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[adjunctslave]

So I've adjuncted in the same department for 10 years. 

Department has changed lately...they hired a guy on a ridiculously short tenure track, and he's been tenured and promoted even though in my admittedly worthless opinion he doesn't understand the first thing about what makes our department curriculum tick and how we work together...for example, we used to have meetings to discuss the curriculum and grading standards for the 1-2 courses where adjuncts taught sections in addition to the tenure-track faculty...Mr. Arrogance decided he didn't see the point of such meetings, so he stopped attending, and the Chair...who is probably the only person sensitive to adjunct issues...doesn't require his attendance.

More recently, they hired a female tenure-track professor.  I'd say within a month she was involved with Mr. Arrogance.  How do I know this?  Suffice to say I am certain they're sleeping together. 

She, too, is contemptuous of the department adjuncts.

The affair/relationship strikes me as grossly inappropriate.  The Faculty Code of Conduct doesn't ban such relationships...it just says spouses can't evaluate other spouses.  No other policy exists to cover this. 

I'm tired of seeing people get away with whatever they want while some of us actually do all the real work. 

Sorry, needed to vent.

[voxprincipalis]

I am confused by what exactly you're angry about.

1. You are angry that NewGuy was tenured/promoted, because regardless of his other potential qualifications, he doesn't want to come to meetings about curriculum/grading standards.

2. You are angry that NewGuy and FemaleProf are having a relationship, because you think it is inappropriate (you haven't really explained why you think this).

3. Because you think they are contemptuous of the department adjuncts, you would like to see them punished or censured in some way. (If they were two people you liked, would you still want to see them punished?)

4. You think they are "getting away with" something. What, exactly? And, how are they not doing work? (Yes, you said that NewGuy doesn't want to come to meetings. I mean, beyond that. And how is FemaleProf involved in this?)

VP

[larryc]

So stop adjuncting there. Your slavery is imaginary, you can leave.

[adjunctslave]

We used to have a collegial department.  Adjuncts were invited to all meetings except hiring ones for new tt positions.  Mr. Arrogance pushed through his preference that adjuncts not attend dept. meetings...he persuaded enough tt members to vote with him and we were thus excluded.  We had individual offices until Mr. Arrogance and his supporters decided the students needed a dept. library, and that Miss I'm Sleeping with Mr. Arrogance decided she needed a better office than the one she was going to be in and she displaced an adjunct who's been here 15 years (not me). 

So we still have the smaller curricular group that discusses common syllabi and grading standards, but our new couple don't attend (others have started drifting off after they declared they weren't coming anymore).

As for the relationship, I do find it inappropriate.  We're faculty colleagues...it's totally inappropriate, and without getting into all the details, suffice to say on all dept. matters they think and act as one.

[prytania3]

I am sorry you are an adjunct slave, but slavery is pretty much what adjunct work is, and that fact has never been kept a secret. You sound extremely envious of the department's new hires. I probably would be, too, if I were an adjunct--but that's not the kind of attitude that is going to help you.

Larryc is right. You are free to leave. You can apply to a t-t position or you can switch careers or you can go back to school.

It sounds like you had it better than most adjuncts for a long time, but the time's up.

As far as your colleagues being in a relationship, they are adults, and unless they are having sex in your yard or bedroom, it's not your concern.

[dr_dre]

I'm afraid you've lost perspective, friend. When you use phrases like "our curriculum," that makes me sad. I adjuncted for years and, really, we never have any ownership of anything. The things you're talking about are trappings and external symbols--office space/invitations to meetings--when the real problem is the broken adjunct system. I hope you find a better job elsewhere.

[king_ghidorah]

I feel your pain, Adjunct, but I'm afraid this is the life of adjuncthood.

I'm noticing a similar strain of discourse in the department where I am currently adjuncting: the adjuncts want a say in various department matters, go to the faculty meetings even though they have no official vote, and seem to resent the newbies on the TT who come into a place where many of the adjuncts have already worked for a decade or more and begin, well, doing their TT jobs - which includes making decisions in areas where the adjuncts have no say but which directly affect them.

I think it is a natural human reaction to feel that you (or anyone) who works for a place over a period of time has some legitimate stake in it - but this is simply not the case for those of us who work for adjunct wages.  We are cheap and disposable labor; don't kid yourself about this.  I remember working as a corporateslave in a struggling company of disrepute some years ago, and the people who simply keyed in the dues and tallied the daily numbers were forever resentful about the new executives hired into better salaries, actual office spaces, and more responsibilities. 

Point being, it sucks being on the bottom and the only way to get out is to go up.  Personally, I can never figure out why people stay on as full-time adjuncts unless they are working on the side or raising kids or something.  I posted this somewhere else, but, one way or the other, I'm finishing my degree and getting out of the adjunct pool - even if it means going into a new line of work.  Being down here it is fun for the time being but simply not worth it.

Why not look for your own little slice of TT heaven?   Good luck anyway.

[adjunctslave]

The problem is, adjunct or not, the three of us without tenure/tt in the department have been here over 30 yrs. collectively.

The relationship is inappropriate because a 1st yr. person, tt or not, has been, in effect, manipulated by a senior colleague.  Whatever dept. position he holds, she parrots.  The power inbalance makes the relationship inappropriate.

He's declared war on the adjuncts.  In the past, we were allowed to do independent studies with students; he's spearheaded a successful effort to restrict us to entry-level courses.  That's hurtful and nasty after so many years...when he wasn't even here.

[king_ghidorah]

I'll say it again, my friend, this is the life of the adjunct.

Not fair?  Perhaps, but what in life is?  Perhaps you should pack up your bags and make them kiss your dust?  Make'em sorry they ticked you off?  That is - if you can afford it.  Of course, they'll simply hire someone else 2 minutes after you've shut the door (employers' market), but at least you could feel better about it.

Keep the faith, droogie.

[larryc]

You suffer from false consciousness.

[neutralname]

I've argued on other threads that adjuncts are treated badly and should be treated better.

But given the current job market, I would probably not hire an adjunct who has been teaching in my department for a long time.  And as others have said, being an adjunct, it isn't your department: you are simply a temporary employee.  If you think that you have any greater status in the department, you are deluding yourself. 

And the sex aspect of it is irrelevant. 

Maybe this is the wake-up call you have been needing for the last 9 years.  Time to move on to something better.

[johnr]

You had me with, "So I've adjuncted in the same department for 10 years", then you lost me with, "suffice to say I am certain they're sleeping together". 

[grasshopper]

I hear you, Adjunct. I've seen departments reduced to dust over the exact same situation you've described. In fact, it's entirely possible that we're talking about the same department.

What was once a beautiful department, an inspiration to other departments, filled with collegiality and mutual respect - among full timer and part time faculty alike - is crushed, destroyed. Even students are avoiding the courses now because the department has become such a cesspool of bitterness. It's dysfunctional, in the truest sense of the word.

The crappiest part is that you have no power. Nothing. It's the helplessness that really gets to you, isn't it? I know that's what got to me when I saw what had happened to my old department. The sheer, utter helplessness of it all.

[jrscholar]

Not to stand up too tall for the guy warring on the adjuncts and sleeping with the newbie, but from the tone of your emails, OP, I can sort of understand why he doesn't want you and your other long-term folks in the meetings.  He obviously has a vision for where he thinks the department should be (it may be flawed, no doubt, but as an associate prof with plenty of time in front of him, he'll be one of the drivers of what the future will look like) and hearing complaints from adjuncts about how things were may seem to be a waste of time.  As for his lack of collegiality: it stinks, but it's likely he has learned - especially if he is the sort of all-star that earns tenure early - that he doesn't have to be nice to everyone, just those that matter in some way to his future.  I'd start looking elsewhere if you can; since he's likely to be there awhile - perhaps shaping the next round of new hires, potentially as department chair in time - things aren't going to go back to the way they were.

As for his and newbie's escapades: it's not your business.  Maybe it will blossom into something beautiful.  Or perhaps she'll be posting here soon about the dangers of hooking up with senior colleagues while on the first year of the tenure track.

[adjunctslave]

I went to a picnic at the chair's...we've been friends for most of my decade in the department...and he sympathized with my position.  (He doesn't really get along with Mr. Arrogance or his bedmate minion, or so it seems to me).  But he didn't offer any solutions or even ideas.

The biggest problem is the shared courses.  I have 2 sections; Mr. Arrogance and his girlfriend 1 each.  They don't require the same assignments I always have (and which their predecessors also required).  Over the last 2 years students have migrated to their sections because the workload is significantly lighter.  I depend partly on enrollments for continued employment.