In Which The Chronicle Rests My Case
February 20th, 2012 § 13 Comments
Does anyone else find it hilarious that The Chronicle has chosen to hide its recent article about The Adjunct Project behind the pay wall?* How appropriate. I sure as heck don’t have enough money to subscribe; how about any of you other adjuncts? I realize most universities subscribe, and therefore, we can access the article via a proxy server, but it’s really just the idea itself that bugs me. Yet again, our access to information about ourselves must be filtered through the universities we are challenging. Our voices can be heard only as long as the powers that be allow it to happen.
When Michael Stratford interviewed me for the piece, he asked me why I thought The Adjunct Project had taken off like it did. I responded that I think the success of the project is due to the fact that it’s a study done entirely by adjuncts for adjuncts. There is no filter who approves information. No sponsor that requires the data to be softened or skewed. No “middleman” who controls the numbers. The data is raw. Alive. This is what makes the project so exciting. And, also why hiding it behind a pay wall is a move to which I have to raise an eyebrow.
Thus, when I realized last night I couldn’t even read the article about me and the project I began, I had to just shake my head and laugh. Let’s just hope The Chronicle did it intentionally as a self-aware attempt at critiquing the unfair system the article outlines (probably shouldn’t hold our breath on that one).
But anyway, I’ll stop griping because the article itself is pretty good, and I really appreciate that The Chronicle gave us so much exposure. Michael Stratford conducted a great interview and portrayed my quotes faithfully. He told my story pretty much the same way I would have. I wondered if they would keep my little Marxist digression into Gramsci’s Hegemony. They did. Not bad. I meant what I said, by the way, about us granting consent with our passivity. Think about that.
I also like the part where he discusses the “simple bureaucratic inconvenience” that catalyzed my decision to get started in adjunct activism. That is entirely true. I was disappointed by the way my small group of fellow adjuncts was pacified by administration at Eastern Kentucky University. We were given lip service with no action, and it pissed me off. I’m sure many of you began to speak up because of similar simple issues. We aren’t asking for the sky here. We just want to be treated like any other professional human being. Don’t lose our paychecks. Don’t wait until 6 weeks (or more) after we begin working to pay us. Don’t make us the lowest paid employees at the university. After a couple semesters, allow us to gain some reasonable job security in the form of a contract (forcing us to reapply for our jobs every 4 months is absolutely crazy). Let us join the health insurance plan like everyone else at the school. Why in the world would any of these requests be unreasonable? Or even radical?
As the original title of Stratford’s piece suggests, I am in many ways an “accidental activist.” When I set up the Google Doc, I figured we might get 100 schools or so. And I would have been thrilled with that. Well, there are 822 and counting. Like Statford notes, I’m not an expert on adjunct issues by any means. It’s just that when I realized how hungry everyone was for a project like this, I took it on. As such, I’ve been kind of winging it as I go. I’m sure most of you know by now that I built a website in order to have a more permanent hosting place for the data. Another common request I received from many of you is to establish a place to elaborate and discuss, so I built that into the site. The site has a blog that any adjunct can contribute to. There’s also a discussion page with several threads, one of which is “Flash Tales: 100 word snippets of adjunct life.” I think this one in particular could be really fun.
Anyway, the page is evolving. Bookmark it and check in from time to time. Definitely more to come, but I promised in my last post I would be publishing the data to a website. Put a check next to that one.
Hopefully, you all have universities that allow you to access The Chronicle. The library homepage is a good place to start, if you’re unsure. From what I understand, this piece will also be published in this week’s print edition. Pretty cool. The Adjunct Project is continuing to get national attention, which is obviously great for our movement. Continue to capitalize on this exposure. The climate is in crescendo. Now is the time to push.
*Just to be clear, I want to thank The Chronicle again for everything they’ve done. Just had to direct a little friendly ribbing their way for what I would argue is a bad decision about the pay wall thing. 
Update: Wednesday, February 22nd——–>I’m happy to announce the article is no longer behind the wall.
Even with campus access (what the Chronicle keeps claiming as an excuse), articles behind the pay wall are still problematic for many adjuncts for a variety of reasons, especially those “between” gigs, on the road a lot teaching at multiple campuses, teaching at for profits – mostly but not always online, retired (adjuncts don’t retire with access perks), etc.
If not for Board access to the NFM subscription, I would not be reading tales guarded by the pay wall gatekeeper. For some time,I did not have access and, when I did, a long commute and not the time to stay on campus. Do they really need those crumbs more than the good will? As a Nestlé /HuffPo type matter of principle, only rarely will I share a pay wall story around the NFM social media network or my own. Perhaps other adjuncts feel the same reluctance to be complicit. So many of us. Has the Chronicle considered those numbers?
Now you are behind the wall… ironic but a quandary too
Josh, I find myself in complete agreement with the things you are saying here. I really enjoyed this quote:
“We aren’t asking for the sky here. We just want to be treated like any other professional human being. Don’t lose our paychecks. Don’t wait until 6 weeks (or more) after we begin working to pay us. Don’t make us the lowest paid employees at the university. After a couple semesters, allow us to gain some reasonable job security in the form of a contract (forcing us to reapply for our jobs every 4 months is absolutely crazy). Let us join the health insurance plan like everyone else at the school. Why in the world would any of these requests be unreasonable? Or even radical?”
I had a brief (10 minutes, max) discussion with my students in one section about being an adjunct–they asked me a question about working for WKU–and I told them the truth about what it’s like to be an adjunct. Anyway, my STUDENTS were shocked when I told them I was among the school’s lowest paid employees (and all the stuff you mention in this quote). And those same students echoed your words–they said, “It’s not like it’d be that hard to give you [our teachers] good pay and benefits.”
I guess my point is that we’re not asking for that much. Even college freshman can see this.
My larger question is a practical one: how much would it actually cost universities to pay adjuncts better, offer them benefits, contracts, etc.? I realize this number will vary greatly from school to school, but it’d be interesting to see how small or large a chunk of the budget such a plan would demand. I would venture to guess it’s a doable number. Has there a been a reliable study of this data?
That’s a great question, Bryan. Some of that information would be hard to pin down I’m sure, but the pay itself would be easy to figure out. How many adjuncts? How much of a raise is needed to make the pay decent? Multiply it. That equation is so simple, it would be hard to deny. We could theoretically do an exact proposal to our administration–complete with recommendations about how to come up with that extra money in the budget. I’m kind of liking this idea.
Josh,
You know I admire your work here. If our Colleges and Universities are adapting corporate models and referencing national economic trends, so should all faculty, part-time and full-time. Full-time lines are being dissolved nationwide, corroding shared governance, academic freedom, and, of course, tenure. Adjunct faculty ought to be deeply concerned; we are now the faculty majority, and the faculty majority has no job security and no vote. Walmart.
As for the formula, it doesn’t much matter how many adjuncts. Class size matters. What are X amount of students paying per credit? And what is the uninsured, non-pensioned adjunct getting paid per course?
Can the institution afford a raise for adjunct faculty? Don’t listen to enrollment stats; they tend to be cyclical and misstated, except in elite institutions. Take a look at the 990 forms, i.e., the tax returns of your administration.
Organize; unionize; keep asking the questions we teach our students to raise every day.
Best wishes,
Patricia Navarra
Brian, your comment about telling your class adjuncts were lowest paid on campus reminded me of a friend years back who collected pay information for staff (we already knew where we stood on the fac scale), organized spreadsheet, etc. and then informed us that ball washers in the athletic department made more per hour than adjunct faculty. There’s an image…
She also wrote it up in a letter to the editor of the local paper. The paper called administration, printed the letter but with disclaimer that he checked with admin and stood by the “facts” they gave him. And my friend? Not rehired, with extreme prejudice.
Josh, I was thinking exactly that this morning when I went excitedly to read all about you and your project, and boom! I was stopped by the WALL! Who can afford that? Do they forget our salaries? You should write them back, with a copy of your blog post in hand, telling them that though you appreciate the coverage–and we all do–the majority of us could not afford to read it…
Which leads me to my next point, of which you have all hit upon so nicely, but for which I have a quote everyday, when I go see the people who sign the petition I started… And what this says, by the way, is nothing new.
“I earned a Master of Arts in English, yet I earn less than $18,000 a year. Full-time instructors are paid $11,000 more per course than the $2,500 I receive.”
AND $2500 is not the worst, by any means… For one course, there is a discrepancy here of $11K? Never mind health insurance, office, traveling from place to place as opposed to staying in one campus because you might have a permanent job…
We need to keep fighting, but when they keep closing doors to us; when we don’t know each other, or when we refuse to get to know each other for fear (I sent my petition to the few I knew at my school who were adjuncts, and they did not sign, because they thought it better not to stir the pot!); when we become afraid to speak out, that is when we are beaten down, that is when we settle… AND we need to stop settling.
I hope you keep getting more hits on your google doc. I wish I kept getting more signatures, though I have been trying to round them up every which way I can, and the numbers seem to be slowing down. I won’t give up, though. We cannot.
I raise my fist in the air for you, sir. It’s hard out there for an adjunct/(enter other jobs to supplement income to a living wage here).
Your parenthetical remark hits the nail on the head.
Yep. Story of my life. Adjunct/contract recruitment manager/freelance food writer/promoter and planner of LGBT Events for a local dance studio. And somewhere in there, I’m supposed to do my own writing. Sigh.
I wonder how many adjuncts, like myself, are denied access to the articles behind the pay wall even at the institutions that subscribe. We are not given that special access.
I love what you’re doing– I’ve gone over and over similar ideas myself. The frustration level, the way we’re being treated, it’s very upsetting.
Looking over your spreadsheet, it does bother me that some people I actually know put what amounts to misleading information. Being hired full time on a yearly contract does not feel like typical “adjunct” work. The pay is nearly double what an adjunct at that same institution makes and the contract for us is by semester. She doesn’t represent the way they truly handle adjuncts– being the only one there on a yearly contract.
I have worked at three institutions for the past four years, piecing together courses to try to make enough money for my family. There are no benefits (I am lucky enough to have a husband with wonderful benefits), and my pay, after teaching 5-7 courses per semester at these three colleges (and driving 2 hours a day in some cases to get to all three) amounted to $32,000 last year. A full time position, where I would teach only four courses would pay me $52,000 at one of the institutions where I work. I should add that to get to that 32,000, I also tutor at one of the schools. (Yes, on top of 5-7 courses a semester. To say I am burnt out is a great understatement.)
It’s appalling. While sharing of information is good– what’s to be done with it? What is the next step? Unionizing?
Thanks for contributing to the discussion. Regarding your point about the data, I would just say anyone can enter his or her own information on the spreadsheet. I recommend you add your data so as to give a more complete picture at the university in question.
As for what happens next, believe me, there has been much discussion. More to come on that, but I encourage everyone to take ownership of this project and begin planning the next steps on a local level. We can all be activists.
Like everyone else in the publishing business, The Chronicle’s day of reckoning is approaching, The new electronic media compels a different model than the corner news stand where I have bought many a magazine and newspaper. And the rising cost of postage, ink, paper, and mailing labor compels a new definition of what constitutes a “subscription.”
Further complicating the Chronicle’s problem is that many of its subscribers subscribe on subscriptions which are perquisites of employment, i.e., paid by employer funds and not salary funds. As more and more in academia are Adjunct faculty (i.e., 2nd class Untermenschen who have less perquisites of employment than the full-timers), this threatens the Chronicle’s subscribership base, regardless of whether in paper or electronic mode.
So the Chronicle really can’t afford to piss off too many Adjuncts too intensely too frequently. Placing your article on the free side of the paywall was a little lagniappe done with the foregoing factors in mind.
On Monday, I wrote to the Chronicle suggesting they unlock all articles pertaining to adjuncts issues, considering most of us cannot afford to subscribe. My argument was that in doing so they would be encouraging all those involved in the mistreatment of adjuncts to participate in the ongoing conversations.
I haven’t heard back from them, yet.