A small typical history of adjunct employment since 1989

[misssylviadrake]

Dear friends and readers,

Over on Wom-po we've had a long thread prompted by the publication of data about adjuncts. Here is the story, from The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Underpaid and restless: Dismal picture of life as a part college teacher [not professor, adjuncts and contingents are not professors),  and it's based on this study.  They

Comments

[misssylviadrake]

In response to someone else who told her story on wom-po:

I note one difference between Celia's story and mine is the only loans I ever took our were for our house and my car. It makes a big difference not to have loans hanging over your head.

Queens College, CUNY when I went was $25 a term; my graduate school (Graduate Center of CUNY) was also really inexpensive; the biggest check was $250 one term when Carter had come in (ominous). We escaped w/o loans for our daughters too. Out of Cash-flow for both; well the graduate school for the second did come out of some savings.

Sylvia

[misssylviadrake]

A friend also wrote to tell me how he left academia and how he never regretted it. I replied to another of his comments: I'm persuaded that the image some people on listservs or who read my blog or website get of me is all wrong. When I've met people for the first time face-to-face they are often startled. I'm not impressive :). Or when they hear me speak: the vowels and accent they attribute to what they read are not mine.

I told the story because it's so rare that people do. And you get these exaggerated accounts because it's not told for real. As I wrote on another list, twice I've been solicited to write my life story for an online periodical but when the editor sees it's not upbeat, they don't want it. They want only stories that are upbeat, end with some smashing success. Virginia Woolf said much that is written makes for a wasteland; myself I think this demand for upbeat stories is part of that.

Sylvia

[misssylviadrake]

A generous intelligent friend