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[categorical]

I found myself wondering today, given all that's happened/happening in Egypt, Wisconsin, etc., about how an adjunct moment might occur.  What would put adjuncts into the street?

[rear_view_mirror]

It may turn out that many adjuncts will lose the legal right to unionize before exercising it. If I hadn't missed teaching already due to illness, I'd be in Wisconsin joining the protest.

[sad_goat]

If they make me pay for my photocopies, I am so making a sign.

[rear_view_mirror]

The National Guard will fix your asses, said the big bad governor.

[youtoofred]

If you find out - let me know.  Adjuncts are amoung the most exploited in the work force, and the least unionized. If all the adjuncts in my school decided to strike, the school would be thrown into chaos. There's over 500 adjuncting in my school. Yes, over FIVE HUNDRED.

Why don't more adjuncts stand up for themselves and demand at least a modicum of health insurance, job stability, livable wages? 

[jdougher]

Why don't more adjuncts stand up for themselves and demand at least a modicum of health insurance, job stability, livable wages? 

I've never understood this, either.

Although I am loathe to quote Mrs. Reagan, her "just say no" campaign should be repurposed for the adjunct community. Honestly, to say that one could make more flipping burgers is not too far off the mark. It's quite sad.

And for 95% percent of those who are adjuncting, I can really see nothing good that will come of the pursuit--as in no better prospects for landing a tenure-track job.

[seniorscholar]

Why don't more adjuncts stand up for themselves and demand at least a modicum of health insurance, job stability, livable wages? 

Because if they do, they're easily replaced from the more desperate among the adjunct pool.

 And, by the way, the process of forming an adjunct union can take years and years and years, even if you're in a state with good legislation supporting public-employee unions (and even that may change soon) and help from the AFT. The problem: a certain proportion of adjuncts must sign cards asking for a union election, and by the time the election can be scheduled (even with favorable laws), many of them have moved on, others who can not be certified because of the time it takes have been added, and the pool of eligible voters is too small relative to the size of the adjunct population for the state labor board to run the election and stand by its results.

[retrenchment]

Why don't more adjuncts stand up for themselves and demand at least a modicum of health insurance, job stability, livable wages? 

Because if they do, they're easily replaced from the more desperate among the adjunct pool.

 And, by the way, the process of forming an adjunct union can take years and years and years, even if you're in a state with good legislation supporting public-employee unions (and even that may change soon) and help from the AFT. The problem: a certain proportion of adjuncts must sign cards asking for a union election, and by the time the election can be scheduled (even with favorable laws), many of them have moved on, others who can not be certified because of the time it takes have been added, and the pool of eligible voters is too small relative to the size of the adjunct population for the state labor board to run the election and stand by its results.

This has been one of the problems, but I think it is changing. With the decreasing number of tenure lines, people stay in adjunct jobs longer. As more adjunct unions get up and running, people may stay in the job longer expecting this to happen. And with worsening conditions and stagnant (or even decreasing) pay, the incentive to sign up may be greater.

[categorical]

Although I am loathe to quote Mrs. Reagan, her "just say no" campaign should be repurposed for the adjunct community. Honestly, to say that one could make more flipping burgers is not too far off the mark. It's quite sad.

And for 95% percent of those who are adjuncting, I can really see nothing good that will come of the pursuit--as in no better prospects for landing a tenure-track job.

Okay, but isn't this reality, in large part, constructed by those who stigmatize adjuncts for simply doing their jobs?

[fiona]

Although I am loathe to quote Mrs. Reagan, her "just say no" campaign should be repurposed for the adjunct community. Honestly, to say that one could make more flipping burgers is not too far off the mark. It's quite sad.

And for 95% percent of those who are adjuncting, I can really see nothing good that will come of the pursuit--as in no better prospects for landing a tenure-track job.

Okay, but isn't this reality, in large part, constructed by those who stigmatize adjuncts for simply doing their jobs?

And who would those people be?

The Fiona

[retrenchment]

Although I am loathe to quote Mrs. Reagan, her "just say no" campaign should be repurposed for the adjunct community. Honestly, to say that one could make more flipping burgers is not too far off the mark. It's quite sad.

And for 95% percent of those who are adjuncting, I can really see nothing good that will come of the pursuit--as in no better prospects for landing a tenure-track job.

Okay, but isn't this reality, in large part, constructed by those who stigmatize adjuncts for simply doing their jobs?

And who would those people be?

The Fiona

http://www.jmu.edu/JMUpolicy/2104.shtml

Adjunct: something added to another thing but not essential to it. (dictionary.com)

[transparentopaque]

The reason adjuncts don't stand up for themselves is because they believe that if they just continue to play nicely, they'll eventually be favored with more adequate employment in academia.

And I imagine that many on the forum who wonder why adjuncts don't stand up would be the ones who reject an adjunct's application for a TT job when it came out that this adjunct was a rabble-rouser at his/her institution.

When TT and tenured professors begin standing up for adjuncts' rights, then something will happen. When the people in a position to sit on search committees for tenure-track positions speak up, something will begin to change. Until then, in this environment where breathing out the wrong side of one's mouth can get one blacklisted, adjuncts will continue to take their beating.

Hope for a better future is what forces so many to maintain the miserable status quo. I was there once. I didn't cause the slightest stir. I needed those recommendation letters.  

[educator1]

Adjunct: something added to another thing but not essential to it. (dictionary.com)

And those who expect more are deluded

[categorical]

Adjunct: something added to another thing but not essential to it. (dictionary.com)

And those who expect more are deluded

Hopefully not so deluded to not think that anyone could challenge the caste system that's presently in place.

[weathered]

Adjunct system is profoundly evil. It turns a scholar into a disposable human trash. Nothing more. How do we confront this evil system? It must be abolished. It's sick if you know how it works.