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[paperairplane]

I'm currently doing adjunct teaching at a school I really love.  It's not enough to pay the bills any more, so I plan to go on the TT job market this year.  There are several jobs in my specific niche that I know I have a shot at.  The thing is, I'd so much rather stay at my current school in some sort of increased capacity.

I've heard that people sometimes leverage job offers in order to bargain with their home institution.  In fact, I am guessing (strongly) that it has been done at my school before.  (Not for TT positions, of course, but for positions with more security.)  Given the fact that it seems like a real possibility here, does anyone have advice about how to leverage an external job offer in an ethical and efficacious way?

To be more specific: do people broach this topic at the home institution only after a job offer has been made by the other institution?  Could it be broached earlier, for example if I were to make it to a final round of interviews?

In general, common sense tells me that I wouldn't have true leverage unless I had an actual job offer in hand.  Then again, I'm in a specialty area and the school would be hard-pressed to replace me by next fall.  Perhaps the threat of a move would be enough to put the wheels in motion....? 

I like the idea of broaching this with my current school early on.  I don't feel right stringing along search committees and I don't feel like wasting my own time.  Then again, is that just the way that leveraging is done....?  Should I proceed to the point of an offer (if I'm lucky) and only then approach my current institution...?

Thanks for your advice!

[glowdart]

I cannot imagine how you're going to have any leverage as an adjunct with an outside offer.  If you went to our Dean, she'd heartily congratulate you and remind you to tell the chair to take you out of the adjunct pool.

Sometimes -- and note that it is sometimes -- schools will negotiate with full-timers who have outside offers, but that's because they've already made an investment in that person's career.  As an adjunct, you generally have no such positioning or power.  

[oldadjunct]

An application, even an interview, is hope, not leverage.  And, don't kid yourself, you are replaceable.

But do approach your chair, well armed with detailed information about what you provide and what your goals are. Either you will discover that those goals can be met, or they never will be.  Leverage will have little to do with the outcome.

[systeme_d_]

In my experience, most departments employing adjuncts are filled with f/t faculty that hope that the adjuncts will eventually find a f/t position elsewhere.  That is because unless we are told otherwise, we assume that most adjuncts are avidly seeking f/t employment elsewhere.

[msparticularity]

I was a much-valued lecturer with a continuing appointment at my previous institution. I made it quite clear that I would be happy to remain indefinitely in a TT position, and they made it quite clear that they would have been absolutely delighted to keep me, if only they had a line available. When I received a TT offer elsewhere, my dean said, (pretty much verbatim), "Oh, drat--I was afraid this was coming!" and then congratulated me on my new job.

If there simply is no line--either at a TT level or even in a continuing position--then an outside offer will make no difference at all. Given the current financial situation nationally, unless your institution is one of the lucky few, there will be nothing they can do--no matter how much they love you.

[new_anth]

OP, I, too, am adjuncting and live in a large metropolitan area with lots of universities and, hence, many opportunities to adjunct. What you express--the hope that your adjunct position turns into a real job--is all too common. But, it's akin to hoping you'll win the lottery.

Your department is likable; the faculty treat you well, like a junior colleague and not like disposable slave labor; you're good at what you do and get positively affirmed for it. Maybe they even go so far as to let you design your own courses. This is all well and good, but you're reading the signals very incorrectly if you think this indicates that they're hoping to keep you or would lobby the administration to invent a line for you. It's just that these are kind, sane people who want to make even the worst labor situation a bit more bearable. They're being nice, not secretly communicating anything more than that. Again, it's delusional to think that one would actually win the lottery and be so convinced of one's luck to, say, quit one's job or not save for retirement.

We all want to win the adjunct lottery. It doesn't happen. Do you know of anyone who taught at your school and then got a TT line created for them? An actual person? I don't. And I hear other adjuncts murmuring about "I feel like things will work out for me here and I can even become the director of the center for x studies in the future!" I totally get the hoping and wishing, but you're setting yourself up for bitterness and disappointment (as occurred for my colleague who said the above quote--hasn't finished the diss, hasn't published, is feeling betrayed by the system). It's better to use your energy in applying for jobs and publishing your research.

[polly_mer]

I was a much-valued lecturer with a continuing appointment at my previous institution. I made it quite clear that I would be happy to remain indefinitely in a TT position, and they made it quite clear that they would have been absolutely delighted to keep me, if only they had a line available.

I had that discussion with my chair this semester as I ramp up my job search this season because I don't want to leave the department in a lurch (the chair has asked for additional TT and lecturer lines in the department since we're short-handed even with me as a lecturer).  I would love to stay here in a TT line, but this is the last year that I can afford to be a full-time non-TT person.   My department wants me based on the plans we've made and the support I've gotten for my research and building outreach programs.    As I told my letter of recommendation writers in the department, if this institution offers me a TT contract, then I'll sign it and withdraw from all my searches because I would love to stay.  But, if I get another offer and that offer can't be matched here including the TT part, then I'm saying sad goodbyes and leaving.

My department has encouraged me to apply for other jobs both because it's good for me and they like me as well as to have that extra bit of leverage if the money could possibly be scrounged.  However, a full-time lecturer isn't the same as an adjunct.  We managed to replace our long-time adjunct who left fairly quickly and I suspect that someone could be found to be a warm body covering my classes fairly easily as well.

[mleok]

I think it is worth repeating the observation that adjuncts, lecturers, and tenure-track faculty fulfill fundamentally different roles in a department. An adjunct addresses the need for teaching on a flexible contingent basis, a lecturer addresses the need for high quality instruction and adjunct training and supervision, and a tenure-track faculty member addresses a balance of teaching and scholarship. Given that they serve different needs, extraordinary performance in one job does not necessarily imply that one is well-qualified to serve in a different capacity.

So, just because one is an exceptional and highly-valued adjunct or lecturer does not imply that one is a shoo in for a tenure-track position should it open up, nor does it mean that it makes sense for a department to upgrade your appointment to a TT one to retain you, the job is simply different. So by all means try to make yourself invaluable to the department, but don't imagine that this will mitigate a mediocre record of scholarship. Ultimately, what will make you most competitive for a TT position at your current institution are precisely the things that make you competitive for a TT position elsewhere.

[pedanterast]

"[a] lecturer addresses the need for ... adjunct training and supervision."

That's a new one on me.  Been a lecturer at five places now.  Actually "adjunct training" is a new one on me but I've only been an adjunct at two places.

[lyndonparker]

Has your chair or dean ever expressed a desire that you eventually become t-t faculty? Unless that has happened (and that is no guarantee that it will happen), I really don't think you have much of a future regardless of other offers.

[mleok]

"[a] lecturer addresses the need for ... adjunct training and supervision."

That's a new one on me.  Been a lecturer at five places now.  Actually "adjunct training" is a new one on me but I've only been an adjunct at two places.

Maybe that's just a mathematics thing at an R1. We tend only to have a small number of permanent lecturers, and they handle the coordination of our lower division calculus and precalculus classes, and also handle training for the postdocs and graduate students who serve as TAs and instructors.

Having said that, the adjunct situation seems less exploitative in mathematics than it does in the humanities, and languages. In particular, we tend to hire temporary faculty with the intent of providing them with the academic environment necessary for them to develop their research portfolio, and our teaching appointments pay about $7000/quarter long course, which means that you get a decent salary teaching 2 courses per quarter, and you even have an office, which is more than can be said for adjuncts in other fields.

[pedanterast]

Could be.  Is the adjunct situation less exploitative in math than in the humanities (I am in neither) or is it simply that the supply and demand equation is more favorable to adjuncts in math than in the humanities?  I strongly suspect the latter.  Demand well exceeds supply in my field, happily for me.

[totoro]

In most fields you are probably dreaming if you think you'll get a TT position anywhere after being an adjunct for a while let alone at your current institution unless you have really outstanding scholarship or something and have just been geographically constrained for various reasons.

[mleok]

Could be.  Is the adjunct situation less exploitative in math than in the humanities (I am in neither) or is it simply that the supply and demand equation is more favorable to adjuncts in math than in the humanities?  I strongly suspect the latter.  Demand well exceeds supply in my field, happily for me.

Well, the supply and demand issue probably means that excessive exploitation is unsustainable in mathematics. In turn, it has to do with the fact that there are more challenging, well-paid alternative career options in mathematics than the humanities, which serves as a pressure release valve on the supply side.

[barcrossliar]

While there is an interesting discussion here, all the OP needs to know is this:

Apply around as if your current place won't give you a TT job. 

You don't need to hide your search.  Currentplace is your best source of refs.

If you get a TT offer, tell your current place.  If you want to stay where you are, tell them before you accept at Newplace.


Here's to your success!