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Part-Time Thoughts
Diversity and the Exploitiation of Adjunct Professors
When I was adjuncting, I’m sorry to say it, but I gave into despair. I absolutely love to teach—but I’ve taught at eight different universities and came to see them as interchangeable—just as they saw each body in “the adjunct pool” as…
Adjunct Instructors’ Outlook on Full-Time Employment
by Tami Strang
If you’ve been following education news lately, you’ve probably read at least one article that discusses the struggles that many adjunct instructors are having as they seek full-time employment at colleges and…
TechKNOWLEDGE-y for the Adjunct: Social Media, Students, and You
by Bridgett McGowen-Hawkins, M.A.
Teaching faculty know that social media is no longer just for “liking” photos, updating Facebook timelines, and re-tweeting the latest news from higher education. In her eight-minute podcast…
Don’t Blame Adjuncts for Grade Inflation—Blame Plummeting Expectations
By Donald Hurwitz
GRADE INFLATION. The subject is hardly new, and it is real: GPAs on college campuses sit on the border of A-/B+, and grades have ratcheted up a notch every decade or so. It’s hard to make much of academic administrators’…
Relying on Non-Tenured Faculty = Profit over Integrity
By Samuel Hazo
Many observers would agree that a lot of universities today no longer champion liberal education but are little more than academic corporations that bequeath to their graduates a degree in debt. Such debts often reach…
A Perspective From Down Under—Adjuncts as Sandwich-Makers
by Nicki Smith
The phrase ‘Make me a sandwich’, which distills the age-old sexist stereotype that women belong in the kitchen, is something that I have found myself increasingly thinking about in the context of academia.…
Of Fast Food Academics: Adjuncts, Medicaid & Food Stamps
by Laura Finley
The workers’ rights movement has exploded in the last few years, with fast food, agricultural and other workers staging strikes and other nonviolent actions to demand increased wages, benefits and better working conditions.…
To Save Jobs of Adjuncts, FT Faculty Put Off Guaranteed Salary Hikes
Different tiers of faculty don’t always fight with each other over money and control.
At Eastern Illinois University, which is suffering from a steep enrollment drop and reduced state support, tenured and tenure-track faculty just put…
California Part-time faculty Association Asks Legislators for “Living Wage”
An advocacy organization that represents 40,000 part-time college instructors across California is urging Governor Jerry Brown to make a sea change in how part-timers at schools like Gavilan College—which depends heavily on part-time…
College That Claims it “Can’t Afford” Health Care for Adjuncts, Spent $1.6M per FT…
by P.D. Lesko
Ivy Tech Community College employs 120 full-time faculty and 500 part-time faculty. It's a common ratio at American community colleges these days and it's a ratio meant to achieve exactly one purpose: to save money.…