National Adjunct Walkout Day

Teacher's aids in public schools (elementary-high school level) are in pretty much the same boat. They're called "paraprofessionals," often do a majority of the heavy lifting, and get the least consideration.

When someone I know was going through their certification, the official text books used opened with a paragraph stating that "paras" were expected to work longer, dress better, and basically be more inviting than teachers, and do all that with far less pay or benefits - while smiling.

I'm still not sure if that was the publisher's way of telling people to run while they had a chance to switch careers.

My Greek Thought and Lit teacher spent half the class yesterday talking to us about this. It was pretty terrifying, honestly.

Education funding is down, sure. But I don't get why universities have decided to use that to excuse being douchebags. It's very unfortunate.

slcboston said:

I am on the job today, because I want to keep my job, but unless you work in a university you might be unaware of what goes on, or even who's teaching your child (or perhaps even you).

I can only speak for my uni, but I know that in many unis the situation is more or less the same, as among local universities only one offers benefits to their adjuncts.

So, just some quick facts:

Janitors and groundskeepers (who do important work, don't think I'm saying otherwise) get paid more. They have benefits, can take classes for free, and have reduced tuition for their children.

As an adjunct, I don't.

At the end of every semester, the supprt staff and full time faculty know they pretty much have their job, barring cutbacks or other circumstances.

At the end of every semester, I'm left wondering if I'll have work.

Even if I do have a job, I get paid by the class, not semester (or hour - and in my department most of the adjunct staff put in longer hours than a lot of full time faculty) which means there's no guarantee how much money I will make in the coming months.

All the support staff and faculty have a voice in uni affairs. They are consulted on surveys, have representation in the faculty senate, and in general have a say in things.

As an adjunct, I don't.

All staff and full time faculty have access to support services like counseling, insurance counseling, etc.

As an adjunct, I don't.

All this and yet at an increasing number of universities around the US, including my own, adjuncts teach a preponderance of classes. We keep departments staffed, students educated, and the university functioning.

And we are the very last consideration of anything the university does. We were even told by an admin that we were "a dime a dozen" as he out-of-hand dismissed not only our concerns about the students, but our ideas, our contributions.

So I have not walked off today, because I would not have a job tomorrow if I did.

But that doesn't mean I don't think things need to change.

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Unfortunately, by not walking out you demonstrate that you agree with the admin that you are a "dime a dozen" and can easily be replaced. Walkouts only work by demonstrating a position of strength by everyone (or most everyone) acting in unified defiance. If you're all afraid to stand up for your rights...you don't have any. It's sad. That's a tough position to be in. And frankly, I doubt very seriously that you would be easy to replace.

Adjuncts where I work have to reapply each semester for the same teaching position. If they don't get at least two classes to teach, they lose their benefits.

They teach 5-6 classes per semester, with each class taking around 10-15 hours per week total time.

That's really just the start of it.

I'm sorry, but national adjunct walkout day? Isn't that like putting another target on an adjunct's back? Can we see more awareness without putting someone's job in jeopardy?

Not about to happen where I teach as an adjunct in Alaska. I am limited to 15 credit hours per academic year, which equates to two classes per semester, max, not counting summer sessions (which I also teach). The union protecting full-time tenured academic positions has mandated this arrangement. It's a part-time gig for me, and works as a semi-retirement position.

Now, I don't say this is the same situation for every adjunct, but most of those I know here feel about the same way. We unanimously detest the regular university bureaucracy, but except for the obligatory matters like filling out forms, we generally ignore it, and TEACH.

caw

Liosse de Velishaf said:

Education funding is down, sure. But I don't get why universities have decided to use that to excuse being douchebags..

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University administrations have been populated by douchebags long before adjunct instructors came on the scene. Nowhere else does the Peter Principle more fully apply.

caw

When my wife worked for headstart, they were in the same boat.

Many people work that way.

Also, I call bullshit on teacher aids working harder than teachers. My wife comes in an hour earlier to work and stays an hour later than her aid, not to mention all the stuff she has to do at home.

I don't even know what an adjunct is. The university I went to had teaching assistants (TAs) and I thought they were just students working toward their upper level degrees, picking up some quick cash and teaching exoerience by helping the professors.

Is an adjunct different?

Universities have been doing this for years.

Still beats working retail, but they're working on fixing that.

That said, a tenured teacher or professor is a very expensive investment, and hard to get rid of, so it's hard to blame cash-strapped universities for trying to offload as many as possible.

We want everything commoditized, we get what we pay for.

I've worked as a paraprofessional/aide and also a teacher. It was absolutely NOT my experience that aides work harder than teachers. Both work hard, but it's not even a valid comparison. There are many overlapping duties, but waaaaay more responsibility, and time on the part of a certified teacher.

I have done it in the past, when I was part of a two paycheck household, and might fall back on it once I retire but I would never count on it for my only source of income. The benefits were meager to start with but have evaporated to zilch. I taught night classes right after my husband died because tuition was free for my two daughters. That option went by the roadside for adjuncts years ago, along with health insurance.

As for paras working harder than teachers? I am a high school teacher, my daughter worked in the same school district as a para. Her father was an elementary teacher. Her aunts, uncles and cousins are teachers and paras. Paras have the one- on- one work that becomes so tedious. Still she says teachers work harder.

Not to say paras have it easy. If a para is assigned to an obnoxious student that job can become hell because there is no respite. A teacher has a room full of students to deal with but a para has the same student, or students, day in day out. The teacher deals with the parents and the administration as well as all of the students and the paras. plus he manages the entire classroom and does the actual instruction. The teacher also pays for the college credits to maintain accreditation. That is why the teacher is paid more.

It is a different with adjuncts--they grade, deal with all the students and manage the classrooms and plan the instruction and they do this for para pay. They deserve more!

There are always people-- paras, teachers, administrators, custodians --who take up time and energy complaining that they do the most work. Grade school teachers whine that high school teachers don't work as hard as they do. They never take into consideration the grading--high school grading is much harder than grade school work. High school kids don't take orders like grade school kids. High school kids are thinking units--harder to manage. It all evens out but the bitchers never can see it. Some of that is going on in our school right now. We are a small district, in one building==pre-K to grade 12. You'd think we could get along but NOOOO. Some folks are convinced that they are doing ALL THE WORK. (Picture a ten year old saying that.)

It isn't just schools. When I was a social worker there was a huge debate over who did the most work, income maintenance workers or protective service workers or... Really? Who cares? Just do your damn job or get the certification to get the easy job.

A school I worked in years ago had a day at the end of the year for a grand reversal of fortune. High school teachers and paras went to the grade school and elementary people went to the high school. It was done to stop the bitching and it worked.
. --s6

I taught as an adjunct for several years, and at one point I was considered full-time. I mainly taught biology labs, from freshman level bios to junior level micro. Kicker was, to achieve fulltime status, I had to teach 15 course hours/week because adjunct hours only counted for 3/4 what a faculty member's did.

There was a faculty member who had my same qualifications and job teaching, but was paid much better and only had to teach 12 hours worth of labs per week. He also did not have to reapply yearly like I did. When I was offered a faculty job, it was like a vacation. I made twice and much and didn't have to work nearly as hard. (That's not to say it's like that everywhere, but only in my specific situation.)

I understand adjuncts are typically people like me with only a M.S and not a PhD, but seriously. We are teaching the same material to the same students, but the discrepancy in pay/hoopla to go through implies adjuncts offer a second rate education. Which is just a peachy feeling.

Academic elitism still goeth strong.

The only thing that sucks more than adjunct-ing is being a TA--they have to pay tuition to keep their job. So the university gets pretty much all their money back.

I didn't realize all this! You'd think most universities make enough tuition money to offer more. Tuition is so damned high.

My uni in the US didn't use adjuncts for the degrees I took, except for some of the language classes. They got the rock-star professors in the field and certainly must have spent a ton on them. It reminded me of our rock-star chef in one restaurant I worked in, where he got the 15% 'service charge' on bills, not the servers.

It worked for me at that school, because I wouldn't have stayed at that small uni had the degrees been more mundane. That sounds awful, probably, but it's true!

Shadow_Ferret said:

I don't even know what an adjunct is. The university I went to had teaching assistants (TAs) and I thought they were just students working toward their upper level degrees, picking up some quick cash and teaching exoerience by helping the professors.

Is an adjunct different?

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Oh, absolutely. I doubt that every American university uses them, but they have become increasingly important in the past two decades or so. Adjunct instructors, of whom I are one, are basically semi-faculty, people hired to teach classes, nothing more, without any level of further faculty advancement available, and few (if any) other privileges beyond a paycheck. As an example, i don't even get a parking permit for the lots on the main campus. Fortunately, I seldom need to go there, as I teach at one of the satellite facilities 15 miles away, where parking is free.

It suits some people better than others. For me, it's a semi-retirement part-time gig, and I really enjoy the interaction with students. I make enough money to make it worth the time. Do I get paid what tenured faculty get paid? Christ, no. But I never expected that, so I understood the turf I walked on from the outset, seven years ago. And I'm not required to go to faculty meetings, or do personnel evaluations, or write grant proposals for funding, or even publish academically (though I do that, because I like to; I never list the university as my affiliation for their credit).

But I certainly don't claim that my current situation is what every other adjunct instructor across the nation is experiencing. Mileage varies widely from place to place, and I have no doubt that some universities abuse adjuncts in ways that really are reprehensible. And I am acquainted with a couple of people for whom their adjunct instructor job is their major source of income, which is saddening. But I think that's an individual situation, not one blamable on the university.

Some universities abuse tenured faculty in ways that are reprehensible, too.

caw