One of the first blogs that I read was the Invisible Adjunct. She retired from blogland several years ago. Too bad. We could use some of her bile today today.
Household Opera and Tim Burke point me to this article in Inside Higher Ed, which describes the salaries of adjuncts at the University of Tennessee. They've been teaching 5/5 teaching loads for $15,000 per year with no benefits.
Tim's reaction:
You could pay someone $200,000 a year, and I doubt they could teach
a 5-5 load with any degree of focus or attention to students, but
$15,000? No benefits? Seriously, Tennessee: just close down your
university system. Or just be honest and make public higher education
in the state into a volunteer system, like getting people to work the
line at a soup kitchen. And adjuncts there? Seriously, there has got to
be a better way to make ends meet, whatever your circumstances and
aspirations might be.
a 5-5 load with any degree of focus or attention to students, but
$15,000? No benefits? Seriously, Tennessee: just close down your
university system. Or just be honest and make public higher education
in the state into a volunteer system, like getting people to work the
line at a soup kitchen. And adjuncts there? Seriously, there has got to
be a better way to make ends meet, whatever your circumstances and
aspirations might be.
Amanda explains how someone could allow themselves to be so thoroughly exploited.
And, yes, this post very much fits into my ridiculous theme of the day.
Apt. 11d 