The Yes Adjunct
by Professor Beth (Collin College)
I joined Collin College in Texas as an adjunct in 2006, leaving behind a successful career in advertising. I was looking for a more rewarding profession and when I started teaching I felt like I had found heaven. I LOVE my students. I LOVE to teach. I love strategizing the perfect syllabus, explaining the complex; guiding, mentoring and watching students have “light bulb moments.” It is the reason why I wake up in the morning.
Quickly the demands of the classroom and of the school grew. I was asked to sit on textbook selection committees, to organize guest lecturers to come to campus, and to test out new books. I was told that doing these things would build my CV and provide me with an edge when applying for a full time teaching position. Every demand was couched under the advice that this would position me better for a full time position. I was teaching three courses – sometimes four – and said, “yes” to every demand.
“Can you take over this full-time faculty’s class mid-semester who went on maternity leave? And start tomorrow?” – Yes
“Can you teach dual-credit English, off –campus at a high school at 7AM?” – Yes
“Can you accept a temporary full-time position for one semester with no contract?”—Yes
My student evaluations were stellar. My classes filled quickly and I often had requests to over enroll. I even answered student emails while in labor in the hospital. All of this and getting paid $2,000, per class, per semester.
I applied for a permanent full-time position four separate times and never once was even invited to interview.
Adjunct Says Yes, College Says No
My mother was then taken ill and I had to miss ONE class. The school docked my pay at $43.44 an hour. When I sat down and did the math, I realized that I was only allotted 10 hours outside of the classroom, per class, per semester, to grade, prep, meet with students, attend department meetings, and mandatory training. I was horrified.
When I pointed this ridiculous equation out to HR I was met with silence. As a matter of fact, the more I asked questions about compensation and the demands placed on my time the less information I was given. I quickly realized that the college hides behind a vaguely worded contract that states that the $2,000 “salary” is to cover all required activities outside of the classroom.
After six years of working at the college I have witnessed treatment that at a minimum is unprofessional and at its worst is abusive. I have seen adjunct professors pay for their own substitutes, have class schedules pulled at the last minute or doubled at the last minute. During this time, I can count on one hand how many times the Dean has even spoken to me. When we pass in the hall or even when I’m standing in her office she never makes eye contact and I am ignored. The message clearly sent that adjuncts are “invisible.”
But this isn’t the tragic part of the story. The sad part to this story is the students. The students are losing the best adjunct faculty to better jobs and to other schools. The students have teachers who are spending less time on their classes and in student meetings because they aren’t being treated fairly. The students who feel the poison of bitterness and disrespect leak into their classrooms.
The feeling of helplessness is palpable. How do I bring about change? How do I draw attention to the injustice? How do I make people realize the unfairness of the situation without losing my job? Where are the unions? Where is the Department of Labor? Who will come to help?
Tags: Adjunct Professors, Classroom Hours, Docking Pay, Sick Days
50 thoughts on “The Yes Adjunct”
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© Adjunct Project 2012
Sister, by some strange twist of fate, I’m meeting with a documentary team from ABC/FOX/CNN who are going to cover this for the 6pm Bret Baier show (FOX NEWS SPECIAL REPORT). It runs nightly; and it has a large audience. Too large for me to even think about beyond my friends and comrades here at Adjunct Project and across the Migrant Intellectual hive.
You are not alone.
We are strongest when we speak the truth.
We walk the last watch of the night.
This is a story that must be told.
By as many of us as possible.
Thank you for your work.
Thank you for staying in the game.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I love the big crossed-out “yes” logo. I’m in a similar situation. The online university I work for uses the explicit threat of not getting future work to have us work for free. We HAVE TO LEARN TO SAY “NO” – together and often. There is no way to organize this, at least not in an all-online institution like mine where we are kept out of contact with each other and all communication is top-down. We just have to say “no” and hope others do the same. I just said “no” again today and it felt good.
Saying “no” or negotiating just has to become part of the ethos. If they insist on replacing the ethos of the cooperative, academically-minded faculty with a piece-work mentality, then we have to demand better pay for each “piece” we do. They want the service mentality, the academic ethos on OUR part, but the piece-work approach on their part: highly motivated, highly trained, smart people working for the general good while they buy a second house.
Unionization might be possible at your institution, where you at least have real, physical people around you, people you can exchange ideas with in a non-committal way and gradually coalesce.
You are certainly right about the students. They’re paying all this money to the administration and infrastructure, but their teachers are being dumbed down, de-skilled, made to hate their jobs and do them less and less well.
Beth, your story is familiar to many of us. Colleges are balancing the budgets on the backs of adjuncts. I read an encouraging article recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education about adjuncts in D.C and other locales in the US unionizing through the Service Employees International Union. (see links below) In PA, the PA State System of Higher Ed union is considering a strike at the 14 state colleges and universities because the Chancellor wants to cut adjunct pay and cut back starting salaries of new full time hires. Many of us are migrant workers, juggling jobs and constantly on the troll for new jobs. The trend towards a walmart business model for education is a travesty. We have to keep the momentum building – speaking out, and better yet, organizing.
http://chronicle.com/article/Unions-Bid-to-Organize/134804/
http://chronicle.com/article/Metro-Unionizing-Strategy-Is/136101/
I haven’t read the Chronicle article–yet–but I’ve lived the article, in a manner of speaking. I’m one of the SEIU-unionized adjuncts in DC: specifically, in GW’s Writing Program. I’ve taught here for 13+ years, and I remember a non-union time. I also remember the university’s heel-dragging and stonewalling at virtually every step to resist unionization.–questioning signature validity, quasi-smearing SEIU, and the like.
For me, SEIU representation and contract renegotiation has helped: I’m guaranteed three courses per year, plus optional benefits. About two years ago, the Dean’s office tried to add a fourth course for no extra pay, but my contract shielded me. I’m also very lucky to be teaching in a program where almost none of the FT faculty are tenure line; most of them also remember the days of contingent contracts, so they’re very sympathetic. Sadly, this seems more the exception than the rule, though.
I could have written this post – except we get paid less in SW Fl (you know, cause it’s so nice here and all ;P)
7 years ago, I heard and believed the same rhetoric – do everything we ask and you will be positioned to jump into the full time slot when it opens. ~ahem~ The FTTT professor DIED and the college just closed down that position – why bothering hiring another FTTT when an adjunct can teach all 5 classes for half the price, right?
I am exhausted and feel your pain and frustration. I think I’m a pretty decent teacher, but it’s tough coordinating 3 college academic calendars, 3 campuses, different LMSs. I’m teaching 10 classes this semester in order to support my family (that is equivalent to about what a first year FTTT makes around here, but of course then they have sick days, health benefits, and representation in the governance structures. I still have to take out student loans to supplement our income and pay for tuition (I’m working on a PhD – again, I am listening to and believing what “they” are telling me “the PhD opens doors, bla bla bla” – I don’t know what to believe anymore.)
A few nights ago, in-between grading Final Reflections, I did a nationwide search for full-time positions at community colleges (the only place I can get a FTTT position with a masters.) 10 jobs came up…TEN! The competition is incredible for every job – there is actually one local and I shutter to think about all the talented people with beautiful CVs who have not been teaching as adjuncts that are ready to move to SWFL.
Back to grading now.
Beth – I think the only solution is to unionize and have the power of collective bargaining. Otherwise adjuncts will always and only be one individual, one complaint at a time, that instititions have no need to respond to.
And at some point there needs to be a societal shift in this country, that turns its love and attention and money away from the famous and toward supporting education.
Also Migrant Intellectual – Please post when and where we can all see this doc you’re talking about.
Sadly, Texas is a so-called “Right to Work” state which means it is very difficult to unionize workers. (The legislation was designed by employer interests.) This set of practices has as its roots economic class warfare, as the economic elites are capturing almost all of the value-added by the adjunct faculty.
Actually Texas is an AT WILL state. Florida is right work. In TX, we work at the will of the employer so it has always been funny to me that American Air is here with ose union troubles!
Texas is both an AT-WILL state and a RIGHT-TO-WORK state: double whammy! We need to unite!!! A lot of states here in the south are in this same predicament, so the more we speak out, the louder we speak, the better it will be.
Ana M Fores Tamayo
NFM South
http://signon.org/sign/better-pay-for-adjuncts.fb1?source=c.fb&r_by=426534
Susan — I’ll update the second I have the exact time and air date. They’re working in one week intervals: contact to shoot to post = Friday 12/12 or Monday 12/15
Quick comment:
Having been taught to fear educated people (“lord save us from the intellectuals,” as I hear in my family down on Long Island) and to view public education with suspicion, it strikes me as necessary to engage directly the very medium that needs the most deconstruction: cable news television. I’d like to see more of us on the talk shows and call in shows on radio. In order to do that, we need to take advantage of these absurd moments when the people we think are paying the least amount of attention turn out to be very concerned about the state of higher education–even if that risks playing a role in a debate on public versus private education, public welfare and private charity, and so forth.
Hack this story.
Use the FoxNews Special Report as a moment where YOU and I and WE can all swarm.
And the best swarm has no center, no single tactic for arriving at the destination.
All will be well.
All will be well.
In all manner of things.
All will be well.
Because all is well. (variation on Julian of Norwich)
I walked in your shoes. I taught at the Spring Creek and McKinney campuses during the Summer 1995 term. They needed a natural science Ph.D. who had already taught Anatomy and Physiology for the pre-med track students. (Pre-Ph.D.-glut days, this course was taught by medical doctors.) Since I taught at two campuses, I accumulated significant mileage during a hot Texas summer. Being an impoverished Ph.D., my car did not have air conditioning, so it meant wearing shorts and a tank top in the car and changing into “business casual” clothes after I parked on campus. I ran the numbers after teaching the two sections, which included preparing the lectures, writing the quizzes and exams, and grading the papers. I was getting just a bit more than minimum wage.
This is another example of the flagrant abuse of adjunct faculty by the economic elite. (I recall reading somewhere that the head of Collin County Community College, as it was called then, had their own private limousine.) Even with stellar student recommendations, I was not invited to teach during the subsequent Fall semester. I believe it was because I had some after-class discussions with students regarding my exploitation and the content of thos discussions made it back to the hiring committee.
There are some reasons for the historically unprecedented glut of Ph.D.s in the U.S. A good four page introduction is found via search for the title “Career Destruction Factories” at the CWAlocal4250 dot org webswite. The Google search syntax is to insert site: between the article title in double quote marks and the domain name.
Wow! I’ve been an adjunct at Collin College for almost two years and have been met with the utmost respect from my chair, the campus dean, and the Dean of Student Affairs. I’ve had to file disciplinary action and report multiple cases of plagiarism, and received immense support from the administration. I currently teach English 1301 and 1302, which requires 15 to 20 pages of writing per student and my classes ALWAYS max out. I usually require multiple rewrites from students, so my grading load is horrendous. I’ve also developed curriculum for a co-taught course, which has been approved for fall 2013, and which resulted in the approval of my teaching in a different sector.
I did, however, do my research before starting to teach. The market is currently over-saturated with PhD recipients in my field, so I have NO illusions that I’ll teach full-time. I also met with the chair to talk about the position in great detail prior to accepting an adjunct position.
I totally feel the frustration of mounds of grading, but with over 25 years in the business sector, I’m amazed at the lack of business acumen and savvy among the academic community.
…just wait, it’ll happen to you too. I think it was about 3 years in before the veil was pulled back on the matrix. I know you write that you did your homework first, but this is not an individual problem. I worked in the business world too – I understand the perks of teaching at the college level – I know some that follow this blog like to write that we are all just whining about how bad it is when it’s actually just peachy. The OP’s point is the “always say yes” larger cultural atmosphere – this is what many of us can relate to. The only time I said no was when I had to have a baby during the summer months (yes, I scheduled childbearing and birth around my classes so I would not lose as much money.) They immediately hired two more adjuncts and cut my fall classes down to 1, from 5. It took me another 2 years to get those classes back, by always saying YES to extra work like helping with the textbook selection, taking the evening and Saturday classes, attending Faculty Professional Development day, etc. I said NO for the second time this semester when I cut down my Spring 2013 classes from 7 down to 5 (just for one school) so that I can study for a take comps next semester. The negative atmosphere is palpable – like I stabbed someone. I know this particular school is an extreme case because it has major issues with faculty moral (Adjuncts teach over 70% of the courses on the campus where I work ) and recent leadership transitions (the president resigned under duress and so did his predecessor.) Good times.
You know what? If you give as few papers as I do, give the students the highest grades possible, assign as little work as possible and goof off as much as I do teaching the same course you do, you will be treated just about the same.
So my solution: relax and not give a shit and collect my meager paychecks.
I get great student evaluations, too, because I am easy and let the students out early and give A’s to papers that should get B’s and B’s to papers that should get C’s.
And, just like you, I get rehired semester after semester — at all the colleges where I work. I have to turn down courses.
Once you realize you are just a warm body with a master’s degree, you can relax and enjoy being an adjunct.
There is simply no reason for adjuncts to work as hard as Professor Beth or you.
Nobody in authority cares as long as you show up and hand in your grades on time.
Do the minimum possible. I do.
You really nailed it with your reply. I am a complete unknown, an invisible person, a persona non grata at my community college.
I teach American History. Last Spring I taught the second half of American History. Many of the students had another adjunct in the Fall for the first half. I asked them if they had done the last chapter on Reconstruction because sometimes history profs run out of time and don’t do it. I found out that the instructor had not even gotten to Andrew Jackson! I have no clue what she did. The students all got high grades for doing nothing. I was shocked, but I wouldn’t put all of the blame on the instructor. There is no oversight, no supervision of adjuncts. The college is desperate for “cheap” instructors. The administration doesn’t care as long as there’s a warm body in the class with a master’s degree and no complaints from the students.
Meanwhile I got busted when word got to the dean that I was flexible woth students and let them out early! That was the last semester I taught for that local college.
I am glad to see someone express this point of view as I have slowly come to my own realization. Like everyone else I hoped that a stellar CV and the willingness to say yes to everything would allow me to be hired for a full time job. Through connections I was able to meet with the Dean of the Business School who quickly cut through my illusions and let me know that I am unlikely, ever, to land a full time role because of the competition.
I spent five years bringing in best practices, pushing as hard as possible to provide students with the absolute best learning experiences and grading scrupulously to the assigned standards. Then, an email was sent to all full time faculty with the grade distribution for classes. The results were striking. The tenured faculty were giving A grades to just about everyone. The Academic Specialists did the same. The adjuncts were the only groups fighting to keep a distribution.
At that point I started to think more about how to calibrate my own expectations and workload. Schools are unlikely to change their model unless unionization occurs, and I’m not ready for my Normal Rae moment – at least not quite yet.
So, over time, I’ve adjusted all of my classes to reduce my work load. I’ve also started to gather data (Hey, I teach business!). Less than 30% of students ever read the feedback I provide, despite repeated requests to do so. 20% of students in each class ask basic questions related to not reading the syllabus. 10% of students will require followup about their grades at the end of the semester. Therefore I create and post guidelines to FAQ on the class which I direct students to who have clearly not read the syllabus. If any student asks a question on a paper I first check to see if they have read their feedback. I manage my time as it is my only resource. I do not allow students to enter the class after it is full unless administration asks me to do so. I assign short, focused papers and use Turnitin features extensively to grade. I plan my workload, and my class design to exploit technology, and to make the grinding process of grading easier. I keep notes about how much time it takes me to grade, and I evaluate each class design afterwards to see how much time it has taken me. By doing all of this I can now clearly see that a big part of the problem in this equation has been how I have spent my time. Changing my approach has meant that I have more time to speak to students, and less time grinding through papers.
I also market myself and my availability relentlessly. As the calendar is set up I contact all of my key contacts and let them know that I am available. I don’t expect the Dean to talk to me (and he doesn’t.) But I keep in close contact with the Department Chair and read the political winds to see who is moving in and out of roles. I cultivate those who are moving into new roles so that I am on their go to list for courses. And, I carefully manage time on any new classes that I am asked to prep for as my data shows that only 10% of the time have I gone on to become the “go to” person for that class. I say yes, but I manage my contribution level according to my opportunity costs. I cajole the powers that be into giving me access to prior syllabi and course content and I use them shameless as a foundation.
I cut back on assignments by making them shorter with very clear expectations. Grading time was cut in half because I can now simply compare to the expectation list and quickly ascertain a grade rather than laboriously building up from a rubric. I don’t want to work for minimum wage, nor do I want to spend my time grinding out feedback that is only read by a small percentage of the class. Even with these efforts my difficulty rating is still “high” according to the students.
We can wait for unionization, or we can figure out ways to work smarter. I’m in the working smarter camp.
(For the data folks out there, I taught 10 classes in Fall and committed to 8 for terms beginning in January. I’m currently discussing classes for the summer term.>
I love this approach and I must agree with you. I have done similar things – although not to your extent. This has inspired me as I prepare for Spring term. Shorter, simpler, faster — my new motto. Thank your for sharing your strategy.
Your “opportunity cost analysis” is on-target. Thank you for sharing your insights as I wrap up my fall quarter teaching assignments and prepare for the next term.
We are now ourselves actively involved in making the humanities no longer about mentoring a struggle with ideas, but piece work based on efficiency and a factory model. I have the impression that working “smarter” means churning out more degrees for the bottom line of the corporation/university. Scan trons are smart, really engaging student essays isn’t. That doesn’t work for me; that isn’t my vision of liberal arts education.
Exactly. Do the minimum. The idea that colleges care about student learning is ludicrous.
What is the “minimum”?
Three hours in class.
No prep.
No grading.
No meetings.
What is that number?
It’s above the contact hour number of 3 credit hours.
So, don’t we still need to talk about equity issues even in the bare minimum scenario you describe NGH?
Collin is sort of like fiefdoms, it depends on your dean, your department and your campus. I never started teaching with this notion that I was going to become independently wealthy but I did expect to be treated like a professional, with professional courtesy. Professional courtesy, in this case, meaning more than two weeks notice of my semester schedule. I think it would be professional courtesy to not place unreasonable demands on a person who is making little “salary” and is not paid hourly. I worked 60+ hours a week in advertising but my salary matched those kinds of demands. Don’t expect me to spend 1-2 hours in Blackboard training when you know my “salary” barely covers the time I spend grading, prepping and meeting with students.
In contrast to Collin, I also adjunct at UTD. I receive $4,500 a semester and have no extra demands placed on my time outside of class requirements. Any additional time is left to my discretion. When I came down with pneumonia one semester I was allowed to take a day off from class and my pay was NOT docked. I was told to “stay in touch” with my students online, which I willingly did from my sick bed.
I don’t think I was “duped” or “led astray” when I was hired. What bothers me is the lack of basic professional courtesy and concern for a sector of employees.
The three biggest issues I know of for adjuncts are the following:
1) unpaid hours (prep, grading, lesson prep, office hours) These are hours that FT faculty ARE paid for. It’s like being a waitress and being required to clock out when you do the two hours of prep work for your shift. Or better yet, being told you’re waiting on tables “off the clock” or “just for tips” which would be illegal in the business world.
2) the lack of access to medical insurance
3) the bizarre world of invisibility where adjuncts are treated like 3rd class citizens and are invisible to the “real” teachers, professors and deans.
@TopangaHippie
Invisible – no kidding. I’ve got a Ph.D. and over 20 years experience teaching full and part-time. This semester, our department was spread over campus during renovation of our building. I all but had to beg for a key to my new office, and then went through another 2 months of asking for a key to access the building during closing hours, which are often the only time I have to get in and do grading and prep since I have 3 other jobs. For this professional employment I get about $2,600 per semester.
Kvetch, kvetch. Dr. Eric Berne, in “Games People Play,” called this game “Ain’t It Awful.”
I’m sick of hearing about it.
Just leave and find another line of work. Maybe you’ll find adjunct work isn’t so bad.
Just leave and find another line of work. Maybe you’ll find adjunct work isn’t so bad.
I have often had that suspicion, the sinking feeling that things will only be worse when I get out. But now that I am on my way out and learn more about my new job, and the more I talk to people my age, people with less education, and much, much better jobs and conditions, the more I know that this adjuncting gig really does in fact suck. It really is “so bad”, at least in proportion to the training investment needed. There are some things worse about some other comparable jobs – obviously. But as an overall package, adjuncting ranks very low.
Don’t like it leave?
No.
Pay us for our work.
Period.
1) yes
2) yes
3) yes
I would continue to focus on #1.
It’s where FT faculty have made most gains.
(Not saying for a second that #2 and #3 aren’t important.)
Beth, I am interested in all you say, first because it is so true that at first we are naive and innocent, in love with teaching and the entire idea of it. After a while, we begin to see how they exploit us; they pass us up time and time again, while telling us, every semester, to our faces, with such sincerity, “oh we could never teach without you….” So then pay us; give us healthcare!
But this is not the reason I’m writing, as we all know these awful facts. My reasons are twofold. First, if you have not signed the petition for adjunct justice, you should do so, and then share with as many people as you can, so it keeps growing; we are up to over 3300, which is substantial, but it could be so much more: http://signon.org/sign/better-pay-for-adjuncts.fb1?source=c.fb&r_by=426534
Next, I note with interest that you teach in Collin, Texas. I have been trying to form a contingency in Texas, and as you know, it is very difficult to get adjuncts to come out of the shadows, to become visible, because we are all scared. I would love to be able to do that in Texas, as I see more and more of us are posting on my petition and elsewhere: we are becoming heard. As many have stated, since Texas is a right-to-work state, it is very hard to unionize. But there may be other things we can do, if we have the numbers to do it. If we are alone, it is hard. But the more of us who come together, the stronger we can become, and the harder it will be to silence us. They will not be able to keep us in the shadows as they want.
Please get in touch with me through Josh! Together, we can make a difference. Ana M. Fores, New Faculty Majority, South
Hey Ana, I did already sign the petition months ago. I am nearly ready to come fully out of the closet of despair as I doubt I will ever teach again. You will have me having your TX back very soon. (gotta launch a new biz in next 2 months first)
I once worked in the 1970s driving a car for a car service, where I had a profane, cigar-chomping boss who nevertheless gave me one piece of good advice:
“If you don’t want to be a fucking doormat, don’t lie down in front of the fucking door.”
The university system is a travesty filled with tenured professors who are overpaid and rarely teach. Commonly the classes assigned to these tenured professors are actually taught by graduate assistants. Furthermore the universities are closed shops and open only to PhD’s but the PhD programs are designed to limit the number of graduates because who wants competition. Actually the best professors are the adjunct professors beccause they tend to be the ones with real experience and who can actually offer something to the students. However, if these adjunct professors were given full time jobs the tenured ones would have a hard time justifying their positions. I was asked by a tenured professor at the University of Michigan to collaborate with him on a management book. I was intrigued because I had already written and published two books on management. Very quickly I discovered that all research was being done by his students while my job was to sort out the research and actually write the text. His job was to critique what I wrote, lend his presitige to book jacket, and to allow me to pick up all lunch tabs. When I ask him to actively participate in the writing he was too busy so the book never happened. Adjunct professors are being exploited as well as the graduate assistants. The university system is a closed shop and the best thing the adjunct professors could do is to organize and go on strike.
Your comment about picking up the lunch tab reminded me of my experience in business. I was a lower level department head who was paid far less than my predecessor. Twice, our general manager asked me out to lunch. We went to very inexpensive restaurants because, as he said, he wanted to see what the “little people” think. The first time, he announced just before we ordered that he had forgotten his wallet and asked that I pay and he would reimburse me. He ordered an average priced lunch, but I then realized that I did not have enough for both of us, so I ordered the “Diet Plate” of cottage cheese and Jello. He said, “That does not look like enough for you” but I assured him that it was. What I should have said was: “You make 4 times as much as me and if you don’t carry around enough cash for lunch, why would you think that I do?
The next time was similar. He never reimbursed me for either lunch. Noblesse what?
Beth, We might know each other if not the same people! I taught at Richland, UNT Dallas, and DBU. I worked full time at UTD more than a decade ago and Eastfield before that. I have actually worked or taught at every campus of the UNT system! Anyway, email me and let’s connect! Your story is mine at Richland.
Dear Beth,
Oh my gosh – your story is so exactly my story that it’s uncanny. The only hope I can offer is that online adjuncts get a little better deal pay wise, plus we don’t have all the committee meetings, filling in for full timers etc. I’ve done both, a lot, over the last six years and online is definitely better. But even here there’s a catch. Virtually all the online schools cut back to one course per session during the recession and haven’t gone back to the previous deal of two courses. Naturally it’s better for them – if they ever need to built up in a hurry, they already have that excess capacity, and, at the same time, if someone gets lucky and finds a full-time job, it’s easier to fill one slot than two.
So now, in order to make $40,000 a year (one quarter what I was making in my corporate job) I am teaching one course at each of four different universities. This creates a nightmare of administrivia, professional development requirements, conflicting schedules, etc.
You are so right about the students getting the short end of this stick. How can the schools not realize that much of their student retention problems and poor graduation rates could be solved in a jiffy, just by giving their adjuncts a decent lifestyle, thereby motivating them to perform at their best.
Thank you for sharing your story. It’s really opened my eyes (again) to what we’re going through and why it has to change. I found out last week that I make less an hour than my neighbor’s dog groomer. And I have a very credible PhD and a decade of tenured teaching before I left to try the corporate world. I came back to teaching because it’s what I was meant to do and, like you, that’s what makes me happy. But it is humiliating and demoralizing to be treated like some kind of fourth class citizen.
Hang in there,
Barbara
Thanks, Professor Beth.
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Dear Anonymous Adjunct:
Your increasingly terse comments have provoked a response I have tried to contain. But, I really need to talk this through with you.
//I once worked in the 1970s driving a car for a car service, where I had a profane, cigar-chomping boss who nevertheless gave me one piece of good advice: “If you don’t want to be a fucking doormat, don’t lie down in front of the fucking door.” //
Was this before or after he took 40% of your tips?
Moving on . . .
How does this relate to paying adjuncts for their work?
Anonymous is one of those people who think employees have two choices – take it or leave it. For them, the only dignified alternative to doing everything the employer wants is to quit and find another job. Employees shouldn’t really care about the job or the institution and never about the quality of education. Employees should never work within the system to improve the institution or their own conditions. After all, those in charge are in charge and by power of their authority are automatically doing everything right. Power relationships are ordained by God.
When management gives itself another raise, that’s called showing ambition and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. That is rewarding hard work. When the people at the bottom ask for, work for or organize for better conditions, they’re being cry-babies, slackers and leeches, and they show a disconcerting lack of gratitude. They’re ruining the institution, bankrupting everybody for their own selfish needs. They obviously don’t care about students either.
In response to Anonymous and Migrant Intellectual, AdjunctSlave summarizes the top down view of part-time instructors to highlight the subservient expectations of the “power elite” at most colleges and universities: //Employees shouldn’t really care about the job or the institution and never about the quality of education. Employees should never work within the system to improve the institution or their own conditions. //
I am forever fascinated (and bothered) by the idea that educators, up and down the “higher” and “lower” institutions, best serve their own professional interests or their students by “taking it,” by keeping their mouths shut, by thanking the most abusive administrators and their higher ups for not even meeting universally accepted essential objectives in a course called “Higher Education Success.” Rather then get into a post-by-post soundbite battle, I’d like to use this moment to better discuss efficiency, compensation, and what exactly professors do for a living.
If a part-time professor doesn’t meet the essential objectives of his or her course’s or division’s instructional design (e.g., the seven or more agreed upon goals associated with quality instruction), the part-time professor will most likely not receive renewed contracts. I 100% agree with this. We have to teach the course as designed, work together to discuss the best way to evolve an older course through curriculum committees, and respect success strategies that may not align with our own personal or professional experience or expectations. But, we’re talking about paying teachers for the hours they work: nothing more, nothing less. At least that’s where I would like to stay focused for a while.
Here’s the way I put it to every adjunct I met with 2009-2011 during the New Hampshire adjunct union drive.
Work is denied the carpenter who doesn’t assemble all of the new desks in the library. S/he will most likely not receive future facilities contract. Same for any facilities contractor. Same for instructional services and library and kitchen and administrative support staff. Yet, rewards and “contract review” processes are set firmly in place to protect the repeat crime of gross negligence (and flat out illegal labor abuses) that summarize the bad choices and endless deliberations and show-and-tell “strategic plans” of too many full-time faculty, program directors, chairs, division heads, vice-presidents, deans, presidents, chancellors, and so forth.
My work at Migrant Intellectual parallels exactly the one-on-one, committee, and regional conversations I found most helpful when better discussing the working conditions I deplored my entire academic career (MA, PhD, Fellowship, Visiting, Adjunct). This is indeed, as Anonymous points out, about work. Paying people for their work. Defining that work in terms of professional standards, institutional “best practices,” and increasing revenue by working together to meet the professional/academic expectations of any given field of study as well as address directly the market and business needs of our immediate communities. (Is it just me, or does the “market” seem to say over and over again that we need teachers in our classrooms using their skills, knowledge, and innovation to reshape the post-industrial economy?)
As the son of one of the hardest working mothers on Long Island, the son-in-law of the single most inspiring worker in the Federal government, the husband to a woman whose administrative assistance to her supervisors inspires awe in all who work with her — I simply would not be able to vocalize any of my criticisms. This is indeed about work.
For example, in telecommunications or retail, when my mother would notice a problem, she would speak to the problem and not only increase the quality of the service provided, she would find herself with additional supervisory duties. In all services provided her employer, she was compensated. Even during labor disputes, some of the most contentious in the history of American telecommunications, her own supervisors and their regional directors viewed her ability to vocalize the problem as a chance to improve working conditions or the services provided.
Same for her work as a retail manager. At the time, 1989-2004, video stores on Long Island were responding to the Blockbuster threat which pretty much decimated the locally owned, video/dvd shop and their wonderful stock of in-house selections I still crave even as Netflix instant adds countless awesome titles. She increased sales during the time when store after store went down for the count. How? She responded to customer needs (the market), streamlined services, found new ways to increase revenue (reward structures for 24-hr returns of hot new titles, punch cards, tiered membership programs–all a decade before Blockbuster and Hollywood video even bothered to address the digital needs of their customers, and failed). I am merely applying the model I learned in small business to my own profession: college/university teaching, research, institutional development, and adjunct equity.
So, when Anonymous pats him or herself on the back for being a subservient worker and touts the “take it or leave it” views of too many bosses, s/he reveals the central weakness of a management model that believes employees are better seen, not heard. This is a recipe for failure; a guarantee that dinosaur thinking won’t survive the brutal needs of innovation and industrial r/evolution. For Anonymous, part-time teachers should’ve known better. Unequal pay for unequal labor is somehow their fault. Now having determined the fatal strategies of colleges/universities as detrimental to their basic economic needs, the basic missions of their institutions, and the basic local/regional/national expectations of learners (professional, technical, and academic), it is time to fold up the tent and change professions.
Worse yet, anyone sounding the alarm must just want the attention. Anyone speaking clearly to problems and offering solutions must not really want to teach, they must want to cause problems for students and other faculty and administrators. Not at all. Like my mother, a model for the BEST America USED to be (e.g., hard-working, innovative, resilient or fiesty if you prefer, intelligent, efficient, even-tempered, and good-natured), the discussion of how we define work in higher education is precisely about applying to our classrooms and working conditions the missions and expectations of our departments, divisions, schools, and universities.
Let’s end this needless rhetoric of “bootstraps” and “boots.” Our task right now is to work together to improve higher education; paying teachers (the 70% of adjuncts who run these institutions). Our students demand it, industry expects it, and our professions have a rich and successful history of evolving (sometimes with the speed of an iceberg). Saying that professionals should simply “take it” rather than improving the quality of instruction fails to address how, in fact, we can best compensate teachers and speak directly to this moment of looming (like it’s not already here) austerity.
Here are some essential objectives I’d like to see addressed at The Adjunct Project, Migrant Intellectual, New Faculty Majority, Chronicle of Higher Education, FoxNews, Forbes, NPR, and so forth:
(1) increase revenue through private and public, free market and non-profit models
(2) abandon casino styled investment strategies
(3) use state and federal grants for instructional services not administrative expansion
(4) redefine what it means to learn
(5) revolutionize social networking and the digital economy to meet student/faculty needs
(6) pay workers for their real labor hours
(7) end the contact hour lie (e.g., no professor works three hours on a course, not even the worst of the worst)
(8) transform the survival/triage tactics of a worker’s micro-economy survival tactics into sustainable economic models
(9) end the war between adjuncts and full-time colleagues with intelligence, integrity, and love — yes, love.
I wonder how the cab company Anonymous discusses fared in the Great Recession. I wonder how any business that does not listen to or respect its employees ever moves beyond the “bottom line” and into economic justice for all, prosperity for those who help grow a business, and better services to the customer.
The time is now; the struggle continues. (August Wilson, 1945-2005)
-M.I.
Beth I note you left the field of advertising. Now, as an adjunct, you have issues. My background is advertising and marketing, I’ve been teaching for five years. How on earth can anyone complain adjuncting is so bad after a career in the fast-paced world of advertising? For me, the pros of adjuncting far outweight the cons. I go, I teach, I leave. When it comes to the point the cons outweigh the pros, I’ll find something else. End of story.
Now, for a couple questions about unions as I am union illiterate. I know little about how unions work, so the questions are simply from my limited observations. First, why do adjuncts have separate unions from the FT staff? Second, why does it seem each school has it’s own adjunct union? It would seem to me that the key is FT unions that support adjuncts.
There are pros and cons to separate representation. One con to separate unions is that the administration can play each union against the other. However, in combined unions, full time faculty are usually all too willing to sacrifice the interests of adjuncts to their own. This is, of course, foolish because as it becomes more and more economical to hire adjuncts, there is more and more pressure to eliminate full time positions. But as in business, short term gains are preferred to long term objectives.
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To M.I.:
I applaud anyone that is “hard-working, innovative, resilient or fiesty if you prefer, intelligent, efficient, even-tempered, and good-natured”. This would describe my own mother, a single mother who raised 3 kids (I’m the oldest). We all went to higher ed, 2 of us to GWU. Years later, my own mother told me I had the best job possible: a PT teaching situation that allowed me to also be home for my own family. Ah, but it is a luxury I would have to give up if anything happened to my own spouse (the FT bread winner who works for an “employee-owned” company, yes company business models DO matter).
To those who say “take it or leave it”, I agree with M.I. that they are missing the point. We can say that every 4 years or so to the politcal party that lost. If you don’t like the election results, you can take America or leave it. BUT, looking for ways to escape the problems doesn’t make them go away. Enough said.
I do want to focus on the 9 essential objectives you have identified and ask M.I.: have you seen NFM’s “Program for Change”? How can your 9 objectives be aligned to that long-range plan? (Higher Ed is an iceberg.)
I also want to bring to this issue of equal work for equal pay the following application: dual-enrollment programs such as College Now (in Kansas). Any high schooler (who qualifies, presumably) can enroll in college courses and start earning dual-credit, such as for language courses. But I want to describe the method of compensation to the faculty who coordinate this program (not teach).
A FT faculty member may be given 4 credit hours per semester of his/her FT load (15 credit hours). Let’s do some math: if that FT earned a salary of $60K per academic year, that’s 30 credit hours, or about $2K per credit. IF the College Now is worth 8 credits per academic year, that would be worth roughly $16K of the FT faculty member’s salary.
Okay, stay with me here. Last semester, a FT with these obligations was to retire and thought an adjunct like me could take over those 8 credit hours, indicating this would be a “sure 8 credits” yearly. Flags went up that speak to Beth’s article here:
1. If I said “yes”, I would be accepting the ADJUNCT rate per credit hour which is HALF in this illustration. I could think of it as “PT = half pay”. However, what bothered me was that I was told it was a “sure” 8 credits yearly. Anything “sure” by definition is not “contingent” in my book. Why should I say “yes”?
2. I realized that if I said “yes”, it would extent an inadequate use of the adjunct pay scale for a role that is essentially “non-teaching”. Another flag: why would I accept the same adjunct contract pay scale for a non-teaching role? The College Now role would entail aligning course syllabi and content, coordinating with 40 area high school teachers, and coordinate a yearly workshop/conference, or something along those lines. No teaching per se. So again, why say “yes” to a pay structure which doesn’t match the job description and doesn’t add anything but long hours, and unforseeable volunteering of my time?
3. Okay, so contrary to my comment above on “take it or leave it”, I opted to say “NO” and did not accept, BUT, I took this concrete example straight to our college President over lunch (which he graciously paid for both). Look, there is a need to build relationships with those around you, so that you can have conversations that are candid and relevant to the problems we face. I went as far as to suggest that College Now should re-designate that work and post the job as a PT Regular Staff position, which would allow someone like me to qualify for our state retirement system and qualify for “paid annual leave” hours. OR, in other words, match the job with a different pay scale. OR, how about this: offer a different contract altogether. IF it must be contractual, offer a flat contract, like you would to roofers and I would see myself as a CONSULTANT here and not accept less than, $10K minimum, or be bold and ask for $16K up front and negotiate from there.
These are the kinds of examples and discussions that should be taking place on our campuses: with each other, with FT colleagues, with administrators, with state representatives, state senators, state governors, you name it. I offer ONE concrete example and please realize that if I just “left” my chosen profession/field, I could not add my two cents’ worth because I wouldn’t even be aware of the issue. There’s always someone in every walk of life who is a witness to these things, and hopefully, the brave souls will find each other to speak from his/her experience to these matters.
So I say “YES” to “hard-working, innovative, resilient or fiesty if you prefer, intelligent, efficient, even-tempered, and good-natured!”
Look, there is a need to build relationships with those around you, so that you can have conversations that are candid and relevant to the problems we face.
That is extremely difficult in an all-online institution like mine. Any advice on how to find people without knowing who is already in bed with the administration would be welcome.
re: Adjunct Slave comments on building a community
I would start with people who teach in your area of expertise. We organized first by creating affinity groups, gatherings of people who had questions and concerns re: online teaching, subject matter, course design, etc. We built relationships that focused on our mission as educators and scholars.
From there, some people went about their lives. They just wanted to teach and gave us support by signing their union card or simply spreading the word to interested parties in their divisions. No judgment; just action. In their own way; in their own time.
Others hung back and asked to get involved in guerrilla actions (short and long), intelligence gathering (local, state, regional, national), infiltration, disinformation, etc. and other tactics you and a small group can use to figure out where loyalties rest among colleagues you do not know. Work from a place of “affinity” rather than solidarity (which is essential about love and respect for the work adjuncts do versus clawing your way up to the top of corporate college dead body pile).
You will be able to tell, though, who is interested to address the problems of equity we’re discussing here and elsewhere just by working together on a common problem that connects everyone: adjunct, online administrator, student, etc.
Always remember the students, why you’re doing what your doing. Sure. We all have needs. We all have careers. Well some of us have careers; still others, like me, now have a nomad tribe to lead at home and in my writing/scholarly lives. I started to mourn my career (May 26, 1996 – September 4, 2011) over a year ago. Once I started to do that without any sentimentality or melancholy, I found my voice, embraced new ways to approach old problems, and swore to myself and my family I would never put them in harms way again (e.g., no pay, low pay, inconsistent pay, administrative undermining, systemic stupidity, centralization, bureaucratic proto-fascism).
What, me? Rant?
Hi MI, I must admit, I like the following term you used because it is so true in a world where faculty don’t run higher education anymore–that’s an old myth at this point: “bureaucratic proto-fascism.” If I use it again, know I didn’t mean to steal it but I was just being stealthy!
And yes, I am irreverently ranting! Hence, my being irreverant.
Well, I’m flatterd.
Finally getting something right in the New Year.
I’m pursuing a “Kafka Castle” angle now in all my writing.
Just cite me and we’re cool.
http://migrantintellectual.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/notes-toward-the-empty-castle-theory/
The time is now; the struggle continues. (August Wilson, 1945-2005)
Two of many decent looks at the value of education, from PT to FT. Pretty lame comments about the love it or leave market driven mentality of many posters. Jokes, really. Jokes.
Here’s what Canada does to tenured teacher!
How to Not Teach Physics
by Denis Rancourt / January 2nd, 2013
No one learns physics from being taught physics. Therefore, the best way to teach physics is to not teach physics.
It took me twenty years of teaching university physics to finally learn this about teaching physics.
I would kill myself trying to explain the concepts, patiently and step by step, repeating and re-casting, and on and on. I would grasp any sign as a proof that my efforts were being rewarded. I would read books about teaching and about interesting demonstrations, and go through all the stages of improving my method.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/01/how-to-not-teach-physics/
And, Robert Jensen is always good to listen to:
Living Your Life Honestly
by Robert Jensen / January 3rd, 2013
“Good teaching is living your life honestly in front of students.”
I don’t recall exactly when Jim Koplin first told me that, but I know that he had to say it several times before I began to understand what he meant. Koplin was that kind of teacher—always honing in on simple, but profound, truths; fond of nudging through aphorisms that required time to understand their full depth; always aware of the connection between epistemology and ethics; and patient with slow learners.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/01/living-your-life-honestly/
Hell, take a ride on the wild side —
What the Majority Is to the Minority
One Percent Dreaming and the Dread of a Cormac McCarthy Novel on Wage Slaves and the Coming of the Four Horsemen of the Economic Apocalypse!
by Paul Haeder / January 3rd, 2013
New Census Bureau figures released September 2012 show that 15 to 17 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty in 2011. Over 50 million Americans lived at or below the poverty threshold of a household income of $23,201 per year for a family of four. One in five of our children live in poverty and over one-third of black and Latino children are struggling through impoverishment.
Pathetic, really, that we’ve vaunted the one percent – the disgusting oligarchs and rip-off artists and welfare cheats called the US Corporations, Wall Street, Banks, military hardware purveyors, energy mafia, and we have failed to notice our own enslavement – and their trumpeters into every aspect of our pathetic 70 percent (no 99 Percent for me) lives.
Absolutely bizarre that now some of the most educated (college-wise) are slowly recognizing that they too are part of the proletariat; the largest group of debtors sliding; the white middle class kids and Baby Boomers now seeing and feeling a little bit of what blacks, Latinos and other people of the non-white race have faced since DAY one of the federation.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/01/what-the-majority-is-to-the-minority/