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[treehugger1]

Not in this country, but abroad:

I arrived the first day of class to find that someone has changed my teaching schedule. I was now supposed to have a class that started in 10 min (Yikes!). Not only that, but the class was only indicated with initials, so, I had no idea what this new class was supposed to be!

I spent a frantic 9 1/2 minutes trying to find someone who could interpret the initials for me. Then, I just found the classroom, walked in and asked the students: "What class is this?"

Not kidding!

[transparentopaque]

I'm in the visual arts. I adjuncted for several years after graduation at the university at which I earned my degree. I also taught as a graduate student. I earned $3300 per 3 credit class while a teaching graduate student. After I completed the MFA, the terminal degree in my field, the same school hired me to teach the exact same class and now paid me $1650 per 3 credit class. I was worth more to them before I earned the degree.

No office, no phone. No computer. No place to hang a coat. I did have a mailbox. Full-timers were nice to me, but they knew me as a student.

This was a small, regional university. There were at most 8 other students moving through the graduate program when I was there. So, I knew everyone. I even knew many of the undergrads and many of the grads (at least by name) after I had graduated. This university's art gallery decided to host an alumni exhibition. I heard nothing about it until I got the postcard in the mail inviting me to it. On the back was a list of the 100 artists they were bringing back to show. A long list of name after name, including almost all the grad students I went through the progam with, and some former undergrads whom I actually taught! I was so deflated.

Well, I beat the odds: five years as adjunct, one and a half years not teaching at all, floundering hopelessly through life, fearing that I would have to find some stop-gap job and make a career out of that, and then, miraculously, a tenure-track job lands at my feet. I can't understand how it happened, but I am in a place now that fits me perfectly. I have a phone, a computer, a scanner, two printers, an office, a studio, and several coat hangers on which to hang my coat.