Thursday, March 18, 2004
Adjunct Hell
The Invisible Adjunct is on vacation, so let me do my part by passing on two articles from the Chronicle on adjuncting, first noticed by Emma Jane at Barely Tenured. On the Half-Time Track cites great benefits to being untenured. It's a load of crap, but we'll have to wait until the IA comes back with her comment section to really rip it apart.
The other article, I'm Professor Nobody, tells the typical story of adjunct hell. Her conclusion is right up IA's alley.
It has often been remarked of college teaching that in no other profession do people compete so ardently for stakes that are so low. One might add that in few other professions do employees behave as if those who are at the bottom of the hierarchy are Untouchables. What will it take for powerful people in academic departments to acknowledge that their humanity, their core decency, would be enhanced if they practiced the liberal values they espouse so passionately in the classroom? If the literary canon can be expanded to include the work of women and minority writers, why can there not be a seat at the table for adjuncts and lecturers at faculty meetings?
The Invisible Adjunct is on vacation, so let me do my part by passing on two articles from the Chronicle on adjuncting, first noticed by Emma Jane at Barely Tenured. On the Half-Time Track cites great benefits to being untenured. It's a load of crap, but we'll have to wait until the IA comes back with her comment section to really rip it apart.
The other article, I'm Professor Nobody, tells the typical story of adjunct hell. Her conclusion is right up IA's alley.
It has often been remarked of college teaching that in no other profession do people compete so ardently for stakes that are so low. One might add that in few other professions do employees behave as if those who are at the bottom of the hierarchy are Untouchables. What will it take for powerful people in academic departments to acknowledge that their humanity, their core decency, would be enhanced if they practiced the liberal values they espouse so passionately in the classroom? If the literary canon can be expanded to include the work of women and minority writers, why can there not be a seat at the table for adjuncts and lecturers at faculty meetings?
