I spent several years working as an Adjunct professor all of the experience I've drawn on for this channel has been from adjuncting I only recently landed my first full-time job adjuncts are part- timr professors who supposedly have a full-time day job and teach in their downtime for a variety of reasons it's sold as teachers with real world experience in a lot of places or they're people who haven't completed their terminal degree and they're working part-time as they focus on completing that degree whether it's a master's or a PhD but in reality a lot of adjuncts have that terminal degree and are actively searching for a full-time gig here's the Ugly Truth those jobs those full-time jobs that people spend anywhere from 4 to 12 years training for are disappearing fast the classes still exist and still need to be taught so they're taught by fully qualified people who by rights should have those full-time jobs the adunc defic of higher ed has been a conversation in the industry for some time but is not commonly known outside not even among college students adjuncts are hired for one term whether it's a semester or a quarter we find out anywhere from 3 months to 2 weeks before the term starts if we're going to have a class I've worked at institutions where I've lost a class the day before it was scheduled to start and all of that prep work went unpaid every term about a quarter of the way through adjunct contact the person in charge of hiring us and say essentially please hire me again for the next term and then we wait we don't have job security at all for several years I worked on three campuses I stopped getting work on one because there was a change in leadership I found out I was on the short list of people to give a class to if they were available at another one but even then there weren't always classes I worked at Lowe's this summer because I couldn't get a teaching gig we also don't get paid for a lot of the work we're paid for time in the classroom and that's it and we don't get paid much at all depending on the status of labor unions and workers rights in the state adjunct make anywhere between 2 $2,000 to $7,000 per class the average is closer to$ 3500 per class if I take on three classes at $3500 a pop that's $10,500 for the semester for now let's skip over the extra work that isn't paid the prep the grading the office hours Let's consider that is $10,500 for the entire 15we semester that's four months so I do that for two semesters spring and fall eight months of work $21,000 I can teach over the summer get another $10,500 31500 for a full Year's work mathematically sure except there are limits on how many courses a school will offer most will only allow an ajun to teach eight classes over the course of those three terms so that takes me down to 28,000 for a Year's work that's if I get those eight courses that's without considering I don't get paid when I'm not under contract I haven't been paid in January since 2008 that's without considering the time that I am expected to be available to students when not under contract to work for free this is why most adjuncts work multiple campuses I'd try for six courses in the fall and in the spring and three in the summer a 663 load a full teaching load is 33 or 44 or trading one of those semester courses for a summer course to be clear I routinely taught 10 to 12 classes a year for several years I did get the max allowed courses but it's only been this year that the money offered by the main University I adjunct for approached $35 00 when I started I earned 2,200 per class and I average about 2600 per class for eight classes that's $20,800 a year that's barely above the poverty line for a household of two adults for a job that requires at least a master's and prefers a PhD a degree that can take over a decade to earn with the attendant cost in tuition loans and other debt for 12 classes that's $31,200 a year but that's cobbling together three different part-time jobs into one salary starting pay for full-time professors varies by state but the average is about $55,000 a year at the low end there's another side to this not not just that some college professors live barely above the poverty line it's how many courses are taught by adjuncts estimates run between 50% and 75% generally speaking core requirements or general education courses make up about half of the credits required for a bachelor's degree most of these courses are surveys that is a basic introductory course where the Prof Professor covers the basics of the content and methodology of the discipline full-time and tenured professors often have two two loads even two one loads sometimes because they're expected to be working on Research or running Labs serving on committees performing service to the department the University or the discipline in exchange for that time in the classroom when full-timers do teach they're often teaching in their specialty the reason they were hired those general education courses that every student must take to graduate are left unstaffed enter adjunct we've seen again and again that colleges and universities turn to adjuncts to fill the gaps in the schedule and to do it on the cheap in 2011 the City University of New York's office of institutional research and assessment reported that over 50% of their general education classes were taught by adjs in 2015 at the University of Louisville and Jefferson and Community Technical College around 70% were taught by adjunct faculty those general education classes are the face of a department they show students what the discipline is about how it works and what makes it exciting and important it's the place where a student finally finds the thing that Sparks their imagination it's the place where students learn the things that they didn't learn in high school it's where they learn to explore to experiment to get outside their comfort zone it's where the department catches the Undeclared student and turns them into a major it's where a department can boost enrollments in their upper level courses through student engagement and it's left to people who have to work on multiple campuses to earn enough money to live on it's left to people people who aren't paid to do all the work that actually goes into teaching it's left to people who have to wonder which Bill they're going to pay this month adjuncts don't show up in marketing material but we are the face of the department because we show up every day in class and we tell a room full of 18 yearolds why we love this discipline so much that we're willing to put up with this situation and then some of them decide to join us I don't have a py or clever way to end this I I don't know what the answer is I do know this is unsustainable it's been going on for decades and it is getting worse tenure lines are disappearing and adjuncts continue to shoulder the burden at Great cost I guess I just thought you should know I'll see you next time