by Elayne Clift

Webster got it right: I am “not essentially a part of [the academy.]” I am only “an accompanying object.” I have felt this reality many times. I feel it now, as I am told that there will be no salary increase, again, despite the fact that out of fourteen faculty in this particular program, twelve are adjuncts. I feel it when I am asked to design and deliver two more full semester courses for $1500 each at a local state college. I feel it with particular pain when, after six years of commuting twelve hours a week for eight weeks to deliver a widely praised course, I receive an impersonal e-mail from the new Program Head that reads, “We will not be offering your course again.” I even feel it when I read my latest evaluations and the two weakest students offer critiques that include, “She failed to give me the guidance I needed,” and, “She was not fair to me; she conveyed that I was not as proficient as others.”

Somehow, these comments are only barely offset by the rave reviews that include words like “brilliant,” “excellent,” “compassionate,” “outstanding,” “life changing.” I suppose that is because it is so easy to feel devalued, exploited, unrecognized, dispensable. Adequate compensation is, after all, the most obvious mechanism by which an academic institution demonstrates its respect for the professionalism and commitment of its faculty.

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