Are you an adjunct professor and feel exploited?

Question

I am. I was just wondering if there were any more out there.
I don't make a living wage. I don't get paid for the copious amount of preparation and grading involved. But, the service that I provide is invaluable to the college where I teach. We adjunct professors are like migrant workers. We are freaking "lettuce pickers..."

Answer 1

Well, how would you like to not only be underpaid but unappreciated AND have to deal with uncooperative teenagers?

You guys have it easy. If you don't like your current situation, I invite you to teach at your local public high school. Not only do you get the grading, but you get the school district (run by PARENTS!) and your students' parents breathing down your neck! And to top it all off, the curriculum changes as often as the weather. So the books that you teach this year, and have complete lesson plans for are useless come next year!

in my honest (and informed) opinion, you people have it easy. You are in a college campus, surrounded by academia, using cutting-edge techniques and technology, dealing with students who are PAYING GOOD MONEY to be there (thus better behaved), are obviously older and more mature, and you have the possibility of tenure-track, and further degrees.

Don't tell me you are lettuce pickers! You could certainly do worse!

Answer 2

Always. And the legislature passed a law some years ago mandating that the colleges pay these adjuncts medical at the percentage they teach, and when I asked for that at Victor Valley Community College, they simply didn't hire me anymore.

Ya see, it's a buyer's market. As long as this country spends so much time promoting education, producing a glut of M.A.'s, the community colleges will be able to hire 80% of their faculty (Mount San Antonio College) as adjuncts. Student doesn't get office hours, teacher doesn't support his family, everyone wins.

Answer 3

I am an adjunct instructor, though that isn't my primary job. If it were, I certainly couldn't get by. In addition to not being able to pay my bills, I wouldn't have any get any benefits at all (insurance, retirement, etc.) if my main job were as an adjunct.

The real problem is that many colleges have their priorities wrong. Adjuncts TEACH, but that isn't considered terribly important at a lot of colleges. The tenured staff spends most of their time on research, writing, and other more high prestige pursuits. We need to straighten out the priorities and give real education its proper respect.

Answer 4

Man, what a coincidence. Yes! I am an adjunct professor, and I'll be danged if I don't feel exploited. What shall I do?