The Adjunct Track

For Adjuncts, Summer Is the Lean Season

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By Jill Carroll

If you're like most adjuncts, you've had a difficult summer. Teaching assignments are harder to come by, so most of us spend the season tightening our belts even more than usual. We look forward to the fall if for no other reason than it means a return to a fuller, more financially lucrative teaching schedule.

This is yet another adjunct reality that is unlikely to change soon. Fact is, the full timers get first dibs on summer classes. They themselves often use summer teaching as a way to boost their income, so they grab up the available courses and leave the adjunct corps with slim pickings.

Savvy adjuncts will begin to prepare right now -- at the end of this long, hot summer -- to make next summer less financially lean.

The first step? Get your name in the hat right now for next summer's teaching assignments at your current institutions. Let your hiring administrators know that you are ready and willing to do summer teaching. And don't let them forget it. Keep track of when they schedule the summer courses, distribute the catalog, etc. and keep your name in front of them. That way, when a slot opens up for an adjunct, you may be the first one they call.

Another simple tactic is to maintain your relationships with the full-time faculty members in your area so that should they turn down summer courses, they may recommend you as the adjunct to take their place. I'm not suggesting you cultivate false relationships solely to get a job. However, maintaining the relationships you already have can pay off when full-time faculty members have an opportunity to help out an adjunct. Make yourself their favorite adjunct.

As you hunt for teaching opportunities, don't limit yourself to the same institutions where you teach during the regular academic year. Take a look at all of the educational institutions in your area, and see if they have room for you. Specifically, take a look at continuing-education programs offered by colleges and universities for adult learners. A four-week course could add some much-needed cash to your monthly budget. Find a topic in your area of expertise that would be of interest to a more general audience, then pitch it to the continuing-ed administrators along with a course schedule. Be prepared for them to want to observe as you teach a class. And plan on giving them sample student evaluations and maybe even a recommendation letter from someone in your department.

But once you get in to one of these places, they will let you teach course after course, term after term, if your courses draw students. If you make money for them, you can make money from them. The secret is to get on it now: Start working on these contacts as the summer winds down, because these programs start putting catalogs together and sending out mailings for the summer very soon, often by Christmas. So, they'll need to have you on their radar screen before that if you're to have a chance at teaching for them next summer.

Money management plays a role in planning for next summer, too. I know, I know: How can adjuncts be expected to save or manage money when we don't have any? I talked about these financial challenges in a previous column. But, in terms of preparing for lean summers, the trick is to start saving a little bit each month, starting with the month you return to your higher earnings. Now is the time to track your spending for a few weeks and see if there are any money drains that you can plug to save that money for next summer. Small amounts set aside now may help you pay a light bill later.

Finally, you should seek out what I call pseudo-academic work for the summer. This includes tutoring, editing, freelance writing, proofreading, and any other such work. Sure, you could always spend the summer mowing lawns, roofing houses, or waiting tables. But most of us with advanced degrees want to work within our field, or as close to it as possible. Start scouting out these freelance opportunities now. Ask around in your department. Get the word out that you're available to do this kind of work. It may take a while, but if you wait until spring break, you'll be too late to get anything together that'll pay you for the summer.

You might think, It's not fair that I have to hustle up all this extra work while the full-time people are off doing research and getting paid for having time off. I should be able to do research and writing and not worry about money.

Maybe so. But, as I've said over and over, we have to live in the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. So start looking low for all available markets for your skills, credentials, and expertise. Send out letters and CV's. Get on the Internet and find commercial freelance writing opportunities. In short, sell yourself.

You may even be better off in the long run because you won't be so dependent upon the colleges and universities that hire us in droves. Truth is, they are very dependent upon us to teach a high percentage of their courses. Maybe if we wean ourselves off them a little bit by cultivating other business, they'll realize they don't have a monopoly on our services and some real change can begin to happen.

But that's a topic for another column.