March 11, 2013, 7:43 pm
An Adjunct, Unable to Make Tenure Track, Embraces Plan B
“I love to teach because that’s my stage,” explains Matt Thompson, an adjunct at Old Dominion University. But landing a teaching job—his Plan A—has been next to impossible. “Becoming a college professor at the tenure-track level is something like moving to New York City and trying to become a dancer on Broadway,” he says. “I gave it a shot. It didn’t work out, but it’s time to go on to the next thing.” His Plan B is “to transition out of a career as a professor and become an academic librarian.”
Video and editing by Greg Kahn; Reporting by Audrey Williams June; Produced by Rose Engelland
December 21, 2012, 8:56 pm
An Optimistic Adjunct on the Economic Edge
Rob Balla teaches up to eight classes a semester on as many as four campuses in northeastern Ohio. “This is the best job I’ve had. I honestly like it,” he says. But Mr. Balla and his family live on the economic edge: “I can’t remember the last time I actually went and saw a doctor. We go to school sick, we…
December 11, 2012, 8:46 pm
Speaking Out for Those Less Fortunate
Irene Schmidt’s pay barely covers her family’s electric bill, and she relies on her husband’s earnings to support her and her two children. An adjunct professor of Spanish at Johnson County Community College, in Overland Park, Kan., Ms. Schmidt can exist on meager pay because of her circumstances, yet…
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