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    PunditGuyHamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:51pm

    Anybody ever give a sufficient “why” these folks put up with these conditions — and for years at a time? I honestly don’t get it.

    They’re getting something out of this work arrangement that is of greater value to them than the crap they put up with. If bagging groceries paid roughly the same and allowed me to see my wife on a regular basis, I’d bag groceries while looking for something better.

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      Hamilton NolanPunditGuy
      6/08/16 4:53pm

      Because they want to be professors? My guess.

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      KinjagramModelPunditGuy
      6/08/16 4:54pm

      because some people aren’t happy... unless they’re unhappy

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    DidYouReallyRespondToMyComment?Hamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:50pm

    I have been adjuncting for 10 years, mostly at one school.

    Does working as an adjunct suddenly render you unfit for any other kind of employment? Are you branded or marked so that you can’t quit and go work somewhere else?

    You’re treated badly, underpaid, etc. Then fucking quit. Jesus. If no one will take the job, things will either change or the position go unfilled. Either way, your willingness to put up this shit is the obverse of them doing it to you.

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      PetehammerDidYouReallyRespondToMyComment?
      6/08/16 4:54pm

      You ever have a friend who complains about his/her significant other and by the 40th month of this all you can think is “just dump them”?

      Pretty much the same thing here.

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      TheDogIsStillBarkingDidYouReallyRespondToMyComment?
      6/08/16 5:08pm

      That entire post was irritating. They’re paid $20K for five courses - that’s pretty good, and more than I make per credit as full time faculty.

      Not being “allowed” to walk in the graduation ceremony is not abuse. I don’t know of any schools that have adjuncts walk in the ceremonies, for a number a legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with oppression. That they just found this out, after adjuncting for 10 years, just says they haven’t paid any attention to the culture they’re so desperate to be a part of.

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    lewis55number2Hamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 5:32pm

    Its worth point out that these people get paid significantly less than PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS, with fewer benefits. A. That’s completely fucked up. B. Every single one of these people, as they already have a PhD, is fully qualified to be a public high school teacher and would be a *very* competitive hire for a high school. Teaching high school English instead of college English would require swallowing your pride for sure, and giving up on dreams of a full time academic job. But its a real option sitting out there. High school English teachers have tenure, union benefits, salaries as much as 5 times these adjuncts, etc. If you’re still stuck adjuncting for *10 years* after getting your PhD, that full time academic job you dream of landing probably isn’t happening for you at this point, I’m sorry. You struck out. Maybe consider something else?

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      BecauseoftheImplicationlewis55number2
      6/08/16 6:00pm

      I am very uncomfortable with the way that this comments section is full of people comparing this job to “less desirable” jobs with a degree of disdain. As someone who has been both a secondary school teacher and a university-level teacher, there is no real amount of “swallowing your pride” involved in being a teacher - it’s not a shameful job. It also requires a different skill set than teaching at the university level, so switching careers might not be as easy as, “Just do it!”

      Additionally, the answer to the problem of “there is structural mistreatment going on” should not be “Why don’t you leave, dummy” but something more productive that addresses the fact that the structural mistreatment will continue even if an individual adjunct leaves.

      Finally, adjuncting does not happen in a vacuum. Often, the people in question are doing research that they care about, but on grants that do not cover expenses fully, or they are between positions because there is so little job security in the early levels of academia, or simply because they love the subject and you actually can’t teach the same things in secondary schools that you can at universities.

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      NoWinnersInThisGamelewis55number2
      6/08/16 6:23pm

      No, they can’t just go out and get a job as a public high school teacher. They don’t have teaching certification. Becoming a public school teacher would require going back to college to get that certification. Having a PhD in a subject taught in schools, such as math or English, counts zero for being able to teach in public schools, where the degree required is an education degree.

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    BobbySeriousHamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:36pm

    Academic Apartheid

    “Say what????”

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      RobertMadooBobbySerious
      6/08/16 4:42pm

      Yeah nobody else may use that word now!

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      BobbySeriousRobertMadoo
      6/08/16 4:48pm

      Right, because there are clear similarities between 50 years of brutal racial segregation and oppression in South Africa and ill-treated college professors in America.

      Look, I feel for these professors and think these articles by Hamilton have been useful. And I’m the last guy running around looking to be offended by such things....but as someone who studied and knows a decent about apartheid, this was way, way over the top to the point of being offensive.

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    IkerCatsillasHamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:54pm

    To everyone suggesting that people are foolhardy to get higher degrees in the arts and humanities: if these fields are so “useless,” then why are there so many adjunct positions in them in the first place? Clearly, a huge demand exists for teachers of these subjects. Whether they’re being fairly paid for their labor (they aren’t) is another story.

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      rainydayavalancheIkerCatsillas
      6/08/16 4:59pm

      please, just keep on bringing it every week. The ignorant lol librul arts comments from so many people here only serve to feed the current system.

      Both supply and demand are there, but the middle man has excelled at devaluing both and instilling those deflated values into the mainstream.

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      IkerCatsillasrainydayavalanche
      6/08/16 5:00pm

      Both supply and demand are there, but the middle man has excelled at devaluing both and instilling those deflated values into the mainstream.

      Exactly.

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    Dave Hamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:41pm

    Honestly, reading this makes me wonder why folks don’t just be a shift manager at Taco Bell. The pay is the same, you work less, and free Nachos Bel Grande. (Not serious, but seriously this is probably true.)

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      theunseenoneDave
      6/08/16 4:46pm

      Seriously. They would make more working full time at minimum wage than this supposedly hellish existence as an adjunct. If it’s this bad and this poorly paid to where you decry your constant misery, then leave. They have the luxury to actually use their very expensive degrees and find other work, which can’t be said of most impoverished workers.

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      helgaperezDave
      6/08/16 4:49pm

      I’m guessing

      1) respect (which should not be a reason, but is)

      2) access to institutions of higher learning. If you teach at a university, you will (theoretically) surrounded by people interested in the same subject you are interested in, and if your field of study requires specialized equipment you may have access to that equipment.

      3) greater possibility of advancement? I am not sure about this one!

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    Johnny ChundersHamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:54pm

    Why do today’s letter writers want to go to department meetings? Not having to go to interminable meetings is one of the (few, small) benefits of the ‘adjunct’ title.

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      rainydayavalancheJohnny Chunders
      6/08/16 5:08pm

      To have a fucking voice. To be able to express concerns about the direction the department is going. To be able to argue for their budgets. To be able to ask for actual fucking offices. To be able to speak up for themselves instead of being stabbed in the back by departmental politics.

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      Johnny Chundersrainydayavalanche
      6/08/16 5:29pm

      Why should a department set policies, long-term goals, and budgets based on input from people who won’t be there two terms hence? It’s nice that everyone wants to have a fucking voice, but where will they be when the program auditors come around years down the road? How will they help with all of the committee work required to make meaningful changes in the curriculum that they propose?

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    ThrumbolioHamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:42pm

    academic apartheid

    SEE ALSO: “It was like NAZI GERMANY!”

    ~Fresh-faced honky backpacker referring to a hostel

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      ReburnsABurningReturnsThrumbolio
      6/08/16 5:07pm

      Rumor has it his thesis is titled “Godwin’s Law: Mocking Truism About Internet Commenters Or New Paradigm For Academic Literature”

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    c_lamotteHamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:52pm

    So, am I the only tenure-track on here who starts reading one of these posts, only to think “Jesus, I gotta stop fucking around on Gawker and get back to work lest I end up one of these stories”? Sort of a bourgeois scared straight.

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      lonelyfalconc_lamotte
      6/08/16 5:15pm

      You’re not alone! Now {both of us should } get back to work! ;)

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      QuadPolec_lamotte
      6/08/16 5:26pm

      I believe this is called research. All professors are required to do this. Get back to work!

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    JustActSurprisedHamilton Nolan
    6/08/16 4:39pm

    Lol... The title of this article continues the tone deaf nature of these articles...

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