I work in administration, and I agree with this. Universities & Colleges have a lot of fat that should be trimmed.
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I’m at a big state school and seeing the parade of disappointed PhD’s cycle back into my office at Career Services is so depressing. They get sold a bill of goods by people (most often Boomers) who have done really well with the current system. I’m sure they mean well when they are encouraging bright young people to… Read more
This is me. I an a adjunct professor with a Ph.D. in English literature. I would be on the street if my husband was not a full professor. A few years ago there was an article about adjuncts turning to sex work and living in cars. This needs to end. Read more
What’s so sad to me is how often these skeevy underbelly systems are part of big higher ed institutions that are supposed to give access to more (and usually underrepresnted) people to an education. I work at a majority minority university and it’s so gross to see the overwhelmingly white and male leadership. The… Read more
Adjuncting, lecturer positions, visiting positions and exploited graduate labor are keeping universities as we know them afloat. It’s unsustainable and unfair and won’t change as long as unscrupulous universities keep feeding graduate students Ph.D.s that they know will have little value in the current academic job… Read more
It’s basically the Uber business model for college. Supposed to be a part-time side gig, but ends up being a full-time job, just at lower pay. My brother-in-law was on a tenure track position at a good university, was told he didn’t make tenure and they were eliminating his position, and then for the past five years… Read more
My wife has been an adjunct at a very large and prestigious private Midwestern university twice. It was a numbing and awful experience that when they asked her to return she refused. They never visited her class, provided no feedback (other than the student surveys) gave her no support. She knew other actual… Read more
Anti union sentiment always baffles me, especially when the people espousing such would benefit greatly from organising.
Are unions perfect? No. Read more
In 2004 my history professor who was eking out an existence at age 35 teaching at the local Junior College in addition to the State U that I was at flat out told me: “Don’t become a history professor. You will never get tenure and you will never get out of debt. Don’t be like me.” Read more
This was a great article. I taught a night class at my alma mater in my field a couple years ago because I thought it would be fun, and hoo boy, for someone who values their time, it was glorified volunteering. After two semesters I just couldn’t justify it. Read more
Great article! I’m so glad this issue is getting some well-deserved publicity. Sadly, I think every university has the story of the adjunct sleeping in their car (just like every PhD program has the myth of the 15 year doctoral student; sort of a take on the Phantom of the Opera). Once upon a time, my course in life… Read more
Florida adjunct here. I have a full-time job, so I am just doing it for extra money and to basically pave the way for a retirement career. Most of the other adjuncts I’ve spoken to do not have full-time jobs and are eking out a living working at two or more colleges. That’s a bit of a skewed sampling but I haven’t yet… Read more
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I looked into adjuncting at a Florida community college system not mentioned in the article, and there was no way it was worth my time. I could teach math or basic business classes, which are definitely things community colleges should be teaching. But, yeah, $2K a class tops for someone making $60K plus benefits teach… Read more
Thanks for this Hamilton. Read more
I left academia because of the shitty pay. This is mostly spot on. One thing I observed directly (and this was 20 years ago, but i think if anything the trend has accelerated) was that while actual teaching faculty were getting squeezed on money, they were building massive empires of Diversity Coordination. Gold… Read more
The AFL-CIO, it’s trade departments, state federations and central labor councils absolutely can assist affiliates in organizing.
They can also charter new affiliates in industries where unions don’t exist
They also can organize Directly Affiliated Local Unions to organize local groups of workers who don’t have a union… Read more
In general, organized labor, which faces constant outside political attack as a matter of course, is reluctant to air its grievances widely. Read more
THis is old news, but relevant (IMO): Read more