by P.D. Lesko

Whenever I hire a new writer, I always make a point of telling the individual that my desire in publishing the Adjunct Advocate is not to simply report on what has happened, but rather to anticipate trends before they become national news. I like to believe I am a forward thinker. The most compelling evidence of this trait has to be that I founded the Adjunct Advocate in 1992. Who, in 1992, was writing about adjunct faculty on a regular basis? Not The Chronicle, LinguaFranca, Academe, or the newspapers of the national academic labor unions, the AFT’s On Campus and the NEA’s Advocate. In 1992, adjunct faculty were higher education’s “dirty little secret.”

I was 31 in 1992. I had no spouse, no kids, no mortgage and no idea what publishing a national magazine was all about. I had a teaching job, which I desperately wanted to leave behind, and this idea that maybe I could publish a magazine for part-timers. I did what I always do in these situations: I read books, newspaper and magazine articles. I read about the proper launch of a 4-color, glossy, national magazine (at a minimum cost of $250,000). I read about media kits, and gorilla marketing. I read about the difference between managing, copy and production editors, and I read about desktop publishing. Then, I jumped--with $5,000, and health insurance thanks to COBRA.

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