because teaching is not important...and living wages are so gauche!

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

The Great shame of America's colleges

Freeway Flyers: aka "adjunct professors", aka "teaching professionals." They're the dirty little secret of universities and colleges all around the United States. They're the PhDs with decades of teaching experience, award-winning artists, published authors whose names and reputations draw students to the universities, whose work justifies the $50,000/year tuition, raises the million-dollar donations, earns the sought after rankings in USA Today's annual poll.

In exchange for all that, they are hired only on a part-time basis, made to sign a pledge that they will not work more than twenty hours a week and will not--not now, not ever--have a claim to health or retirement or any other kind of benefits, not even a parking pass. That they are "at will" employees who can be let go at any time, for any reason. Their salaries are so meager, they have to teach two, three, sometimes five classes a semester, at five different universities, just to pay their rent. That's why they're called Freeway Flyers. One writer I knew taught for twenty years at a Southern California college with more money than the GNP of a small country. He was paid so little, he had to supplement his income by working the graveyard shift at airport gift shops. He was the author of one of the biggest literary novels of the 20th century; when he died, his family couldn't afford to bury him. Another guy--a teacher of mine from the days when I was a student of writing--drove four hours each way to teach the same class for twenty-seven years. He made something near $3,000 a semester. He was recently let go because the school could take advantage of the rising unemployment rates to hire a younger person for less than $3,000.

...

I've asked many of them these questions, especially recently. One of them was a former peace corps volunteer. Their answers are short and scripted: "Of course we want to do the right thing; but only when possible." His colleague, another dean, lamented openly the fact that out of every professor on their payroll, there was one who could not be let go or forced to work for half her usual salary because that one, unfortunately, had a contract. Not that anyone's unhappy with the professor's work, mind you. They just don't like paying more than they have to.MORE

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_yggdrasil/]

That is a heap of bullshit right there.

I know more than a few people who are getting their PhDs and looking to teaching at the university level. I know what they're getting themselves into but I don't know if all of them do.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm thinking that not a lot of people know about this, frankly. I was astonished, really. And they say we don't need unions...

[kadath.livejournal.com]

I thought everyone in academia knew about the adjuncting racket.

[isitis.livejournal.com]

Wow, that explains so much about some of my professors. They were not a happy bunch

[peterlake.livejournal.com]

yep, my boyfriend (aka the guy who runs 1585 with me) is one of these. It sucks. HARD.

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

Oh tell me about it, there’s a reason I ended up taking a dull job with good benefits and gave up the idea of teaching..

[miaryann.livejournal.com]

Justin is an adjunct for the second year now (just for kicks...they asked him to teach a law class and he said sure) and he sure as hell doesn't do it for the money.