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[polly_mer]

Who is they?

I was asking if you, Spinnaker, wanted another discussion right here for you of why $1000-$3000 for a class can indeed be comparable compensation if one considers only the portion of the full-time faculty's job devoted directly to teaching a class.

Oh, and since you apparently haven't seen my other posts, I don't consider the AAUP an authority on money.

[navydad]

This is one of the more stupid articles I've read in a long time. Suicide is a highly complex and personal act. Unless the authors have access to competent psychological autopsies on these folks who killed themselves, they have no business concluding that the suicides had anything to do with their employment as adjuncts. Implying that these folks' employment as adjuncts led to their suicides is just stupid. Using these deaths to make some sort of political point is downright offensive.

[spinnaker]

This is one of the more stupid articles I've read in a long time. Suicide is a highly complex and personal act. Unless the authors have access to competent psychological autopsies on these folks who killed themselves, they have no business concluding that the suicides had anything to do with their employment as adjuncts. Implying that these folks' employment as adjuncts led to their suicides is just stupid. Using these deaths to make some sort of political point is downright offensive.

And besides, they're supposed to be doing something else.

[icicles]

I agree with what people on here are saying, but I'll just add, as someone who is a recent PhD in an overcrowded field, that the shift from the later years of a PhD program to the first year or so out can really do a number on people and an adjunct mindset can be the result. I won't say this thinking leads to suicide, but it does involve a perpetual restlessness and lack of security that could lead someone to despair.

In my experience, students completing a PhD have to scramble for funding after years 4 or 5, picking up classes anywhere they can during their last year or two as they prepare to graduate, all the while trying to cope with the stresses of finishing the dissertation and going on the job market. Departments tend not to mind this use of grad students, as it means that there's always someone who can pick up an extra class that pops up at the last minute. For many students, it begins to feel normal to scramble like this for work, and so the idea of adjuncting is something that they fall into naturally after graduation. After all, most of their ties are to the departments and schools where they've adjuncted. So while I agree that it is the adjunct's responsibility to leave adjuncting, I think the situations that help to foster "adjunct thinking" are ones we can watch out for and try to address (for example, if you have an advisee who keeps cobbling together classes and is approaching unemployment, maybe call a meeting about his/her goals and see if you can work something out together.)

I do worry about my friends who are adjuncts and I try to show/tell them that there is a world out there that will value them.

[spinnaker]

Also, they could be depressed because academia is different from how they thought it was.

[bacardiandlime]

Also, they could be depressed because academia is different from how they thought it was.

Meanwhile, in Somalia.

[spinnaker]

Have you heard of something called a "union". I know many adjuncts who belong to one of these things. They report their working conditions have improved remarkably.

Chime. Need to understand it may take a lot of sweat and risk and money before it's having its effect.

[spinnaker]

So while I agree that it is the adjunct's responsibility to leave adjuncting, I think the situations that help to foster "adjunct thinking" are ones we can watch out for and try to address (for example, if you have an advisee who keeps cobbling together classes and is approaching unemployment, maybe call a meeting about his/her goals and see if you can work something out together.)

[lyndonparker]

I agree to a point, Spinnaker, but these are PhDs we are talking about. I teach undergraduates, and after a point even they are responsible for their own choices. I agree that doctoral programs could guide students to make better choices.

[spinnaker]

I agree to a point, Spinnaker, but these are PhDs we are talking about. I teach undergraduates, and after a point even they are responsible for their own choices. I agree that doctoral programs could guide students to make better choices.

I frequently don't have a lot to say about what other people's responsibility to themselves should be, and I figure if someone is hired, he has a right to be there. And no matter what I have to say about it, both adjunct and whomever has hired him are in the public arena and will be criticized in some way.
If the question were "what would you enjoy seeing more of" then my answer would be adjunct unions, and support for adjunct unions from those who want a better life for college teachers, and optimal learning environments.