So I got me an assistant professor deal. Before that, I adjuncted for several years, so I am well acquainted with all the nonsense and general disrespect that confronts the non-TT university instructor: lousy time slots, poor pay, crappy office furniture (if any at all), 10 year old computer (if any at all), huge class lists, no phone, the list goes on and on, I need not elaborate--I and others have bitched heartily here and on RYS.
I signed my sweet contract and suddenly I was asked things like..."Is there anything you need? Is your office adequate? Here's a computer, the tech guy will have you all set up by tomorrow. When you have a minute can you let me know what/when you want to teach? Do you need a hand getting your benefits set up?" A few months ago, I was deserving of nothing, zilch, and I was supposed to be grateful just to be there. A switch is flipped, I am treated with respect and courtesy, and the various necessities of the job are now afforded to me. Non-TT or permanent people and grad students, as I was just months ago, are afforded nothing.
I'd like to be able to enjoy the courtesies and conveniences, but I can't. And actually, the perks aren't even perks at all, they're just what should be provided as a normal part of carrying out university work.
I have survivor guilt.
I can't see how a place can be run like that. The admins must really be idiots.
ReplyDeleteAt my little SLAC the adjuncts get the same support structures that TT and tenured faculty get, including computer support; the only thing they don't have is job security. Some of the long-term adjuncts (I'm thinking of one in particular) are more respected by their colleagues than half of the tenured faculty.
Maybe I should look around for Sir Thomas More, 'cause I seem to be living in one of his books.
I had survivor guilt too, when I got my TT job. Don't worry, it won't take long for it to wear off, if your higher-ups are as big jerks as you describe. Mine was quickly removed by couple of aging silverbacks who made sure we young whippersnappers knew our places, by mouthing such nonsense I can't believe even they believed. Never forget to be kind to your untenured colleagues, in the years to come.
ReplyDeleteI do, too. In this last couple of weeks suddenly the shit I'm getting volunteered for/delegated at with committee work and other busy bureaucratic paperwork has spiked very very high and I'm unable to get any deadline-based research shit done, or keep up with classes, and for about 3.25 seconds the other morning while lying in bed dreading the day I thought back to adjuncting almost. . . wistfully. . . and then realized how much more horrible that uncertainty and contingency was and got up and started working on the XLS doc du jour.
ReplyDeleteI have worked as an adjunct in places where I had to bring my own laptop and printer if I wanted to print anything and pay for my own copies or share a space the size of a baby grand with eight other people.
ReplyDeleteBut where I currently work, adjuncts get their own offices (the same as we do) with their names officially printed on the doors. They have equipment that works and only share all the equipment the rest of us share (a common printer and copier). I will now think twice about complaining that I have to walk down to the other end of the building to pick up something I printed...
I was pretty lucky in my adjunct placements, too. I always had copying privileges and a mailbox, and some sort of office, with a computer once it became standard to have computers (mind you, when I started as an adjunct, it wasn't assumed that one would have an email address and share it with one's students, so copying was a better benchmark than a computer, and I always had that, though I occasionally paid for copying rather than drive 50 miles to drop it off). I was always amazed by those professional association standards for adjuncts that started by listing things that, yes, are absolutely basic, but sadly it seems that such standards are, indeed, necessary.
ReplyDelete@Cranky: for the moment, enjoy having the basics (at least until, as Froderick suggests, unfamiliar varieties of thistle pop up in the greensward), and work toward tenure. But don't forget, and, once you have tenure, see if you can at least make sure your institution's adjuncts have the basics (that really ought to be achievable anywhere, and is exactly the sort of thing that tenured proffies can point out -- in public if necessary -- until somebody is shamed into doing the right thing).
I really appreciated this post.
ReplyDeleteMy partner just got hired at an R1 institution. An ivy, for godsakes. And I am so very, very happy for him.
But I am seething with jealousy. I am here, doing my own bit with book deals and adjunct classes at a well-established R1 state school nearby and online schools that pay me, together, a decent wage, one comparable to his incoming salary.
You speak of respect, of common courtesy. THIS!! He was handed a brand new laptop, a tricked-out Mac worth at least $3000, upon signing his contract. They offer him $90/hour for extra curricular service jobs. (!!!!!!) There is a car service he may use if he arranges for speakers to come into town. He has such great benefits that cannot be extended to me (yet).
I am dying, DYING of jealousy, but I cannot say that to him, right? I am earning about what he earns, albeit from multiple places and with no job security. But my jobs yell at me as this insignificant piece of dirt while his job speaks of him reverently as though he could alter the movement of the sun should he choose.
I hope something happens with me that will bring respect, but for now I am here, feeling the misery.
@Monkey: I sympathize. Respect really does count for a lot (and buying one's own computers, software, etc. eventually adds up, though I have to say that in the present climate I'm just as glad that what is on my hard drive -- which isn't really very interesting or shocking -- is my own business. If this computer belonged to my school, I wouldn't be posting from it).
ReplyDeleteBut I have to say: I'm not jealous, since I have a bit more job security (though just a bit more, which is why your post intrigued me), but I'm impressed that you've managed to put together something approaching a full-time salary out of those pieces. If you don't mind my asking, which of the elements you've named brings in the largest proportion of your yearly income? I'm not sure exactly what adjuncts make per class at my R2 these days, but I'm pretty sure it's not much over 50% of what I do (and my salary still hasn't reached the level of a TT starting salary). Either you're doing a *lot* of teaching, you've found adjunct work that pays unusually well, or the book deals are lucrative.
Cassandra, I don't mind being honest at all. I don't think anyone can trace me if I share how I piece together my living.
ReplyDeleteI work for 3 universities. One is the respected state institution I mentioned (which offers rare health benefits -- it's the only one I've seen offering health care to adjuncts) that pays about $4000 for a full semester. It's a good gig. Then there is an online university that is good for about $1000/month (they pay $2500 per class, but I only get classes every so often). Then there is my motherload: an online university funded by the Department of Defense. The DoD wants quality education for a shit-ton of military folk. And they are my payday.
I also have little things here and there, advising and the book deal etc, which add up at the end of the year. If I lose my cushy state class, I'll try to work for another online university: I think that multiple streams of income is the only way to make things balance out.
(but oy I don't want to think of what would happen if I lost my employer health care)
Support? Employer health care? I thought this blog was supposed to be in English. I don't know those terms.
ReplyDeleteWhile we don't have office space for adjuncts, I did furnish a lounge for the adjuncts (with a phone and a couch!). We put in some lockers so that those who want to can get a locker for the semester. They get the same copier rights as my proffies (the copier doubles as a printer) and they get FIRST pick at the time slots.
ReplyDeleteFor technical classes we just can't get many adjuncts, so we try and coddle the good ones. And I do fire (or rather, don't hire again) the ones caught feeling up the students or consistently coming late or watching what the students write in their evaluations.
Worry not, Frederick, that I shall forget from whence I came. People told me before I had a baby that I'd forget the pain. I didn't, even almost two decades later. Similarly I won't forget the pain that was working/living as an adjunct.
ReplyDeleteI admit have a big crush on regular faculty who pipe up and go to bat for the non-permanent people. I plan to be one of those who holler about conditions for non-permanent people.
I also recognize that it was only about 30% me, and 70% pure damn luck I got the job.
ReplyDeleteI did, too, for the first year of my T-T job after five years of adjuncting and many years more of seriously struggling. I still feel bad for the adjuncts where I work, who have it better than I did where I adjuncted before this job.
ReplyDeleteI also have a hard time giving myself credit for having earned the job I was hired into, but I remind myself that I did work hard for it. I know, too, how much luck is involved in this crapshoot of job hunting.
You do deserve your job, Cranky. Do good work and take pleasure in the work. As long as you never lose your compassion, you'll never completely lose your guilt, but do realize that you've earned your success--at least to some degree.
Thanks GLG!! I will take pleasure in my work...the behemoth jump in salary certainly helps!
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm feeling the survivors' guilt too. I've even told a few friends "for fuck's sake just finish and get out of there--things can be so much better."
ReplyDeleteI'm also just waiting for the other shoe to drop. How long will it take before this sucks too? *sigh*