Letters to the Editor

No Laughing Matter

Matt Hall’s cartoons have been a terrific addition to the Adjunct Advocate. I know that, to some, the trials and tribulations associated with teaching part-time are certainly no laughing matter. However, Hall’s cartoons zero in, like guided missiles, to the heart of all that is absurd about working as a part-timer. I especially like the cartoons which lampoon the lame efforts of supposedly well-meaning administrators who think refrigerator magnets and the literal crumbs left over from the budget should suffice. Thanks so much for introducing me to Matt Hall’s work and for helping me have a good laugh at my own expense at least once every two months.

Barry K. Lopiano

New York, NY

Tenured Profs. in the Classroom

I am writing to comment on the “desk drawer” column which appeared in the November/December 2003 issue “NYU President Sends Tenured Faculty Back to the Classroom.” I currently teach at NYU, and can speak from experience when I say that I think John Sexton’s push to force tenured faculty to do their fair share of teaching is the best thing that has happened to NYU is the past decade. It is about time that the men and women with tenure, who are not required to publish, to attend conferences, to even conduct any further research, should be put back in the classroom.

Of course this means that, eventually, there will be fewer part-time faculty, and more of the full-time temporary “teaching professors,” Sexton wants to create. Be that as it may, from a purely practical standpoint, any college strapped with tenured employees should make every effort to use them to teach undergraduates, as opposed to using temps. Maybe in a few years I’ll be out of a job, but at least I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that the tenured snob down the hallway, who hasn’t been to a conference since Reagan was president, and who hasn’t seen an undergraduate since before he got tenure, will be back in the classroom again, where all faculty belong.

Name Withheld

Health Insurance

I have been teaching part-time for the past 12 years. During that time, I have had health insurance for exactly 32 weeks–two semesters. The premiums for a single individual are just too much to squeeze into an already tight budget. A premium of just $200 each month would mean I would have to get rid of my car–my only way of getting to the teaching jobs I have on three campuses. For colleges to continue to refuse to provide part-time faculty with benefits, such as health insurance, sick leave and paid vacation is one of the most galling injustices part-timers must face.

The common wisdom dictates that part-time faculty are not supposed to rely on part-time teaching jobs in order to support themselves. For the past 15 years, Department of Education research, articles published in the Adjunct Advocate, The Chronicle of Higher Education and a variety of mainstream newspapers and magazines have provided ample evidence that, in this case, the common wisdom is wrong. Maybe part-time faculty are not supposed to rely on this work for a living, but we do. Maybe colleges shouldn’t rely on cheap labor to teach undergraduates, but they do.
Can we please just admit the reality of the situation and go on from there? I know that access to affordable health insurance is a nationwide problem, but if the so-called academics can’t find a solution within their own industry, I have little hope that the government ever will.

Holly Witterns

Terra Haute, IN

Thanks for the much-needed feature story about health insurance. I have bounced from policy to policy in an effort to find a happy medium between major medical and preventative care. Fortunately, I am healthy and relatively young (39) and have had no major health problems in my life. When will someone sit up and notice that on most college campuses there is money for the football team, but not a red cent for contingent faculty health insurance? When is someone going to sit up and take notice that there is money to add layers of administration, along with the necessary administrators to oversee the bulging, top-heavy departments?

What is happening in higher education is shameful, and until part-time faculty have access to the same benefits as full-time faculty, higher education will have no reason to boast of its accomplishments in this country. The needs of people should come before buildings, sports programs and landscaping.

Victor Ximenes

San Diego, CA