OK, I’m just past 50 and an adjunct. In case you’re wondering “WTF? How long have you been an adjunct anyway?!?” I should note that this is a second career, or maybe third. It depends how you count them. At any rate, I decided to go back to academia because a) I wanted to use my degree and b) I missed teaching. So, anyway, here I am, making in a year what I used to make every two months. Whee. Granted I could make more if I became a freeway flier and taught at multiple schools. Instead I stick to one school and one or two classes a term. My wife says I’m lucky. Maybe. Let’s look at the benefits of being a middle-aged adjunct.
I get full library and gym privileges. No gym membership fees and you better believe I take advantage of the library services.
The school is only four miles from our home. Can you say easy commute? Sure you can.
I like the students and most of the rest of the department. The Dean that didn’t talk to adjuncts is gone. My department chair likes me and lets me teach upper division courses in my specialty.
I get time to write. Since I started this adjunct gig my book came out and I’ve written three articles (all peer reviewed and accepted for publication in good journals), three book reviews, several encyclopedia articles, given four conference papers, and I’ve started two more papers and another book. In short, I’ve produced more than the rest of my department combined.
I can stay home on off days, work on the garden and fix dinner for my wife.
I can work on my lap top with my dogs curled up next to me on the sofa.
By sticking to one school I can claim some affiliation so I don’t have that awkward “independent scholar” next to my name.
No committee meetings!
I don’t have to spend time balancing my checkbook because there isn’t anything in it!
OK, what’s the bad side?
No paychecks when I’m not teaching, which this year means no checks from late June until the end of September. Yikes!
Retirement savings? What retirement savings? I used to have a 401K.
Who the f%^$&^ is going to hire a new professor in their 50s!?!?! I’m pretty much stuck as an adjunct!
“Hello? Is this HR? I just got my paycheck and I think you left out a digit. No? Really? That’s IT?!?”
Sharing an office with adjuncts from three different departments with one old computer that doesn’t work well. Hell, I provided the unbroken office chair ($20.00 thrift store), the computer screen (my old one), a working keyboard and a bulletin board (25 cents each, church rummage sale), etc.
Not being certain I even have a job each semester until I get that contract in the mail.
“Hello? HR? Are you SURE this amount is right, because my Guatemalan immigrant neighbor makes more mowing lawns that I make teaching your students. I’ve seen what you charge for tuition. Hello? Hello???”
I like hamburger, but sometimes I miss ribeye.
In my old job I had a dozen departments report to me every day. When I set a deadline it was met. When I said “do this,” it was done. In other words, I didn’t have to deal with college students, to whom a “deadline” is a mild suggestion.
“Hello? HR? Yeah, it’s me again. I checked my state’s minimum wage laws and… hello? “
My old job is gone. Yikes! And I’ve been away from my old field long enough that I couldn’t jump back if I wanted too. I think this is called “working without a net.”
“Hello? HR? It’s me. About this restraining order……”
And we're one auto accident or serious illness away from financial disaster.
When I went to grad school I had visions of teaching in a little ivy covered liberal arts college somewhere. My wife and I would go to plays in the theater department and we’d have a nice little house just off campus where I could tinker with a garden. Yeah, I know, not f-ing real life. Actually it was what my undergraduate college was like in the 70s and that's what I wanted, to be one of my old professors! Instead I am effectively underemployed and probably will be for the rest of my life so I’d better f**king find some good in the situation!
Hmm ... Mark, I'm holding the knife at my wrists wondering where is this good you found!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of HR restraining orders, this past term one of my two colleges forgot to end payroll at the end of the term.
Yup, every adjunct got an extra paycheck ... reversed and debited within 36 hours!
I'm sure there were a few fantasies about quickly withdrawing and hiding the cash, but who wanted to risk losing another $2,100 payout (or jail) over the $98.78 overpaid?
Good post, Mark.
ReplyDeleteAdjuncting is nice as a supplement to a full-time gig. But as a primary source of income? Yikes
ReplyDeleteAs an adjunct, I teach Spring, Summer, and Fall, non-stop, and have never taken a semester off in 4 years. I teach 2-4 classes, tutor, and attend every single paid meeting I can (and unpaid ones, too).
ReplyDeleteI make about 20k a year, pre-tax.
I have no employee health care plan, so I pay $183/mo. to Kaiser myself.
My PERA contributions are smaller because my pay is less.
Full-timers at my school make 45,000k/year (over 2X what I make), have commensurately larger PERA contributions, and have a nice health plan with dental coverage. On a yearly basis, they work the same amount I do, and right now, nearly all of them aren't teaching summer semester.
Am I pissed off about it? Yes. Am I happy to have a job? Yes. Do I regret not getting the exact right Master's degree to qualify for full-time? Hell yes.
70% of the teachers in my school are adjunct. It's a money-saver, that's all. If I can't take it anymore, I'll quit.
So yeah, I'm angry about it, but there's little I can do or am willing to do, so I accept it.
I really don't understand how colleges are able to get away with the crappy conditions for their adjuncts.
ReplyDeleteCompared to jobs outside the academy, these people are putting in at least as many hours, possibly more, for half the pay (if that). In return, they get no job security, next to no benefits and frequently any slight hint of job satisfaction rubbed out by being given all the crappiest classes the tenured profs don't want to teach and the majority of the students don't want to be in.
Kudos to you, I guess. I don't know how you do it.
I don't want to be an adjunct anymore. But I can't get anyone else to hire me. Once job was perfect, I was in -- but then the Provost chose someone else. I look at office work, education, editing, writing, banking.... I'm stuck.
ReplyDeleteAlmost exactly one-half of the adjunct offers I have ever gotten have been rescinded. One-third of those that were rescinded were replaced with other sections less than 2 weeks before the start of the semester.
ReplyDeleteHow's that for job security?
My doctoral program requires us to adjunct after a certain point, have only a limited number of openings at our school, and yet do little to help us find work at other schools who could use our services. (You know, like a job sharing program of some sort.)
Contrary to their magical thinking, exhaustion and abject poverty are NOT motivators to finish a dissertation.