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Adjunctivitis - Part-timers face ‘double standard’
The pay is often low, with few employee benefits and little job security.
A national trend
In recent years, the national trend in hiring professors has favored adjuncts. Today, about one-fourth of the nation’s academic work force is tenured or on track for tenure. That compares with more than a third as recently as 1995. Most adjuncts, like part-timers, graduate assistants and even full-time lecturers, hold other, “contingent,” jobs.
A year ago, the Journal of Higher Education told the story of Margaret Hanzimanolis, an adjunct with a Ph.D. in English who had been teaching six courses in Vermont for a salary of about $24,000 a year – with no health insurance.
“So she moved across the country to Northern California, where at least 20 colleges were within a 90-minute drive, to begin her life as an adjunct anew.” Within days, she was hired to teach basic writing at De Anza College, then landed adjunct positions at three other colleges. She ended up teaching 13 classes year-round, earning $88,000 a year. Even more important, she became eligible for health benefits after 18 months. Another case publicized recently involves Margaret Mary Vojtko, an 83-year-old adjunct at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University. According to the New York Times, “Vojtko, who taught French at Duquesne for 25 years, never earned more than $25,000, even when she taught eight courses a year.” Vojtko, who had cancer, was dismissed last spring with neither pension nor severance. She died in August.
The story became a rallying point for adjuncts nationwide, the newspaper said in an article that focused primarily on efforts to unionize adjunct professors.
Holder says there is “no active effort” to unionize adjuncts at UNM.
A national trend
In recent years, the national trend in hiring professors has favored adjuncts. Today, about one-fourth of the nation’s academic work force is tenured or on track for tenure. That compares with more than a third as recently as 1995. Most adjuncts, like part-timers, graduate assistants and even full-time lecturers, hold other, “contingent,” jobs.
A year ago, the Journal of Higher Education told the story of Margaret Hanzimanolis, an adjunct with a Ph.D. in English who had been teaching six courses in Vermont for a salary of about $24,000 a year – with no health insurance.
“So she moved across the country to Northern California, where at least 20 colleges were within a 90-minute drive, to begin her life as an adjunct anew.” Within days, she was hired to teach basic writing at De Anza College, then landed adjunct positions at three other colleges. She ended up teaching 13 classes year-round, earning $88,000 a year. Even more important, she became eligible for health benefits after 18 months. Another case publicized recently involves Margaret Mary Vojtko, an 83-year-old adjunct at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University. According to the New York Times, “Vojtko, who taught French at Duquesne for 25 years, never earned more than $25,000, even when she taught eight courses a year.” Vojtko, who had cancer, was dismissed last spring with neither pension nor severance. She died in August.
The story became a rallying point for adjuncts nationwide, the newspaper said in an article that focused primarily on efforts to unionize adjunct professors.
Holder says there is “no active effort” to unionize adjuncts at UNM.
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we get by, but little things really throw us off - like when one of the colleges my wife teaches for auto deposits her check in the wrong bank (we moved our account to a credit union - they sent it to the old bank, Bank of America) and it has taken us a while to get this straightened out. Meanwhile we get another cut-off notice from the electric company. We usually can't pay until we get the cutoff notice.
And then one of my classes gets cancelled. That was $1800 we were counting on. And then there are the student loans.
If you teach high school for a certain number of years you can get part of your loans forgiven. . . there is nothing available like that for community college teachers.
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