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[Demoralized]

I've been hired to teach f/t at a university next fall. While visiting the campus, the department secretary told me that they were moving the adjuncts out of a large office area (not just off that floor, but out of the building) and that they were knocking down their old office to build four smaller offices for full-timers. She and another secretary said this with a slightly repressed gleeful attitude; one made another sarcastic comment about being glad they were being moved.

I had no idea that secretaries hated us so much.

What they didn't know is that I'd been adjuncting for five years and I empathize more with adjuncts than full-timers. The really bad news is that I'm scheduled to get one of these new offices. I'm horrified that I will be seen as one of the full-timers that pushed them out of their space, away from their support system and what little sense of belonging that they did have. I really hate the position that I will be put in.

Any suggestions that might help make this awkward transition less horrible?

[%sig%]

[On the way out]

I was never an adjunct, but as a lecturer this past year I do feel I was not treated equally many times (though not as badly as adjuncts are from what the many posts describe). Believe me I will always look out for people now (why is such and such person not being treated equally).

Here is an idea -

Once you find out the schedule for your courses (and the adjuncts) - would you be willing to share your office (a small desk?) with one adjunct?  Last year I worked full time and there were many hours during the week when I was not in my office (working from home, or teaching other classes). I cannot imagine how adjuncts are supposed to meet with students (discuss grades, help with class material) if they are all herded into one large room.

You may also want to ask the adjuncts if there are things that they have not yet been provided with in the new room - copy code, keys, etc. As  you noticed, the secretaries are already responding more to you - I bet if you asked for some of the supplies, adjuncts may get some of the things they need.

[Demoralized]

I appreciate your posting, "On the way out." I feel sad that people are leaving academia because of a hierarchy that locks really qualified teachers out, out, out.

I'm already sharing my office with two other full-timers, and I can't give out my copy code, but I'm hoping to find other ways to help the current adjuncts--if they don't hate my guts too much.

I do find that I have sometimes resented new hires at the campus(es) I teach now. I work to keep relationships with those lucky in-house adjuncts who "made the grade" and are now full-timers. I will say it's weird to meet the new hires from outside that somehow don't seem to be aware that they've been hired over many qualified part-timers who have put years (or even decades) into the campus. The system sucks. There is no other industry that does this to beginners--at least med students have a near-guarantee of getting work later and paying off their loans.

I'm lucky to have made it out--but I also applied to a lot of colleges out of state. I know a lot of colleagues who simply cannot relocate and are forced to parcel out a living on two or three campuses.

[%sig%]

[Adjunk]

I call myself Adjunk because (1) it's the way alot of people pronounce adjunct, leaving off the "t" and (2) we're usually treated like junk.  Of course the adjuncts there will resent you, but it's not personal.  If there are enough of them to fill a large office, clearly there are enough courses available in the department to justify turning a few of those adjunct positions into 3/4 time or even full time positions with benefits.  But does the department give any of its own adjuncts a break?  No, the adjuncts continue to be exploited, and when a full time position does become available, the department hires an outsider.  It's not you, it's the system.  Maybe one day there'll be enough conscientious and sympathetic people like you in the system to change the system.  And finally, I want to wish you congratulations on making the move from adjunct to full time!

[On the way out]

Demoralized,

I guess in your case, sharing an office or copy code would be out of the question.

Also, you may want to point out the inequalities to full time new hires. Perhaps if enough people notice this - at least small changes can be made.

However, I do think if you do things like introduce yourself, offer to help out (for example, if one needs to go on an interview, can you sub? Not all the time, but once or twice a semester), and responding when they ask questions - this in itself is an improvement. As adjunk points out, it is part of the system, and one realizes that  - but efforts can be made to treat people like humans.

[prytania3]

I say, enjoy your full-time position and get on your knees and thank God you are no longer an adjunct. Yes, the system does exploit adjuncts, but the reality is that they CAN.  It's supply and demand. A lot of supply and not as much demand and people willing to work for no money.

Being an adjunct is like charity work. It's a great job on the side, but if you're depending on adjunct gigs for a living...forget it. Personally, I couldn't stand being that poor; moreover, I'm a cold and heartless person. It's me or them. Look, do you feel so bad for them that you're willing to give one your job? Thought not, so don't feel guilty for no reason.

[Anonnia]

Demoralized,

Get over your guilt.  If you hope to retain your full-time job, you won't have the luxury of such a waste of emotional energy.  Worry less about whether you have somehow been a scab to enter the former office of the adjuncts and more about where your next article/syllabus is going to come from.

But if you're independently wealthy or something, feel free to pass your position on to one of the adjuncts.  Otherwise, shut up and get to work.

[act n adjunct]

I appreciate your feelings and just want to share that not all places treat adjuncts like crap.  Oh I know, a few do, I work at one CC that does despite the fact that the adjuncts make up 70% of the faculty.  The other school I teach at is the school I attended for grad school and the full timers and the outgoing and incoming chair have made a huge effort to include the adjuncts in the meetings that evaluate the core courses we all teach, have offered assistance for new adjuncts and set up a system by which we can call on each other if and when we have the opportunity to go on a campus interview, they even pay us for covering an extra class!  No we don't get an incredible amount of money or benefits but the University is amazingly supportive and wonderful.

[Aimee]

I've been an adjunct for 6 years, I'm getting tired of it being treated like crap but I do love the work.  I don't make a full-time living, I'm trying to eek out an existance and I panic everytime a new semester comes along and one of my classes looks like the enrollment won't be sufficient.  And like you did I suffer without money during the gaps between semesters.  Yup I'm trying to get a full-time position.  But I don't resent you, you've done your time in the trenches and you respect and care about the people who are still there.

Here's what you can do that will endear you forever to your adjuncts.  Be friendly, be positive and be helpful.  And most of all when you meet an adjunct who, like yourself, is a great teacher and wonderful person and is trying to move up, help them!  I have two full-timers at my college, one on one campus, one on another campus, that are helping me get classes that will add substantially to my resume.  They're always thinking about what would make me a better candidate should a job open up.  They're telling me which campuses are likely to get a new post.  And they're willing to be great references for me, even if it is for a different college in another city.  --Talk about panic, when they thought that another college might get me!  And the relief that followed when they found out I'd lost out on that position, but they ARE helping me.--  Yes they would hire me if they could but the development and hiring of new positions is in the hands of the administration.  And I think it is from the administration that the secretaries get their lousy attitudes.  The administration wants to keep the bottom line lower, especially since their budgets are being cut even as their enrollment rises.

The only thing preventing the administration from hiring nothing but adjuncts is one word -- ACCREDITATION.  They would lose their accreditation if they dumped all the full-timers and hired only adjuncts.   If the accrediting bodies insisted that schools must have more full-timers, then the admin would have to comply.   Possibly this is where pressure should be applied.

[EC]

Just want to say that not all places treat adjunts like crap. At my department, senior part-time faculty members are given almost exactly the same resources as full-time faculty members. The difference is that two part-timer faculty members share an office. Their salary is based on their years of services. New part-time faculty members have to share one big office. We also do not have the problem of part-time faculty members feeling overlooked (at least that's what I think) when a full-time position is opened since almost all of them do not have a Ph.D. and for those that who do, they are not looking for full-time job at our place.

[Green Eyed Lady]

I didn't realize this nasty attitude towards adjuncts was so prevalent. I thought it was just my department, which seems determined to make a bad job worse. As if it were not enough that TA's and adjuncts are paid SO much less, they also moved us ALL into the 'dungeon' (overheated basement room that no one wanted), even though that meant that students found it impossible to locate us and the secretaries have a good excuse for not delivering our mail. Yes, the secretaries are delighted that we are so low on the totem pole. It makes them feel like they did the right thing by not going to college, I think. I personally think this is very bad management to encourage an 'us' and 'them' mentality. They COULD provide value to employees at no or very little cost...but they don't. Just foolish. I'm glad to hear that not ALL universities are that dumb and that some people are getting at least a decent deal.

As to how to not be perceived as part of the problem, I agree with others that you mustn't worry too much about this. However, when the opportunity arises to treat an adjunct fairly, to treat an adjunct as an equal colleague, do it. The 'share your desk' idea is a good one, although you have to make sure that it is someone who won't make you sorry you tried to help. Wait until you've developed a professional relationship before you do something like that, and make sure they know that it is on  your terms, when you are not using your office (when you are not in, or during the summer or something). In our department we've actually had the departmental admin officer (glorified secretary) FORBID ft faculty from sharing their office space with underlings.

[helpful]

One problem in my dept is that adjuncts only have masters and to get fulltime tenure track one needs a doctorate. But adjuncts teach the majority of classes!

[Adjunk]

I agree with Aimee.  One thing you can do, if you ever wind up on a search committee, is to place a great deal of value on the years of teaching experience adjunct professors have accrued.  Usually, that experience works against adjuncts because the powers that be see those years as a sign of a failure to procure full-time employment, rather than as a sign of an adjunct's committment to the discipline and profession despite a failure of the labor system to provide enough full time positions.  
As for secretaries, I've found that they actually prefer adjuncts to full timers because the full timers bog them down in work while the adjuncts either don't have much work to do or mostly do it themselves because they teach in the evenings when the secretary isn't there.  About the office, some adjuncts might actually prefer not having an office because it gives them an excuse not to hold office hours, especially if they're not compensated for office hours in the first place.

[%sig%]

[Mouse]

Demoralized: I understand how you feel.  One of the toughest things for me, when I was hired full-time at the college where I'd been adjuncting, was feeling guilty when I would see my former adjunct colleagues in the office.  However, you need to be sure that you don't come across too much as "slamming" the system at your school too much during your first full-time years.  That won't endear you to anyone, and it may jeopardize your own future.  And how will you help effect change later if you get booted out of the system yourself?

I would also say that one thing I realized when I became t-t was that there _are_ some substantial differences in responsibilities, etc., between adjuncts and t-t.  I'm not saying that adjuncts don't have a lot of responsibilities or do a good job.  I'm just saying that there are many, many things I'm now responsible for over the long haul that make me understand the system a little better.  (I didn't say "like" the system, or appreciate it...just understand it a little better.)  So be prepared for the possibility of having some unsettling shifts in your thinking in your first couple of years full-time...I know I did.

Also, it might depend somewhat on what field you're in, and what kind of school you're at...but I don't know very many full-time academics who didn't spend substantial time as adjuncts, or at the very least, underpaid and unappreciated TAs.  I'm not sure you need to let other new full-times know that they got the job at the "expense" of qualified internal candidates.  I mean, who doesn't know that the job market sucks, and that many, many qualified people also wanted that job?  Who can't figure out that a lot of the people already working there probably wanted that job, too?  It's not going to do you any favors in the long run to start implying to other colleagues that they should bear some kind of personal guilt for having been hired over someone else.  One of our adjuncts is known for attacking every single new hire by cornering them in the office and screaming, "YOU TOOK MY JOB!" right in their face.  No, they didn't take her job.  If we'd wanted to hire her, we would have.  At first, she just didn't have enough experience to get be hired full-time.  Now that she has more experience, she's ruined her chances with her boorish behavior.  Make sure you don't do the equivalent in a misguided attempt to be the Adjunct Whisperer.  

And, like it or not, you're a full-timer now.  Adjuncts are going to see you differently, and you're not going to be "one of them," no matter how sympathetic you are.  When I was a TA, I remember our dept. chair telling me how bad he felt that we were paid so little.   And I remember thinking, "Yeah...with your house and your newish cars.  Are you going to give me part of your paycheck to I can pay my rent?  I didn't think so.  So spare me your sympathy...it doesn't put food on the table."  And this is how you may be perceived, like it or not.  

Yes, the job system is unfair, and exploitive, and to some extent, we all bear responsibility for perpetuating the unfairness, whether it's by agreeing to work for crap pay as adjuncts, or by being paid a fair salary while those around us get paid less for teaching the same course.  But you can say the same about any aspect of life.  It's also unfair that I'm 5'3" and clumsy, and was therefore ineligible for athletic scholarships.  It's also unfair that I was born a poor Mouse instead of a Rockefeller.  (Or a Hilton, I suppose.)  It is what it is.  Work on securing your own future, do what you can to push for an internal hire when you're on a search committee if that makes you feel better, and realize that someone always gets the shaft, both in and out of academia.  

But whatever you do, don't go into your first full-time year as the avenging angel of adjuncts.  It won't help them in the long run, and it may very well hurt you.  And adjuncts, try to keep your (understandable) bitterness from being directed right at the full-timers in your office.  One thing that drove me crazy my first couple of years as a full-timer was how many of our new adjuncts assumed that, because I look young, that I had been handed a job right out of grad school, at their expense--and let me know about it.  Hey--I put in my time as an adjunct (including at that very school), and came into t-t work with 10 years of teaching experience.   Yes, it's unfair that not everyone has a full-time job...but that doesn't mean that those of us who _do_ have full-time jobs are undeserving.  It just means we were also lucky, in the same way that someone else lucks out in winning the lottery, or in being cast in a movie when their other actor friends are still waiting tables.

[rattus d.]

Lots of good comments on this board. Thanks all!