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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am STUNNED that a black woman who went to Columbia and studied under Eric Foner wound up as an adjunct. She is not really a good example of the adjunct problem, because she went to a prestige institution and did, in fact, get a tenure track job after she got her PhD (after that, the fact is, she didn't play the game right). The "classic" adjunct did not go to an Ivy, did not get a tenure track job offer, and had to work as an adjunct before giving up on academia entirely.

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But she is a striking example of what does happens once you are on that track. Other people from elite institutions wind up on that track when they have children or family issues that prevent them from publishing.

I think the broader point, which this article doesn't make, is that universities cannot or will not fill all of the teaching positions they need from permanent faculty. And we are all paying a LOT to send our kids to college. I have no doubt that many adjuncts are great teachers -- some may be even better teachers simply because they are not pre-occupied with their own research.

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As someone who got off the academic track, because I couldn't afford it, I think the adjunct system is bad for students. When I adjuncted I definitely inflated grades because I needed good evaluations to be rehired and I wasn't always around to write recs or do the other kind of followup work that is really important to students. I earned my Ph.D. from an elite program and wrote a "with distinction" diss. It can be tough coming out of a really strong program if you aren't a superstar because lower tier schools don't necessarily want a 2nd rate Ph.D. from an elite program. The feedback I got on the job market was that candidates from my school likely wouldn't stick around if  hired, spoiled by elite undergrads and wouldn't be effective at teaching other students, didn't have enough teaching experience, and were generally spoiled. I think universities should have to offer all teaching staff salaried positions even if they have a 2-tiered system where instructors make a basic educators salary with benefits and the tenured-track faculty make a much higher salary. One-off adjuncts should only be those who offer an extraordinary perspective that cannot be provided by regular faculty (want to hire Maya Angelou to teach your writing seminar, fine, but schools should not be hiring adjuncts to teach basic classes).[/quote]

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