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article: Why Being An Adjunct Faculty Member Is Terrible


MarkT
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I loved being an adjunct, but for me, it was a way to get out of the house and be an adult a couple of times a week. Honestly, it was enjoyable enough that the pay didn’t matter. But I’m guessing “mostly stay at home moms of young babies†are in relative short supply in the adjunct pool!

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I loved being an adjunct, but for me, it was a way to get out of the house and be an adult a couple of times a week. Honestly, it was enjoyable enough that the pay didn’t matter. But I’m guessing “mostly stay at home moms of young babies†are in relative short supply in the adjunct pool!

My DS13’s former charter school teacher was an adjunct while her firstborn was a toddler. However her husband is allowed to work from home most days and grandparents are emergency babysitters. Pay wasn’t high though so she went back to work as a public high school teacher once her firstborn started kindergarten.

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  • 2 weeks later...

In my state, one of the reasons that there are so many adjuncts is that higher education budgets have been largely flat since 2009. Also, state-level approval is required to advertise for a professor in the community college system, but administrative positions are college-determined if they have the funding. When a professor retires, there's a long process to determine if the position should be advertised. Many are never reopened. The college I used to work for is building a new STEM facility, and I was told that they have approval for a professor slot in my field when they expand their offerings. But I can't wait 2-3 years for that.

 

The job I'm interviewing for is very specialized and requires a graduate degree, so it actually pays as well as a professor. It's something I would enjoy too. So I may ironically become part of the "overhead" that professors complain about!

 

We see the exact same thing on my Cal State campus. About half of our faculty are adjuncts, and we haven't had a tenure-line hire in over a decade (even though we've had many tenured faculty retire or leave).

 

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We see the exact same thing on my Cal State campus. About half of our faculty are adjuncts, and we haven't had a tenure-line hire in over a decade (even though we've had many tenured faculty retire or leave).

From SFGate on Feb 5 http://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-francisco/article/The-secret-lives-of-part-time-Bay-Area-professors-12529299.php

“Former US Secretary of Labor and current UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich told SFGATE disparity exists because of the unique job market for each position based on supply and demand. Reich said adjunct faculty, who are plentiful, do not benefit from this economic situation.

 

"Unfortunately, it doesn't make any difference whether we are talking about public colleges or private colleges — the fact of the matter is that every bit and every part of the labor market is in its own bubble," Reich said. "Morally it's wrong. It's unfair. But that's what the economy is doing."â€

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