June 20, 2010

Without Summer Jobs, Some Adjuncts Must Fight for Unemployment Benefits

Without Summer Jobs, Some Adjuncts Must Fight for Unemployment Benefits 1

Peter Holderness for The Chronicle

Elizabeth Marino, like many adjuncts, is out of work this summer. Her application for unemployment-insurance benefits was challenged by Morton College, where she began teaching two years ago.

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close Without Summer Jobs, Some Adjuncts Must Fight for Unemployment Benefits 1

Peter Holderness for The Chronicle

Elizabeth Marino, like many adjuncts, is out of work this summer. Her application for unemployment-insurance benefits was challenged by Morton College, where she began teaching two years ago.

By Audrey Williams June

Elizabeth Marino's ability to eke out a living as an adjunct instructor comes down to whether she is able to spend her summers in front of a classroom.

But this summer, just as in recent years, Ms. Marino is out of work—a typical consequence of many adjuncts' semester-by-semester employment. So in mid-May, she applied to receive unemployment benefits. It's money that Ms. Marino says she can't do without, replacing at least in part her pay during the academic year as an