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The Adjunct Underclass
The Adjunct Underclass: How Americas Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission | Herb Childress
4 posts | 3 read
Class ends. Students pack up and head back to their dorms. The professor, meanwhile, goes to her car . . . to catch a little sleep, and then eat a cheeseburger in her lap before driving across the city to a different university to teach another, wholly different class. All for a paycheck that, once prep and grading are factored in, barely reaches minimum wage. Welcome to the life of the mind in the gig economy. Over the past few decades, the job of college professor has been utterly transformedfor the worse. Americas colleges and universities were designed to serve students and create knowledge through the teaching, research, and stability that come with the longevity of tenured faculty, but higher education today is dominated by adjuncts. In 1975, only thirty percent of faculty held temporary or part-time positions. By 2011, as universities faced both a decrease in public support and ballooning administrative costs, that number topped fifty percent. Now, some surveys suggest that as many as seventy percent of American professors are working course-to-course, with few benefits, little to no security, and extremely low pay. In The Adjunct Underclass, Herb Childress draws on his own firsthand experience and that of other adjuncts to tell the story of how higher education reached this sorry state. Pinpointing numerous forces within and beyond higher ed that have driven this shift, he shows us the damage wrought by contingency, not only on the adjunct faculty themselves, but also on students, the permanent faculty and administration, and the nation. How can we say that we value higher education when we treat educators like desperate day laborers? Measured but passionate, rooted in facts but sure to shock, The Adjunct Underclass reveals the conflicting values, strangled resources, and competing goals that have fundamentally changed our idea of what college should be. This book is a call to arms for anyone who believes that strong colleges are vital to society.
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Wannabe_Quijote
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Wannabe_Quijote
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After 6 weeks of travel for work (but always with a bit of fun!), I‘m happy to be home! #24in48 #nightstand #kindle @24in48

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Wannabe_Quijote
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After already logging 6 hours for this #24in48, I‘m starting this one!
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#profsoflitsy #highered @2 @24in48

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suzisteffen
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#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

1️⃣ For nonfiction, I have a plan for the year, including history, essays, science, and poetry books. For fiction, well, in library book months it‘s whatever I have out and that‘s due soonest (ebook or print book); for months when I‘m working on my own TBR, I try to have a bit of a plan but ... yeah.
2️⃣ Yes, and in the car. Ebook if not driving, 🎧 otherwise.
3️⃣ Tagged 📚 = grading, & 🐱🐱
4️⃣ ☕️🍷🥂🍸🍱🍲🥙🌮
5️⃣ ⬇️⬇️

Eggs Love your reading plan!!! 5y
suzisteffen @Eggs Thank you! It really keeps me motivated to read nonfiction - I plan it out and report on it to my social media buddies! One drawback (?!) is that I get kind of addicted to reading history and end up reading a lot more nonfiction than I‘d planned, at least so far this year. ? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I mean, I need to read fiction as well! 5y
Eggs I just read the blurb about your tagged abook...I was an adjunct faculty member for several years in addition to a full time job. The pay was small relative to the effort setting up and delivering courses 5y
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