Book Review: "Academic Apartheid, Waging the Adjunct War"
Academic Apartheid, Waging the Adjunct War.
Edited by Sylvia M. DeSantis.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. 112 pages.
by Deborah Straw
Academic Apartheid, Waging the Adjunct War, edited by Sylvia M. DeSantis, a former adjunct and author, is full of grievances. It ought to be.
Yet, in the middle of these grievances, the joy of teaching shows through. Adjuncts don’t dislike their work; they dislike the circumstances and their status as second-class citizens.
Certainly, its title gives a hint that no holds will be barred. In his introduction, Robert W. Fuller, author, physicist and former president of Oberlin College, writes, “From coast to coast, in educational institutions of every kind, adjunct faculty are subjected to discrimination and exploitation. They know it, tenure-track faculty know it, administrators know it… In the same way that the work of slaves subsidized the nation, adjuncts are forced to subsidize the university.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics: “In fall 2015, of the 1.6 million faculty at degree-granting postsecondary institutions, 52 percent were full time and 48 percent were part time.”
This is an excellent, varied collection of narrative and reflective essays written by men and women who have lived the adjunct lifestyle, for better or for worse. Some have moved on; many have tried to move up but to little avail. Some writers have three years of experience; a few have more than 20. All have consistently made dismal salaries, have few if any benefits, and probably have no office or office hours. They may or may not have access to a computer at work. In many departments, they are not allowed to serve on departmental committees, and receive no notice of award or conference opportunities. Some chose to be adjunct; others used it as a stepping-stone, often, unfortunately, to nowhere.
Most love teaching. Some loathe it, or rather, loathe the circumstances.Their testimonies are strongly written, not saying, “woe is me,” just directly stating the facts. The tone is generally conversational.
In one of the first essays, by Lori Maybee Reagan, the adjunct (one of many who hold a Ph.D.) compares her overall wages to a legal Mexican immigrant friend’s who is working at McDonald’s, and discovers the friend makes an equal salary and receives health care. McDonald’s employees are paid for hours they work; adjuncts are paid for hours they teach, not hours they work on prep, meeting with students, grading, communicating, and filling out required forms. Of course, working at home, on weekends, and in coffee shops, grading papers or prepping, isn’t really considered working, is it? At least, that’s what her McDonald’s friend implies.
Perhaps my favorite essay is by Terrance Cox, for the writing quality, the humor and the breadth of his experience. His life has been exciting, good work and travel. He reflects on adjunct work, “theperk is getting to teach university courses and classes. It’s a great gig…” However, in 2001, in the middle of reading a zillion student essays over 12 straight days, he suffered a myocardial infarction… He explains, “Since that near-death experience, the music chair has found stipends in the budget for marker-graders.” Although he has had the opportunity to teach fascinating classes, he maintains, “To be tenuous is to be stressed.” (Unfortunately, since this book’s publication, Cox has died. I hope it wasn’t too many papers once again.
The book’s editor, Sylvia M. DeSantis, no longer is an adjunct as she has moved on to more lucrative, related work. When she first adjuncted, she was, “Weighted down with two degrees, one full-time retail job, on part-time tutoring job at a local learning center, two part-time adjunct gig… and an old coat I probably shouldn’t get too close to the stove [she has standing by an old oil heater]. She misses “sustained, semester-long relationships.”
It was heart warming to see that some adjuncts who move into tenure track positions want to continue to improve the status and working conditions of adjuncts. However, some of the newly full time will help adjuncts only if their new job is not coveted. Mike S. DuBose, an unhappy adjunct for two years who found a non-tenure full-time gig, reflects, “Someone needs to remove the very real negatives to the [adjunct] lifestyle, make it a job that has some dignity, and help those who do the work survive. And who knows? Maybe that person will be me…as soon as I get that 3/3 tenure-track job myself, maybe.”
I relearned a few new things about the overall situation and a few, positive reasons teachers keep on adjuncting – loving to teach, loving the students, making great friends, being excused from interminable departmental meetings.
I also re-learned that the majority of adjuncts enter the English department, teaching freshman or sophomore composition. Entry level it may be considered, but English Comp. is the cornerstone of most college students’ curriculum. It’s a darn important course, one most tenured faculty have little interest in, preferring to teach Shakespeare, modern literary theory or other more exotic English classes.
Many of the experiences in this anthology are similar to mine in various English departments, but I never taught seven courses per semester. Who can do that and not go bit nuts, between remembering names and reading draft after draft after draft?
A few solutions are proposed in the book, the primary one to keep working on better conditions. One that is mentioned, and one I have long wondered about, is this: In her essay, Christy Lusiak writes, “Even if it’s impossible to offer a full package of benefits to part-time employees, just giving them the option of buying into a plan at a reduced cost or providing access to minimal services in the health center on campus could be a step in the right direction.” Many adjuncts, even those over 50, have no health insurance.
A recommendation for increasing one’s income comes from Anne Canavan. She has discovered online tutoring, which she does along with classroom teaching. She gives the names of a few places to apply, such as Online Writing Lab (OWL). Canavan cautions teachers to check out any company thoroughly before signing on, and lists the ability to do the work anywhere, any time, as a benefit.
We need these sorts of brave, unfiltered stories to reaffirm that, yes, we don’t have a great situation here, yes, some of us have it better than others, and yes, most of the work of teaching remains vital, challenging and fulfilling.
This book should make any adjunct laugh or cry or maybe prepare to consider other work. Perhaps it will inspire more adjuncts to take part in the growing number of unions and try to become more included in their college’s or university’s interior workings. It may even provoke administration to reconsider and change its treatment of part-time instructors.
