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    FauxhemianRhapshodyHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 9:37am

    Looking forward to National STEM Walkout Day where "when the overworked, disrespected, and underpaid adjunct professors engineers of the world (the US, mostly) go on strike to raise awareness of the fact that, while colleges keeping getting more and more expensive, adjunct professors keep getting screwed. engineering can really suck, the hours are miserable, and everyone treats you like a professional nerd, a Chicken Little asshole, and disrespects you in front of your clients and the authorities having jurisdiction, all the while increasing your scope without increasing your fees.

    Could be worse, though. Could be an adjunct professor, I guess. Welcome to the real world, folks.

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      Pero Antic RoadshowFauxhemianRhapshody
      2/25/15 9:39am

      how much money do you make a year as an engineer?

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      Herb & SpiceFauxhemianRhapshody
      2/25/15 9:40am

      And to make matters worse, in Canada, engineers wear a pinky ring.

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    ThrumbolioHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 9:44am

    "I mean, have you ever stopped to consider just how bizarre and exploitative and nonsensical the employment arrangement is for college professors? It's bananas!"

    Yep. That'd be one of two reasons why I didn't pursue a career in academia (English Lit major here, so these points may not apply for other fields):

    1. What you said.

    2. The end goal is a tenured position characterized by (ideally) occasional course work and publication of articles targeted toward the snifter set circle jerk that is the top .05% of your field.

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      ThrumbolioThrumbolio
      2/25/15 9:54am

      Oh, and I forgot another little "bonus" that comes with full professorship: ability to add to or exclude entire swaths of literature from the "canon."

      STORY TIME: At Harvard (Extension - a.k.a. the trench warfare division of Harvard graduate studies), my initial thesis adviser vocally bristled at the idea of anything by Stephen King making it into the "canon" of studied literature (I threw him out as an example of the arbitrary nature of canonicity, as that was going to be my thesis topic for a time). Apparently the quality level in King's work was not up to snuff.

      She then proceeded to tell me about the class on vampire literature she'd be teaching the following semester, the syllabus of which featured the entire Twilight series.

      ::sigh::

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      OctopusJockeyThrumbolio
      2/25/15 10:00am

      Preach! My MA adviser refused to even discuss the possibility of me doing any work involving genre fiction. So then I got my MFA in genre fiction. :)

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    gus-kalamarasHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 10:16am

    The problem could not possibly be that too many people get PhDs in fields that are useless?

    But, no, unionize the sociology adjuncts so the colleges will raise tuition more. Students will have happier people teach them about pointless subjects and stupid naive progressive theories!

    Get a grip Hamilton.

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      WonderZimmsgus-kalamaras
      2/25/15 11:38am

      This is, quite possibly, the worst analysis of college costs I've ever read. Please, list some fields that are "useless" along with the corresponding data of how much those positions make. Your work should also include your opinions on why those fields are "uesless." No partial credit will be given for anything less than completing the full assignment.

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      gus-kalamarasWonderZimms
      2/25/15 12:02pm

      Positions? Point me to a professional sociologist's office where consumers are trying to purchase a good or service. The people who are transcendently good at sociology can usually make a living, as they should. But too many graduate students spend a lot of money to not get a job and end up doing something unrelated or only tangentially related to their actual degree.

      More useless fields: Literature, sociology, communications, anything with the word "critical" in it, etc. Most MFA programs in any field, music performance degrees.

      These are niche occupations for the best of the best, because there is not a great consumer demand for experts in those fields. I am not saying those fields are not worthy of study, just that many of them have been dumbed down and thus far too many people enter them. Do you really think that as a society there is a conspiracy to hold down humanities PhDs economically? It's because the average person gains nothing tangible from a sociology PhD.

      The adjunct professor "problem" comes about when you have a surplus of PhDs. When labor is plentiful and competition high, the price of labors for employers goes down. Hence, universities "exploit" adjuncts.

      I never in my original post did an "analysis of college costs."

      What do you teach, Professor? Did I hit a nerve?

      I don't have any "data" and don't care to look into it for the purpose of a blog comment.

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    trudibell_Hamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 9:43am

    We need more radicals. And anthropology needs better marketing.

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      FuddsLawtrudibell_
      2/25/15 10:14am

      Which is why I decided against pursuing my doctorate in anthropology.

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      oilgamictrudibell_
      2/25/15 10:19am

      I am an anthropology major who now works in Marketing. I accept your challenge.

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    CraigalotHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 9:34am

    Que the unsympathetic people who say they knew what they were getting into.

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      chattygalCraigalot
      2/25/15 9:43am
      GIF
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      Ben GrimmCraigalot
      2/25/15 9:50am

      Speaking as someone who didn't have a clue how bad it would be until well into a PhD program (that I ended up leaving), most of them probably had no earthly idea what they were getting into.

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    psybabHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 9:42am

    I had my own little Walkout day two years ago, when I stopped teaching night classes for $2500 a semester altogether.

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      BookonBobpsybab
      2/25/15 10:10am

      I was making $3100 and walked out 4 years ago. It's nuts how little they pay. On the plus side, having that on my resume helped me get my job.

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      Craigalotpsybab
      2/25/15 10:25am

      It's essentially a volunteer position. I've heard more than one person refer to it as "giving back".

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    signofzetaHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 9:37am

    Adjuncts are an interesting breed. I have had a couple great adjuncts who teach part time and then have another job. Though I almost always have dreaded having an adjunct because much of the time the reason someone is a 50 year old adjunct is because they cannot function in the real world, so instead they teach (poorly).

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      EdnasEdiblessignofzeta
      2/25/15 9:56am

      I majored in journalism and I always loved our adjuncts. I think it's different when the adjuncts are in Arts & Sciences. Because most of the Communications/Business adjuncts have full-time jobs in the industry and teach a class a semester because they enjoy it or want the extra money. I have had adjuncts who worked as news directors, editors, PR directors, etc. They always brought a really interesting perspective and seemed more current in their approach. But they weren't counting on adjuncting as their salary and source of health benefits.

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      cyberathenasignofzeta
      2/25/15 10:48am

      This comment has no insight whatsoever and was written with an obvious lack of self-reflection.

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    PopChipsHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 11:29am

    I was an adjunct instructor for several years. One quarter, I had two students who'd periodically yell, "Faggot" at me during lectures. I called security and had them removed - twice.

    After the second time, admin told me the students paid good money to attend and I wasn't to throw them out again unless they became physically threatening.

    It wasn't until other students complained about the pair being disruptive that any action was taken. After three years of being an adjunct, I quit at the end of that quarter. Never again. Don't need the money that bad.

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      TheHoopoePopChips
      2/25/15 3:35pm

      I had a department chair insinuate/insist that I change a fail to a pass because the student is s paying customer. This was never vocalized but I got the message. I quit and let the chair change the grade herself.

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    sowhatiswhat2Hamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 11:27am

    I saw a lot of posts blaming tenure as the reason for the increase in college tuition. It is not. The reason for a sharp rise in tuition is the bloated bureaucracy at every university and the stupid shit they come up with. Branding is a new money pit many universities engage in (like why my uni needs to brand itself is above and beyond me as it draws individuals by the caliber and concentration of quality academics, not a non-existent sports team). Likewise, new roles in the bureaucracy that serve no real purpose but are paid at rates well and above any prof is amazing. Add on to those the schools that are now making their campuses like resorts (this is not to say that comfortable living is bad but does any school need to rock climbing walls, fancy apartments that will be nicer than any of those students can afford for at least two decades, etc?)

    Likewise, tenure is incredibly important as an institution within the university system as it does preserve the ability to do research that goes against standard public opinion. Without tenure, we would be seeing far more attacks on profs who do research into climate change, sexuality, evolution, etc. The Salaita case has unified so much of academia (that even science depts at UIUC had to cancel job hunts) because it spooked everyone on how universities support or not the tenure system.

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      NotReallyCrazysowhatiswhat2
      2/25/15 11:52am

      Ugh branding, how I hate thee. The university I worked for about 10 years ago decided to brand itself & thanks to that little initiative we had to buy all new marketing materials, letterhead, business cards, etc etc etc. Freaking waste of money if you ask me.

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    The DeciderHamilton Nolan
    2/25/15 9:59am

    YES. I love and support this!!! One of the best instructors/professors I've ever had was an adjunct professor, and she really never got the respect (or pay!) she deserved. From anyone.

    On the other hand, the total creep-ass prof who made inappropriate comments all the time and stood waaaaay too close to his female students for comfort while looking over our shoulders at the computers? Well, you bet your ass he had tenure AND his photo on the fucking wall!

    Yeah, so I'm still kinda mad... Happy National Adjunct Walkout Day. ❤❤❤

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