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    PhD in the OCHamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:32am

    Aren't adjuncts typically grad students working part-time to pick up some extra cash and/or fulfill a course requirement? If she's been an adjunct for 25 years, something is very wrong. This is the higher ed equivalent of choosing theme park janitor as a lifelong career, even though the park is closed half of the year and everyone you work with is a teenager there as a summer job.

    No doubt her story is very sad but there are also some very questionable choices involved here as well. (edit: And calling Duquesne a 'highly touted university' is like calling Billy Mays a major celebrity.)

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      phunkshunPhD in the OC
      9/19/13 10:38am

      Generally...and I stress generally...if you're not hired as a full time associate by the time you hit your early thirties, you're never getting tenure.

      That's the way higher ed works.

      You're really selling adjuncts short, especially in non-research institutions.

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      muffin_cupcakePhD in the OC
      9/19/13 10:46am

      No — that's like thinking McDonalds only employees teenagers so it's okay that they pay poverty wages. Many, many adjuncts are Ph.D.'s who get stuck on that track for life (or until they can leave academia). When I was in grad school, I found it hard to even get adjunct work because those classes were already claimed by people with Ph.D.'s who had been teaching them for years. People work for a few thousand dollars a semester because they don't have better options.

      I mean, what is more likely, that thousands of people (with advanced degrees) just haven't realized that a much better choice is available to them, or that people are stuck in horrible situations because their efforts to find a job with actual benefits and a salary have failed? The market for Ph.D.'s is HORRIBLE. You're not qualified to do much else, and schools get 100+ applications for every tenure track opening. A lot of people can't find other work.

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    Sheeeeeeit-ClayDavisHamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:18am

    Why would you want to be an adjunct college professor when you could be a regular high school teacher and make way more?

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      PootCarrSheeeeeeit-ClayDavis
      9/19/13 10:23am

      LOL, as a former high school teacher, I can tell you it's not "way more" money. It's slightly more money with better benefits, but you do not have the freedom to teach or implement your own curriculum.

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      hayesmpSheeeeeeit-ClayDavis
      9/19/13 10:25am

      Why would anyone want to be a teacher to be constantly shit on by conservative politicians? /cynical sarcasm

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    Montauk MonsterHamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:28am

    That poor woman was struck by institutional indifference across the board: healthcare, higher education, and the Catholic church all failed her.

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      psychomagnetMontauk Monster
      9/19/13 10:36am

      Yep she hit the trifecta of benign neglect. Sad thing is I assume my old age will be very similar, and I won't be alone.

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      RussianistMontauk Monster
      9/19/13 10:53am

      It's also the trifecta of Republican America: anti-unionism, hatred of the poor, and anti-intellectualism.

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    lemonlimepeach2Hamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:18am

    One of my roommates is an adjunct at a private university and she only makes $1,500 a semester. She's holding down two other jobs (contracting work) and still just getting by.

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      Sheeeeeeit-ClayDavislemonlimepeach2
      9/19/13 10:20am

      She should probably just go teach high school. She'll earn a living wage and benefits. All she has to do is give up her dream of being a professor.

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      lemonlimepeach2Sheeeeeeit-ClayDavis
      9/19/13 10:22am

      Well she's currently working on her PhD, so I'm not so sure that just giving it all up to go teach high school kids (when she's already teaching freshman) is very appealing.

      Like I said, she's getting by. But just barely.

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    USANUMBERONEHamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:23am

    I taught adjunct for a $51,000 per year engineering school. Since kids take 10 classes per year, that adds up to each kid paying $5,000 per class.

    I got paid $8,000 for those two classes, even though they had 25 kids in each.

    Even worse, when full time faculty at this school (Clarkson University) teach an extra class, they don't get paid at all, they get their money in a 'professional development fund' meaning they can only spend the money on work related expenses.

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      Montauk MonsterUSANUMBERONE
      9/19/13 10:52am

      Sounds like alcohol should qualify as a work-related expense.

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      OrinIncandenzaMILFHunterUSANUMBERONE
      9/19/13 10:59am

      This may be shocking, but there are actually other expenses to running a school besides the teacher in a classroom. There are building costs, utilities, maintenance, insurance, IT, legal, HR, a staff of people in the Registrar's Office to maintain the students' academic records, a staff of people in the Business Office to send bills/receive payments/bookeeping/etc. who also get paid out of that $51,000 per student.

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    laughitoff22Hamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:34am

    People really don't understand how higher ed administration works (spoiler, I work in admin for a small private university). The presidents salary is not in the same budget as adjuncts, and is a superfluous number here. His or her job (besides lead) is to fundraise (thus you want to attract top talent SO YOUR SCHOOL GETS DONORS).

    Unions are the wrong way to go. We need to abolish tenure and pay real salaries, not inflated because of seniority and prestige. A more market based approach would help get rid of the wastefulness (especially at public universities) and likely create more job openings.

    Also, these places have other ways to cut costs... its a matter of trimming the fat.

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      Missy Pantslaughitoff22
      9/19/13 10:44am

      Hi, I work at a large public universities, and everyone is union. We have at least 5 active unions on campus, possibly more, I'm not sure. And everyone is paid well, has benefits, and won't die homeless or broke.

      Unions are the way to go.

      Also, I'm a pinko-commie-leftie-Canadian. So I am biased.

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      Buffal0gallaughitoff22
      9/19/13 10:51am

      I'm an admin at a regional public. There's NO fat left to trim here. All the staff I work with is expected to do at least 1.5-2 times the work in their position descriptions. I can't speak for every university, but the only way to fund adjunct salaries properly will be to (A.) get state and federal governments to return to adequately funding higher education or (B.) jack up tuition even higher.

      To attract and keep high-quality tenure-track faculty, their salaries *have* to be high. Our state limits how much the universities can increase tuition year-on-year. The only place to save money is cheating the adjuncts. It sucks for everyone involved, but we won't solve the problem until the question of who should fund higher ed is resolved.

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    Snacktastic Part II: the Snack AwakensHamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 11:39am

    I'd like to say this: If you guys think that we ALL NEED TO LOOK AT HER BAD CHOICES, I'd question your reading comprehension because that's not why this story is relevant. I mean, , I'm so tired of this fucking reductionistic bullshit around choices. It's bad because it's everywhere.

    The problem is that increasingly adjuncts are being used, they are often not able to unionize and they are paid poorly without benefits. We need to think about how we conceptualize the payment and distribution of assets in higher education.

    STOP LOOKING AT SOME TINY LITTLE FUCKING SLIVER OF A STORY AND THINK IT'S THE FUCKING STORY. God damnit, people keep doing this shit. Unemployed retail person? SHOULD GET A DIFFERENT JOB. Manufacturing? IT'S THEIR FAULT THEY DIDN'T HAVE A BETTER JOB AND THEY NEED TO GET OVER IT. Lawyer? FUCK YOU FOR YOUR CHOICES.

    Ask yourself—isn't there something wrong with the economy when it seems like a minefield, where there are so many ways of failing and being poor and destitute as shit? Why do we accept this?

    Can we ever have a moratorium on this derailing shit? Because it's BESIDES THE POINT. This was not posted to talk about her lifestyle choices. IT'S ABOUT ADJUNCTING IN GENERAL. YOU DON'T NEED "THE WHOLE STORY" TO THINK ABOUT THE FUCKING PROBLEM.

    DAMNIT.

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      Dear ZeusSnacktastic Part II: the Snack Awakens
      9/19/13 12:59pm

      Today was the day snacktastic had an aneurysm because of all the stupid people in the world. Welcome to the club! It's fairly awful but we have snacks.

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      Skip TracySnacktastic Part II: the Snack Awakens
      9/19/13 1:22pm

      Caplock. Making 97% of discerning readers immediately skip to the next entry since forever.

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    myprettyponyHamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:27am

    What is really pathetic is the disparity between 25k and 700k isn't that bad compared to what CEOs make vs their employees.

    I'm sure the president of dusquesne gets free housing too.

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      e.nonmyprettypony
      9/19/13 10:36am

      not to mention the reimbursements of routine expenses... i formerly worked at a leading nyc university, and the director of the center i worked for charged his daily taxis and lunches... all without question. and gawd forbid, if you did question it...

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      McGuinnesstmyprettypony
      9/19/13 10:38am

      The president, though, is typically a rich, connected person who can bring in more donations and investments for the school: their compensation is related to how much money they generate for the institution.

      I worked as an adjunct for a couple of years after getting an advanced degree, so I understand that the pay sucks. But the universities had no incentive to pay me more, because there were tons of other qualified people willing to work for the same amount—or less. Universities sometimes get calls from older retired people who want to teach for almost nothing (or even for free!) as a sort of post-career hobby.

      The fact is, the president is worth a lot of money, but adjuncts are so numerous that they're worth nothing. I'm not saying that I approve of the system, but it is what it is.

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    thwarted666Hamilton Nolan
    9/19/13 10:18am

    We're all contractors now.

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      ratchedHamilton Nolan
      9/19/13 12:04pm

      I see a lot of back and forth about her credentials, why didn't she do something else, etc., but even though I'm probably only about 20-ish years old from what I think the mean age is here, back in my youth I had friends whose parents were milkmen, sold shoes at the local Thom McMAns shoe store, was the butcher at the local store, etc., and they all made enough money to raise families and every damn one of them had vacations and retirement. That's gone, baby, gone!

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