only places I could get work were adjunct teaching positions, so I snapped those up to pay my bills. Wouldn't you? To be perfectly honest, I see the upside to adjunct teaching. Yes, I don't get benefits, but I also don't have to go to numerous meetings about nothing. I don't have to spend countless hours in my office for student advising. I'm never asked to attend department functions and have to go to make sure my department head sees me and I get my schmooze time in. I don't have to fight and claw my way up the ladder to tenure. I don't have to spend countless amounts of my time politicking and obsessing about getting published. All I have to do is teach. Do I care that another adjunct teacher is politicking with my department head in order to get the next full-time opening? Nope. Honestly, I like that all I have to worry about it just teaching. Because that's what I like to do. I don't need to be famous and published and the department darling. I just want my students to be successful. But, this does bring a price. Check out this example of an adjunct's schedule: (taken from here)
One adjunct on the Steering Committee teaches 6-9 courses per quarter at a bewildering array of campuses in the Bay Area. I do not have a good enough grasp of the geography of that region to understand exactly why:
- she hits the road at 5:30 am to make her first class;
- teachers non-stop from 8am - 5 pm (including travel time as she whizzes at breakneck speed from one campus to another)
- takes her first and only break from 5-7pm
- teaches again from 7-9pm
- holds her office hour from 9-10pm (yes, that's PM)
- checks in at a $49 /night motel on Highway 101 (in a town called Gilroy); and
- repeats this schedule three times per week.
Yeah, I was exhausted just reading that scenario. I also teach at two different schools. It's enough for me to survive, but not enough for the summer. I have two other part time jobs that I use to fill in the gaps. The dropping of a class at the last minute is something I also experienced this semester. I had been consistently teaching four classes at one university and then inexplicably the week before school started I was only scheduled for three. I wasn't told it happened, it was just given to someone else. (I found out later that a full-time instructor wanted my full section. Students sign up for class the semester before knowing who their instructor will be.)
Now, imagine being down $600 a month with no notice to prepare. That definitely is a big sting. I'm not the kind of person who freaks out, but I definitely like a little notice. And for the first time, I complained to my department.
(Don't think about the fact that the full-time professor makes 60k or more a year, while you make 2k a class -- sometimes teaching the exact same thing.)
The story of the adjunct from Duquesne University, Margaret Mary Vojtko, who taught for 25 years and died tragically and penniless is all over the Internet. It is sad to think that a college professor was living below poverty level with her house falling down around her. Do I think that could be me someday? I certainly hope not. I don't think I'd be that dedicated to any school.
The more I looked into the world of adjuncts, the more depressing it seems. There are numerous articles and resources telling you how dismal my world is. Except, I don't feel that dismal. I know I don't make comparable money. I don't have benefits. I get it. But, today I have work and I need to prepare for tomorrow. And I'm OK with that.
It's my future and my life. I have zero desire to be dependent upon politicking with professors to secure it.
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