We never set up college savings accounts for our children. In part, this was because we didn’t have money for dinner fourteen years ago, never mind a college savings account. Even if we had the money, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. I didn’t think that college was going to exist in its present form when my kids were finished with high school. Yeah, Steve and I were recent PhD graduates, teaching in various capacities across Manhattan. We invested ten years in graduate school. But I was widely pessemistic about the future of my chosen career.
Well, I was somewhat wrong. I’m sure that my oldest will attend a college in four years, but I have no regrets about the college savings. There is no way that we could have ever saved enough for a private college. He better work his ass off and get some scholarships. At the same time, I was not entirely wrong. Higher ed is in big trouble.
There’s always been much debate about the benefits of tenure. Critics have said that tenure protects the mediocre and even the incompetent and prevents the infusion of new ideas into academia. At some point, everybody was prepared for a big fight, but it’s not happening. Tenure is slowly eroding. Its demise hastened by administrators who want to save a buck. Tenure positions are being refilled by adjuncts.
In four years, Jonah will mostly likely be taught by a part-time instructor who makes less per hour than a McDonald’s worker. Forget tenure, this instructor won’t have health insurance. From the New York Times:
In the United States, the number of full-time tenured or tenure-track positions increased just 26 percent, to 308,400, in the 36 years from 1975 to 2011, according to the 2012-13 annual report of the American Association of University Professors. Part-time appointments rose more than 300 percent in the period, to 762,000, it said.
I wish that tenure could have died in a more straight-forward manner with intellectual debate and analysis of the pros and cons, but it’s not happening that way.
Apt. 11d 
I think this description of the current state of academia is exaggerated. Of course, it depends where Jonah goes, which in turn depends on his credentials, as to which I have no idea. But if the choice is dictated by scholarship aid, then there is a simple rubric: if you can get into Yale, you can get a merit scholarship at Vanderbilt; if you can get into Vanderbilt, then you can get a merit scholarship at BU; if you can get into BU, then you can get a merit scholarship at College of Charleston.
And if you are at a top private university (i.e., in the top half of the chain above), you will not be taught by adjuncts, though you may have a VAP or two. I don’t think my daughter has had a single adjunct at Wake Forest, except maybe her freshman writing seminar or something. Furthermore, adjuncts at top universities aren’t quite the wage slaves Laura portrays: I have a friend who is an adjunct at Columbia, and, although she is hardly getting rich, she gets a good bit more than $3000 a course, plus I’m pretty sure she gets health insurance.
LikeLike
The top private universities aren’t the typical universities. Jonah is a good student, but will probably have to go to a top tier state college. Most of his instructors the first year will be adjuncts.
Yes, I was an adjunct instructor at Columbia, too. I also made $3,000 per semester. That was 10 years ago. Glad that they are adjusting for inflation.
It was a grad level class that required about 30 hours per week of prep/lecture time. I was also preparing articles for publication and taking care of two babies. If I wasn’t picky about sleeping, I could have added an easy 101 class at one of the CUNY schools (more commuting time, less prep work, tons of grading). I made 6K that year. If I added the 2 extra CUNY classes, I would have made 12K. And worked about 50 hours per week. Woot!
LikeLike
Columbia did not provide health insurance. They didn’t even give me an office.
LikeLike
Laura said:
“Forget tenure, this instructor won’t have health insurance.”
But it’s OK–the ACA will fix everything.
LikeLike
I think long term employment relationships are dying, including tenure. That’s a trend I don’t see ending. Whether the end is a complete disaster will depend on whether the worker reaps any of the benefits. The ACA would be one of the hopeful trends — if it allows people to remain insured through more frequent job changes.
LikeLike
Well, if the instructor has health insurance, s/he likely bought it individually, because under the terms of the Screw The Adjuncts Act of 2009 (formerly known as Obamacare) if the school keeps the instructor’s hours under 29.5, the school is off the hook. Fortunately, the instructor makes so little money that the cost of the individual coverage is substantially subsidized out of the wages of the middle-middle class parents of the students!
LikeLike
Before Obamacare, the school was on the hook for what?
LikeLike
“Well, if the instructor has health insurance, s/he likely bought it individually, because under the terms of the Screw The Adjuncts Act of 2009 (formerly known as Obamacare) if the school keeps the instructor’s hours under 29.5, the school is off the hook.”
Instructors have hours? How are they measured?
LikeLike
Everything is Obamacare’s fault. Even the things that were worse before Obamacare.
LikeLike
They’re approximated by course. Basically, adjuncts are being switched to a part time course load–2-3 classes instead of 4-5.
LikeLike
I had no idea until I read these comments that conservatives take such a deep interest in the employment rights of non-tenured faculty.
Some disjointed thoughts…
Is there any data about what percentage of adjuncts are doing that work exclusively? When I worked at Enormous Midwestern State School all of the adjuncts I knew were people who were doing it as side work in addition to their full-time job. They either did it because they enjoyed teaching or to stay at least somewhat connected to academia. Not sure how common this is but seems like the best scenario for the use of adjuncts.
Whether the tenure system is ended altogether or drastically modified or slightly modified, for the situation of adjuncts to improve tenured faculty will probably need to relinquish some of their pay and prestige. Academics usually hate tenure until they get and then of course they are loathe to give it up.
I agree with bj that the era of lifetime employment is over. It seems like the move is to professionalize academia into two tracks, research and teaching, where research has less job security but the pay-off is potentially higher.
LikeLike