A Mistreated Majority Speaks Out

I’ve watched a few of Salman Khan’s videos on chemistry topics related to the bioenergetic concepts I was teaching. They clearly laid out the information. I posted a link to them for my students who did not have the necessary chemistry background, so I could do more with case studies during class time, rather than give a lecture on these basic facts.

I hope that’s not the future of education!

I also point my former high school students towards the “Khan Academy”. The videos are shortish, to the point, and very accessible.

The future might be professors assigning lecture videos as homework,and freeing up class time for interaction with students. I could use this at my class at California Lutheran University for educators called Independent Travel Study: Actual or Virtual Trip Via the Computer.

Why not create or use an existing institution to provide the feedback and the grades?

Automated learning assessment components will go a long way to providing a quantifiable report about the comprehension of the video lesson. If all creators of video only lessons were to have an open and affordable or free tool they could tap into and include a link to the lesson assessment service then students would be able to get the instant feedback about the impact of the information they just consumed. The questions could be constructed as randomized multiple choice and if natural language processing technology develops to a sufficient level then essay questions could be analyzed as well in an automated system. What do you think about that Mr. Gates? Could you code it?

A LOT of education occurs when people watch videos and listen to podcasts. Just because you’re not running a classroom where it takes place doesn’t mean there isn’t learning going on.

Of course, the sum total of education is MORE than this – it’s an intersection of a number of stimuli and experiences, as well as directed work. But watching and listening is definitely part of it. And reading books (or e-books) is also a very important part of it. Yes, there’s more to it, but denying the obvious is a waste of time.

Fantastic! The beginning of the end of academic snobbery, elitism, fraternities, student loan-sharking from the banking industry, “non-profit” “universities” that are raking in the dough for useless “higher edu degrees,” & bleeding heart “educators” who whine that poor kids have no access to a good edu (see work of Sugata Mitra).

Thank you Sal Khan, Bill Gates & Sugata Mitra (not mentioned) for having the vision and generosity to look ahead, instead of focusing on the rear-view mirror at what isn’t working and hasn’t for a long time.

Change is the only constant in the universe which doesn’t sit well with most folks — especially “teachers.”

Gates, a founder of Microsoft, to support a free online syllabus of Prof David Christian’s unusual course, called “Big History,” that gives a sweeping multidisciplinary overview of world history from the Big Bang to the…..     http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professors-online-lecture-gets-lift-from-bill-gates/30142

Health insurance, health insurance, health insurance.  Without it, an adjunct who gets sick or goes to the emergency room can easily spend half or all his or her semester’s salary in one fell swoop.  All the other issues are crucial, but this one is literally life or death.

I have a PhD in Psychology-have been teaching as an Adjunct both Intro Psychology and Human Development here at a 4 year State College form 1993 to the present. Teaching 4 classes each semester the whole year round; and I made $18,900 for 2011. Below the poverty level. There has only been 2 opening since my employment, for which I applied and didn’t even get a chance to Interview! Wages are my most concern; I have my own health Ins, retirement, ect. But it would be nice to have some sort of equal pay for the work we do.  My Students rate me as a Top Teacher, my classes are full and I give closed cards, and all good reviews, Don’t understand their reasoning!
Dr. Joyce R. Dickens 1-13-2012

I would like to push for a living wage including at least access to health and retirement benefits, enough to not have to depend on a spouse’s income, low-income assistance, food bank, inheritance or retirement from a first career. The people who clean your toilets probably have a better deal.

One thing you will never be able to change is human nature and the fact that there will always be someone as qualified yet more desperate for a job waiting out there. On one online forum I read recently about how an certain online For Profit school just about doubled everyone’s workload while cutting the pay. Much grousing ensued. By the end, several forum members were saying how great it sounded to work there even in the new harsh conditions, and how could they apply. If they were joking, it went right by me. I wish New Faculty Majority Foundation much luck. These days, you’re going to need it.

Adjunct pay is insanely low, which is why I don’t do it.

$1500 for a 3-hour class. Times 13 classes in a year (5+5+3 in summer, if you can get a summer gig). $19,500 gross for a year of full time employment, with no benefits, then take out social security, and put something into your Roth IRA, and buy yourself some private health insurance, HA!

You can work as a restaurant server or bartender and do as well or better.  In fact, you’ll probably need to spend your off hours doing just that. 
 
If you could teach double that load, which no human could possibly do, you would still have no benefits, you would work 90+ hours a week, pay $10k a year for crummy health insurance, and never be able to buy a home of your own. And you wouldn’t have time to pick up the desperately needed bartending hours.

Obviously, all the previous comments raise very vital, urgent reforms that MUST happen in the near future. We all have seen this coming for decades now, this corporatizing of the academy.
 
I would like to contribute this point to the discussion. I have been adjuncting for the pass two years now, averaging about 12 course for the year (5 for both the  Fall and Spring term and 2 over the Summer.) This teaching load is in addition to hours at the writing centers. I have maintained high student evaluations. Beyond this, I have kept up my professional development, having published a book this past Fall with the college’s name on it. However, I have been told that the department generally does not fill full-time position with adjunct faculty members. I guess what I would like to see is departments start to promote from within. That is, there a number of a adjunct faculty who are incredibly qualified and would love the opportunity to fill a full-time position in departments. So I would like there to be a regulated path open for adjunct faculty who merit it to become full-time instructors in their departments. It is just such a slap in the face to adjuncts when their departments seek out external job candidates. 

Eliana ~ great that you are calling for questions here. I’m going to share the link on the NFM wall. The attendee list is impressive. With all the bloggers and tweeters, I’m hoping for good online and social media coverage ~ 

Higher education is heading towards a major crisis.  There will not be a new generation of
faculty members to fill the large hole that is about to be created.  As baby boomers retire,
the adjuncts who have been left out of the process will not be there to provide the continuity
and shared history of the institution.  Student debts and poor job prospects will be enough
to convince the present generation of students not to continue with doctorate degrees or
to even consider careers in higher education.  Then comes the second large hole.

In fighting for their own situation, adjuncts may be the only ones who can save higher education.
Someone has to care about the future.  Let us hope that NFMF can succeed.

Administration knows these issues.  The students want the cheapest tuition.  Both are getting exactly what they want. The only ones fooling themselves are the adjuncts. 

My suggestion is for the New Faculty Majority Foundation to publicize the wages.  Let everyone know.  This is something they can *control.* 

When I tell my students that I’m paid less than the price of a fancy latte to teach them per class meeting, their expectations get dialed waaayyyy back. Honestly, most are surprised I even bother to show up. Sometimes, I wonder, too.

…

This might sound cruel: but are you insane? 4 classes per semester year-round is a ton or work and you do that for $18,900 — are you nuts? Is this the only thing you can do? With a PhD in Psychology there must be other venues of employment. Now, if there are not and $18,900 is the max you could earn, then you are getting paid the right amount of money and you should be grateful that the University pays you that well.

As long as Universities can attract talent on their terms, they will continue to do that. Stop working at the Department if you don’t like where your career is going — trust me, they’ll make adjustments if they really need you and you provide something of value.

I agree!  The future of America should be provided with only the best poverty-wage-employees money can buy! Oh, and $2million artificial turf fields.

Oh, I understand now: you are a coward! Rather than trying to improve conditions for yourself and future academics, you simply left. Go hide and leave the work of reforming the academy to those who decided to care.

Dear Eliana,

The slavery-like employment that is associated with adjunct teaching positions at US universities is a serious issue that touches upon violation of human rights and the rights stated in the Constitution. ‘Improving’ the conditions of adjunct employment by ‘patching’ the holes in the current system is not a solution that would improve university education system in a long run. Current situation calls for drastic changes.

Adjunct teaching position as a teaching contract by course should be eliminated. All university teaching positions should be staffed by individuals who hold doctoral degrees or equivalent. These positions should be by annual contracts and carry a job title of either an assistant or an associate professor, depending on past contributions to university system, education, and scholarship.

The compensation should be at an appropriate level, consistent with the established compensation level in the state system. These contracts should include a uniform benefit package, i.e., health insurance plan and retirement contribution, at minimum.

Faculty in these positions should be expected to carry both teaching and scholarship duties, and contribute to the institution. They should have an opportunity to apply for extramural grants and to be nominated for teaching and other awards. They should have an opportunity to mentor undergraduate research or other creative projects.

This latter condition is very important because it would allow a contract professor to build his resume, gradually becoming more competitive in securing a tenure-track professorship either at his current institution or somewhere else. In other words, these equal-opportunity conditions would stimulate professional growth of the individual as well as positive changes towards higher standards within departments.

In this proposed arrangement, holding a limited-term contract could be a natural progression step in academic career. Such an arrangement would be also beneficial for the system by creating a healthy competition, increasing motivation, restoring respect for academic faculty, eliminating unnecessary tensions, and resulting in an overall greater satisfaction from work in academia. Tenured and tenure-track faculty ought to be supportive for such changes that ultimately would elevate their status.

In the current situation, adjunct teaching position is a blind alley. It cannot get lower than that when a person with an advanced graduate degree, perhaps your former colleague at graduate school, earns an equivalent of a custodian living for a high-responsibility job that requires advanced knowledge and skills. What does it say about us? Who will respect us if we do not respect each other…

Have a good and productive trip to Washington, and tell us soon all about it.

I worked as an adjunct for many years before obtaining an FT teaching position at a two year college. I will say that electing the two year route probably helped my obtaining FT employment because the focus was on instruction. My adjunct experiences were with large 4 year publics, a small 4 year private, and a medium sized two year college. I taught 7 classes in a semester twice. I think I got the first FT job I did because the interview committee knew I could teach and they knew me.

Sadly, I am not sure it’s the pay per class that is the solution to current adjunct problems (or would have fixed mine back then). I left a job to become an adjunct because I loved to teach. That job paid more than adjuct (or FT) instruction. I think whatever assistance we can provide those with a passion for higher ed should be given, but this discussion can’t just be about money. Again, I made more money before I decided to teach, FT or PT. 

I’d rather see a focus on improving those issues outside of pay: 1. Better training (or actual training); 2. Better physical space on campuses; 3. Tuition assistance for adjuncts to continue their education; 4. Mentors and a real evaluation process to help with higher ed professionalization.

I feel like I obtained the FT job in higher ed I eventually did because of my adjunct experiences. The contacts I made as an adjunct and the experience I earned through instruction, tutoring, working in Writing Centers, etc. far outweighed my corporate experiences when I was hired. We need to provide adjunts with those opportunities.

Check out the Program for Change (http://newfacultymajority.info/PfC/) for a model of how we can achieve this.

Betsy Smith/Adjunct Professor of ESL/Cape Cod Community College

I lectured as an adjunct for many years, but only at places where the compensation was worth my time. I’m actually a member of an adjunct faculty union because I do think it is important to speak as a single voice. However, I also think that continuing to work when the pay and conditions are poor just furthers the situation. As long as Universities can hire faculty at that pay they will continue to do so.

Yes, I left — to work at another institution where they valued my expertise and were willing to compensate me at market value.

I think this is the core issue that would make progress on other issues more possible–having a voice to start the discussion on the inequalities of adjunct status.

After reading and responding to your first comment, I was hoping that your response was tongue in cheek.  This one seems downright rude and cruel.  Does the institution bear no responsibility for advising graduate applicants as the conditions of the labor market and the realistic prospects of earning a living wage teaching in higher education?  Your inflammatory comments are much beside the point.  The point here is that college and universities should not be permitted to exploit labor in this fashion. 

You seem to be a fan of the free market, judging by your comments, so here’s a few ideas…

1. How about tying administrator (and athletic coaching) compensation at public universities to that of the chief executive of the state, the governor?  Governors work hard and have difficult jobs, but we don’t hear them clamoring for endless raises.

2. How about prohibiting states that accept federal funding from excluding part-time faculty from the definition of “state employees.”  This interference by state legislatures perturbs and distorts the labor market.

3. Let’s stop awarding federal student aid to graduate students.  Hell, let’s do away with it altogether.  I’ll let you carry the water on that one, if you’d like.  But less money in the system would invariable lead to less corruption.  Survival of the fittest!  Whoa!  Can’t afford college?  Too bad.  Should have chosen your parents better!

4. How about prohibiting public universities from expending public resources for lobbying?  The University of Akron pays its former board chair $10K per month to lobby the state for more resources.  That should be criminal.

5. While we’re at it, let’s eliminate marketing of public colleges and universities altogether.  Why spend public resources to influence if, when, and where a student should go to school?  Let the “invisible” hand of the market do its thing.  If we’re going to corporatize higher education anyways, let’s not stack the deck in favor of the public ones.  And for God’s sake, let’s stop wasting government funds on marketing competing programs at state universities that are fifteen miles apart from each other! 

I could go on, of course, but I hope that you realize how absurd (and uncaring) your proposition truly is.

And if getting off the bus leads to a strike, then we might see something change.  But it’s collective action that catalyzes such change.  Me, you, and Johnny walking off the job does little but to allow the queue to advance one more position.

What we, as contingent faculty, have to do is stand together, because in unity lies force. That is why we should sign these petitions, and divulge them–to anyone and everyone we can: put them on our Facebook accounts, our twitter, our blogs. Your New Faculty Majority petition now has 704 signatures, and growing: you can go sign it at http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-vice-president-biden-dont-blame-the-working-poor-faculty-for-the-high-cost-of-college

I had begun my own petition about the same time NFM started theirs–not knowing they had their own–but everyone should sign that as well: http://signon.org/sign/better-pay-for-adjuncts.fb1?source=c.fb&r_by=426534

There is strength in numbers. If we unite, if we become one voice, then we can get things done. Let’s put up these petitions everywhere, and someone will be bound to notice! 
And, the one problem that mschedlb does not seem to take notice of, or understand, maybe, is that many of us, even though we have to teach six different classes at varying colleges, or subsidize our income with outside translations or editing or proofreading or what have you–even working at the grocery store–we do it because we love teaching: it is in our blood. And yes, though we complain about the inequity, we disdain that lack of respect–of value–we still do it.  Because, in the end all, it is for the education of our children. That is why I am saying to unite: someone will hear us, if we complain loud enough, if we do not quit!

I am adjuncting at three universities – two seminaries and a state university. At both the seminaries, I have to finish the semester and turn in grades BEFORE I get paid anything for teaching my courses. This means that I teach for four and a half months before seeing any money whatsoever. This is a problem, as I like to eat throughout the year, not only in December and June. Furthermore, I pay my nanny more than I get paid to adjunct (because I, unlike the universities I work for, believe in paying a living wage)

The crappy thing is – in this job market, even terrible schools with terrible pay can attract top faculty members when they advertise a tenure-track position. For some of my job applications this year (some even for VAP positions) I’ve been asked to create syllabi, give multiple years of course evaluations, write essays specific to that one position, or jump through numerous other hoops. In the end, the school can get so specific that they can find the exact sub-sub-sub specialty they want and even dictate the hair color of the person filling it. In this market, we HAVE to adjunct to stay in the game, we won’t get a job otherwise. And departments don’t have to hire from within. Its likely they’ll get both – the great adjunct will stay and they’ll have a brand new faculty member from outside as well.

I am an adjunct history professor at a private university and at a community college in northern Virginia. Low wages are of course the biggest problem; the private university doesn’t pay much more than the community college.  History as a subject is not valued, so experienced Ph.Ds are paid between $2400-2800/class. Adjuncts are not allowed to teach more than 4 classes a semester because this would put them into full time status and require the university to pay them accordingly. Colleges and universities should be required to publish their pay scales and the terms of adjunct teaching “contracts.”
I have recently begun teaching online versions of the courses I teach in the classroom.  I was shocked to learn that wages for the online courses are pro-rated, so if student enrollment drops, so, too, do the wages. We are strongly encouraged by the online course administrators to keep abreast of the latest technologies by participating in their sponsored courses and training workshops, which sounds great until you learn that the courses are not only not free but carry hefty tuition charges (termed as “registration & other fees”). 
Both my two kids are now in college–one at a state school–and I had naively hoped that at least that kid’s tuition could be waived since I am technically a state employee, but no such luck.  I have also experienced the frustration of interviewing for full time teaching positions at the college where I adjunct, only to learn that the jobs went to outsiders.
I have one positive anecdote: I have a friend and mentor who is department chair at a university in the west who pays adjuncts roughly the same hourly rate that a full time assistant professor with a Ph.D., published articles/books, and several years’ experience teaching is paid. So– if an ass’t professor makes $60,000/year for teaching 4 classes fall and winter semesters and 2 classes in the summer, for a total of 10 classes, then the adjunct is paid nearly $6,000 per class. [I realize this doesn't take into account the number of hours the assistant professor is required to work as an advisor or member of a faculty committee, but you get the point. No consideration is made for the amount of time and money and anxiety incurred by the adjunct who is constantly interviewing for new positions--because there is never a guarantee that you'll be hired from one semester to the next--nor the transportation costs of schlepping from one college gig to another 50 miles away.]
Then adjuncts are looked down on for their inability to get a “real” job, making them/us look incompetent as well as pathetic for “taking it.”  No adjunct wants to be underpaid or undervalued; adjuncts–like others–are just trying to do the best they can under the circumstances, personal and global. 

We need to stop being the elephant in the room but cannot do so safely without real (not bogus to to duck UI) reasonable assurance of employment, due process, and academic freedom ~ all taken for granted by non-adjuncts. http://www.kuriositas.com/2012/01/elephant-in-room.html

I would argue that access to unemployment benefits while being off in the Summer is one of the most pressing concerns.  My contract is on a semester basis.  I am never given work in the Summer and have to try to find something to keep from going under.  Two summers ago, I applied for dozens of jobs. I found nothing, and the university I work for successfully prevented me from drawing UI, using the “reasonable assurance of employment” language used by most institutions for such purposes.  Our family was in desperate financial straits.  Our pay is bad enough since there is no chance you can save up to get you through the Summer.  It’s even worse when the school insists you shouldn’t get UI because you might be coming back in the Fall. 

like we need another outside entity telling school how to determine living expense estimates?