Barnaby, Hardly Working

The dirty little secret of Academia is how crappily colleges and universities treat their adjunct instructors. Often, adjuncts are brought in to teach the course no one else wants to teach. In the case of my discipline, English, that means freshman composition. "Real" professors who teach English wouldn't want to be caught dead in a composition classroom with a bunch of teenaged freshmen, some of whom can barely read and write to begin with. So it's up to the adjuncts to teach those courses.

But the real abuse of the adjuncts comes not so much from which courses they must teach, but in how very, very little they get paid. I just completed a semester as an adjunct. I taught two classes of freshman comp., 40 students in all. How much did I make? $15,000, you say? $10,000? No, my friends, I made a total of $4,600 ($2,400 per class).

Compare this to the $40,000-$100,000 that a tenured or tenure track professor can earn in a year, and it is clear how badly adjuncts are treated. Usually, a tenure-track professor must teach 3-4 classes per semester. But even if I were to teach 3 classes per semester as an adjunct, I would still only make . . . (let me break out my calculator--remember, I'm only an English major) $14,400 a year! Part of the problem is that adjuncts, no matter how many classes they teach, are always and forever labeled "part-time" employees. I could teach more classes than a tenure-track professor, and I would still be only "part-time." The part-time designation also prevents adjuncts from joining teacher's unions.

I thank God that I don't have a family to support, but many adjuncts do. Obviously, $14,400 is not barely enough for one person to scrape by on, much less someone with a family. Most of my married co-workers (grad students and other adjuncts) are married to men or women who are the real breadwinners in the household, so the low pay does not hurt them as much. But I'm on my own, and while I have some savings in my bank account, and I try to live frugally, $4,600 a semester is just not enough.

Hence, I wouldn't mind finding a job that will pay well (after working as an adjunct for so long, even $30,000 a year would be like winning the lottery) and sticking with that for a year before going back to adjuncting. Why would I want to continue to put up with a job that pays horribly and receives no respect? Because I like teaching. It's just a shame that teachers who are as committed to their profession as most adjuncts are, are treated so badly.