June 17

Waiting 20 Years for the Tenure Track

This summer, many of those fresh out of graduate school are preparing to begin their teaching careers. A fortunate few have already been hired to fill tenure-track positions, but many will find themselves on the unexpected and convoluted pathway of “contingent faculty.” With 70 percent or more of college classes taught by part-time faculty, the opportunities for full-time careers are rare. Many will accept part-time teaching assignments with the hope that it will build their résumés and be a step closer to the tenure track. At least that was what I thought when I accepted my first part-time teaching assignment. For me, when I was recently offered a full-time, tenure-track position as an English composition instructor at Green River Community College, it was the end of a 20-year journey.

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That journey started was when I accepted my first part-time teaching assignment. I was already working as a graduate assistant for Eastern New Mexico University, but the class I was offered was on another campus, and I felt that “my foot was in the door.” Even though accepting the class meant a 90-mile commute (each way) from Portales to Roswell, I knew it would be worth it because it would look good on my vitae.

In the last 20 years, I’ve taught on 12 different campuses for 8 colleges in 2 states. Never on the tenure track. At first, I held on to the hope that each part-time assignment meant that “my foot was in the door,” and each time I found myself being turned down for full-time positions but continuously offered classes as a part-timer.

I kept applying, but my attitude went from thinking, “this is the year that it will happen” to feeling that my chances were slightly better than the odds of my winning the lottery. Eventually, I quit trying to figure out why I wasn’t getting a full-time position. It was simply not healthy for me to be worrying about it all the time.

To be honest, I couldn’t help but feel a little resentment toward those who did get the full-time positions, and I felt frustrated with the members of the hiring committees who made the decision.

I would remind myself that I shouldn’t resent someone just because they got what I wanted. In their shoes, I wouldn’t want them resenting me. And, as far as the people making the decisions — I eventually developed an appreciation for the position they are in. After all, there are a lot of applicants like me who have years of experience and training, and we all worked with the faculty who were making the decisions. I realized how difficult it would be to have to choose from among a group of people you knew and respected — at least I’ve always hoped that I had the respect of my colleagues.

I became convinced that the real problem was there simply weren’t enough opportunities.

Gradually, I began to see myself as a “professional part-time instructor.” At one time, I had business cards printed that showed a pawn in one corner and said, “Freelance Faculty – Have Degree, Will Travel.” I know it sounds a little corny, but calling myself a part-timer when I actually taught almost twice as many classes as most full-time professors didn’t seem accurate. Calling myself “a contingent faculty member” was more accurate, but I didn’t like admitting that I could lose my job at the whim of an administrator. Adjunct sounds a little better, and that’s the term I currently use, but at the time I was still trying to hold on to a romantic view of what I was doing.

During my 20-year stint as a part-timer, I built a repertoire of horror stories like thousands of other part-timers. One college announced that I would no longer be needed there because my students complained about my forcing them to read pornography in the class. The books they referred to were Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Louise Erdrich’s Tracks, and John Irving’s The World According to Garp. When I pointed out that these books were on reading lists for classes taught by others, I was told, “Yes, but they have tenure so I can’t do anything about it.”

The dean pointed out that I wasn’t being fired, I would simply not be offered classes.

At another college, I was called in by my supervisor to discuss my “poor student evaluations.” Out of 60 students in 2 classes, 3 had given me low ratings and 2 had added comments. When I asked about the other 57 students, I was told, “Students usually say positive things because they don’t want to mess with the evaluations. We just ignore those, but we do pay attention to the ones who complain. Obviously, there must be a problem or they wouldn’t have complained.”

I pointed out that student evaluations are notoriously unreliable when assessing a teacher’s effectiveness and offered to provide her with research that would help her use the evaluations to identify trends rather than basing her judgment on anecdotes. She informed me that my services would no longer be required.

And then there are the classes we lose every year because of cancellations. Sometimes they are canceled because they have low enrollment. Other times, my class would be fine but a full-timer’s class would be canceled and I would be bumped so he or she could have a full load.

The insecurity is the worst thing about being a part-timer, but there are other things that make life difficult. Typically, I teach a double load in the fall (six classes) because I know I won’t have classes for the summer. During the spring I have to hustle to get four classes, and during the summer I apply for unemployment. Some years, things go smoothly, other years I have to fight to get it.

After 20 years of experience, my income fluctuated between $33,000 and $40,000 a year, depending on whether I had classes canceled for low-enrollment (which would cost me about $3,000) or if I were able to get summer classes. Most of the time, my income was on the lower end.

When I began, health care simply wasn’t made available to part-time faculty. By the time I started teaching in Washington State, health care was available for part-time faculty as long as we taught 50 percent of a full-time load in the state-supported college system. That meant that I could count on having health care for two quarters, and possibly a third if things worked out for the spring. Seldom did I have coverage in the summer. Eventually, after a class-action lawsuit, coverage was made available year around as long as we average a 50 percent load.

Everything becomes complicated when you are trying to survive as a part-time instructor. You develop a tendency to answer yes to every question that begins, “Can you teach...“ After awhile, though, you begin to realize that you may be hurting yourself by doing so – accepting one class at one school may mean not being available to teach two classes at another. Accepting a class at a private college won’t count toward your benefits.

A typical day begins when I leave my house at 7:00 a.m., and ends at about 10:30 p.m. when I get home after teaching an evening course.

In the beginning, when I believed that getting a part-time position was the first step to getting a full-time position, I made the mistake of getting a couple of credit cards and financing a car. I soon discovered payments that seem reasonable in the fall are impossible during the summer.

Even dealing with my debts has become routine – I set up payment plans in September, fall behind in May, and find myself in default by July, which adds interest and penalties. I still owe more than I borrowed on debts that are more than 10 years old. It’s humiliating, and I keep getting lectures about how I should budget myself better, but how do you create a budget on a deficient income that changes every quarter?

In the beginning, I saw myself as a teacher, but eventually, I saw myself as a part-timer. Instead of being the conditions that I worked under, it became part of my identity.

Some have asked why I continued to teach as a part-timer if things were so tough, and to be honest, every spring I begin asking myself that same question. In fact, I have left teaching twice. The first time I was offered a position as a business manager for a corporation that owns travel stops throughout the Southwest. The money was good, the hours were close to what I would put in as a part-time instructor (counting prep time and time grading papers), and I had benefits.

I hated it.

There is something about teaching that keeps pulling me in. I love writing, and I love sharing my passion for it with my students. I love feeling that I might be making a positive difference in people’s lives. I love feeling like I’m contributing something to my community.

The first time I left teaching, I stayed away for one year. The second time, I resisted the call for two years. Twelve years ago I moved to the Seattle area, landed teaching jobs at three different schools, and have been performing the juggling act of a freeway flyer ever since.

So, when I was finally offered a full-time, tenure track position last Thursday, I spent two days walking around in a daze. People ask me how it feels, and I don’t know how to respond. Fantastic! Great! Stupendous!

And there’s a little bit of guilt.

I can’t help but think of the thousands of colleagues who didn’t get a full-time position this year. I’m sure there are several who will resent me because I did, and I can understand how they feel. After all, I’ve felt the same way every year for 20 years.

I also feel that I will be carrying a great responsibility on my shoulders. I have been actively working on the Faculty And College Excellence (FACE) Campaign of the American Federation of Teachers, and I am one of 20 in the State of Washington who will receive a full-time position as a result of the campaign this fall. People will be watching, and I’m going to have to show that converting part-time positions to full-time will make a positive difference not only in my life, but for my college as well.

On a more personal note, as soon as I accepted the position, my division chair started talking to me about the classes I will be teaching next year, and I realized that I will no longer have to worry about having enough classes to survive. I also realized that I will probably be home by 5:00 p.m. every day, and I’ll no longer have to make that daily rush to get from one college to the next.

I was also asked about which committees I might be interested in serving on and was told that I would be given a list of students that I will be advising next year. I could almost feel my connection to the college become stronger, and I realized that my relationships with my students will extend beyond the classroom.

The division chair also explained that I would be involved in curriculum development and told me to start thinking about a class that I would like to teach. Later that day, a couple of my colleagues told me how rewarding it was to teach coordinated study classes, and I realized another door is now open to me.

As I was riding the bus home, I realized that it might be time for me to get a car. My income will be dependable enough for me to develop a budget, take care of my old bills, and pull myself out of debt.

One of my friends received a full-time position, and when I asked him what it was like, he answered by telling me how many poems he’s written. He said that it’s not only a matter of having time to do it, but it’s more a matter of feeling better about himself and his life.

I’m just beginning to understand what he meant.

Phil Ray Jack was a part-time English composition instructor at Green River Community College, in Auburn Washington, for 10 years before being offered a full-time position. He also serves there as the president of the faculty union, the first part-timer elected to such a position for a faculty local in the State of Washington.

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Comments

What an amazing story of dedication to your life’s calling. Congratulations Phil!

Jay Collier, Director of College Relations at Wayne State College, at 9:25 am EDT on June 17, 2008

Congrats!

Congratulations, Phil! Maybe there’s hope for the rest of us part-timers out there! I’ve struggled with this for years!

Unfortunately, though, your story is all too common, as we all know, and demonstrates first-hand what is wrong with higher ed today, and why tenure is important—contrary to what some of the nay-sayers on this web site think.

Steve, at 9:30 am EDT on June 17, 2008

“He’s not going to leave his wife”

While I feel awful for so many adjuncts stuck on that dire merry-go-round, I also want to shake them. As with everyone who keeps telling Carrie Fisher’s character in ‘When Harry Met Sally’, “He’s not going to leave his wife", I want to shout “They’re not going to hire you full time.” As long as there is an overabundance of PhDs willing to take the adjunct slots, departments will fill them, content to wait for someone with a fancy name on their degree to fill the permanent slots.

I congratulate Prof Jack; his ultimate success, is extraordinary. I urge others, however, to remember that it was truly extra-ordinary, and consider him the exception that proves the rule.

Ric, at 10:25 am EDT on June 17, 2008

Like tenure? Then pay for it yourself

” .. tenure is important — contrary to what some of the nay-sayers on this web site think.”

A view from outside the Ivory Tower — times are hard. The USA isn’t the only economic superpower, we’re really competing now. Costs and taxes rising everywhere.

A tenure system is expensive. Every tenured employee — yes, employees, for those not volunteering their time — can be a taxpayer commitment of $2,000,000.00+ over 25+ years.

The tenure system’s output is questionable. Employers note serious deficiencies in basic skills and work habits. There’s no accountability on outcomes — no rewards, no penalties. “Too many colleges” is an oft-heard phrase.

Want the public’s financial support? Then earn it. Anything less isn’t sustainable.

Frank, at 10:35 am EDT on June 17, 2008

We do pay

Frank,

What makes you think we _don’t_ pay for it ourselves? A quick check of Monster.com shows my skill set is worth $250,000 a year with a hedge fund. I assure you I don’t make anywhere near that. I pay A LOT of money for my tenure. If you’re going to use an economic argument, you need to analyze the complete system.

Ric, at 12:05 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

As a former adjunct myself, I know how hard that life can be, and I am glad that the school where I teach has such a good record—because of our strong union history—of hiring adjuncts “in house.” I congratulate you on your tenacity and hard work. Unfortunately, the inequity of the two-tiered academic system pits adjuncts against one another and sometimes creates animosity between those who should be comrades, working together to eliminate the exploitation of part-time labor. It’s more of the same: divide and conquer. Best of luck in your new job, Phil. I know you won’t forget where you’re coming from.

Eric, at 12:45 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Hasn’t Frank noticed that private universities still seem to believe in the tenure system even though no one is forcing them to do so? Might that have anything to do with the fact that schools who drop tenure would have a tougher time recruiting the best faculty (and might even have to raise salaries to compensate)? Professors’ salaries and working conditions are market-driven every bit as much as those of corporate CEOs. In both cases, if people weren’t “earning” what they get, they wouldn’t be getting it. Perhaps someday Frank will become a conservative and learn to respect the wisdom of the market.

Tired of professor-bashing, at 1:35 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Congratulations Brother Phil

Having spent the last year lobbying for conversions of part-time to full-time positions in Washington State, this story about Phil is exactly why I care so much about this issue. My interaction with contingent workers over the past 30 years has sensitized me to the horrible treatment they have endured. It is amazing that despite this treatment they continue to provide quality education to our students. Why then do the colleges fail to provide them with job security and promotion to tenure track positions? Basically the answer is simple because the law doesn’t require it. Isn’t it sad that when leaving the administrators to decide the treatment that they resort to the mal treatment of our faculty. My goal is to change this and to pursue a course of action that will unify our faculty to pressure the administration, State Board, and legislature to negotiate job security and promotion to full-time positions. To the Union and the Green River Community College Administration I commend you on doing the right thing and that is honoring our contingent workers with job security language in your contract. Phil, hats off to you on your tenure track position, you are a good Union person, a strong advocate of contingent workers and an exceptional Teacher. AFT—"Americas Finest Teachers”

Dr. Bernal C. Baca, Lobbyist at AFTWA, at 1:35 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Teaching as an adjunct is a great part-time gig, but I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to live off it as a more-than-full-time endeavor. I teach one course per term online, and while I enjoy it and plan to continue, after taxes it’s basically just beer money.

Not that I resent the full timers — at my institution, I couldn’t get by very well on a full time position and don’t know how they do it. I expect one can only eat ramen for so long before it’s time to stop ignoring what the job market is telling you.

Sue Donna Moss, Adjunct Instructor at Small Mid-Western College, at 1:35 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

I cannot fathom this guy’s career track—it really boggles the mind.

I guess I worked in the private sector too long before I went back for my PhD. I know I can always go back to making twice what Phil made as an adjunct when I was picking up 6 months worth of contracts a year doing this and that as a contractor and consultant.

If I don’t get a tenure track job out of my PhD, well I enjoyed the process, but I am not going to be wage slave adjunct teacher. Anyone smart enough to get a PhD should be able to develop a wide range of marketable skills in no time.

I got into the PhD because I wanted a research degree. I want to do research in my field. If all you want to do is teach you can get teaching degree and get a job in a high school—they have decent benefits and pensions in many jurisdictions.

CEM, at 2:10 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Dr. Baca, as someone who adjuncts, I can assure you I don’t “endure horrible treatment". I suppose that many would say that the pay is pretty low when considered on an hourly basis, but the way you put makes it sound worse than the Bataan Death March.

It seems to me that most adjunct positions don’t have benefits or security because they’re specifically designed to be part time positions where the instructor is mainly an active practitioner in the real world. And that’s perfectly fine, as it means students will be exposed to views both from researchers and from practitioners. I know my students benefit from my professional experience. Hooray, right?

In my part time foray into academia I’ve noticed that many university faculty seem extremely resistant to the idea that they’re as subject as anyone else to the laws of supply and demand. If you’re an adjunct and you don’t like the deals you’re getting, take your labor elsewhere. If no one wants to pay you to do stuff, consider that your skills may not be genuinely useful in the real world. Similarly, if you want a full time position and can’t find one, either there’s something wrong with you, or you simply chose to study something where so many people have come before you that there’s little chance you’ll be able to compete.

And if that’s so, no problem, take a semester or two and pick up 18 credits of Accounting or Finance or do an AACSB bridge program. You’ll surely find a tenure track gig after that if that’s your goal.

Sorry if you don’t like the market, but the alternative would be that just because someone has a graduate degree means they’re entitled to a cushy job in the ivory tower. You can pass all the laws you want, but that turkey won’t fly.

Sue Donna Moss, Adjunct Instructor at Small Mid-Western College, at 2:15 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Contingent diversity

First, Congratulations to Phil Ray Jack (that is a librarians’ nightmare name, of course, with inverted headings and all). Your love of teaching must reap rewards with your students. And hooray to Washington State and the AFT FACE campaign, along with Co-Cal, NEA and AAUP and the many persistant organizations, union and otherwise, which have begun advocating and clamoring for fairness and equity. Our small midwestern colleague, who suggests the AACSB as a means of bridging employment,actually underscores one of the persistant issues within the contingent workforce/faculty—diversity of interests and impetus for teaching part-time in the first place. Those who teach part-time and have full-time employment, benefits and/or a spouse or partner offtering same, great!! For those who pursued credentials because they were attracted by the life of the mind and academia—hang in there. The corporate models of off-shoring, contracting out and temping everything in order to “save” enough to pay the Manager/ Administrators “corporate-competitive” salaries. For many, continuted employment in the disciplines they love (and for which AACSB will do little) is indeed like a death march, for others a day at the park—we all need to celebrate this type of success as it will only bolster better and more full-time faculty to teach, to learn, to serve (to borrow from the old motto for the State University of New York). And, while we work to implement FACE, we can argue over the value and future of tenure, post-tenure review, open contracts, merit and across-the-board increases. Once more, I celebrate this change in status and wish Professor Jack a long and happy career at Green River.

Patricia W. “Patty” Bentley, at 3:15 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Another academic who thinks he’s entitled to other people’s money because the world needs his sterling mind. Ho hum.

mike, at 3:15 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

It’s great that Phil Ray Jack will be starting a full-time tenure-track position and that the commitment he has always had to his students and to curriculum development is being officially recognized by his college.

He mentions that he was fortunate enough, unlike most contingent faculty across the country, to have had health benefts. It’s important to remember that thousands of faculty in Washington who have not yet and probably never will get one of those few tenure-track positions at least have health benefits—thanks to the dedication and hard work of Keith Hoeller.

Elizabeth Hoffman, at 3:50 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

To Frank and Mike,

I’m a bit confused at the venom here.

You complain about a $2 million commitment over 25 years? That comes out to 80K annually...more than many people make these days, true, but how many of those people spent 10-ish years in school to get there? Anyone that thinks professors are just being handed money for no reason has a very narrow view. I’ll grant you that the tenure system needs some revision, and I agree that there needs to be increased accountability in some cases, but to generalize and imply that all those who hold tenure aren’t performing up to snuff is not only unfair, it’s unfounded.

And Mike, whenever you get paid for working you’re being handed other people’s money. Isn’t that kind of how it works?

confused, at 4:10 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Reply

” .. What makes you think we don’t pay for it ourselves? A quick check of Monster.com shows ..”

Well, then if there is so much value, public academia should be privatized, with the excess to the public.

And as for Monster.com: if one is worth so much, one ought to leave academia today. Now.

” .. Hasn’t Frank noticed that private universities still seem to believe in the tenure system ..”

Where’s the cite? Where’s the data?

” .. To the Union and the Green River Community College Administration I commend you on doing the right thing ..”

.. and co-opting the union local’s president. A potential wedge between full-timers and part-timers has been driven. Congratulations.

Waiting 20 years for the tenure-track probably affected at least 15% of potential retirement benefits. Never, ever forget to make that calculation.

Frank, at 4:30 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

resentment

Frank, if you need a cite to prove to you that tenure exists at private universities, you probably have scare experience with the college world (I’m judging here also by the level of your grammar and spelling.) As far as the reason for the venom, I’d say that worthless no-talents get the same kind of kick from highly educated adjuncts being reduced to slave labor conditions, as the Napster downloaders (or freeloaders) got a few years ago from musicians not being paid for their work. It sure is soothing for reactive lowly types to see humanity’s best degraded, and simultaneously get away with the fruits of their labor without “paying for it.”

Tom, at 6:10 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

One Step Forward—Congrats, Phil

My hearty congratulations to my friend and activist colleague for change—I’m so happy for you, Phil. Thanks also for sharing your story. It’s a story that plays out again and again and shows what a broken system higher ed has become, all for the sake of saving money. As someone from the private sector has pointed out to me a number of times, if I were to have temporary contracts again and again in their world, I would be paid at a higher rate, not a lower one. It’s a topsy turvy existence.

Phil, you have been an important advocate for your part-time/adjunct colleagues in Washington state, and I know you will continue to be as a full-timer. But it will be different and it will be hard to find someone to step into the spot that you leave vacant to concentrate on your new responsibilities. Best of luck.

Annette Stofer, PT/Adjunct at Seattle area college, at 7:45 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Mazel tov, Phil. It took me 13 years, and I had to move to another state, but I know the feeling.

Judith, at 9:45 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

“part time'’ usually means “only teaching'’

Many people have commented on what a misnomer “part time instructor'’ can be. What “part time'’ usually seems to mean in academics is “only teaching,'’ as opposed to administration or research. I think this is the root of the lack of respect given to “part timers'’ (who might be working sixtyor eighty conscientious hours a week at teaching), a misguided view that administrators and researchers are a higher class.

Ralph deLaubenfels, at 9:45 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Waiting 20 Years...

Congratulations: it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving adjunct. Nearing twenty years on the adjunct track myself, I’m no longer applying for FT jobs that open up at the institutions I’ve been serving, because despite the kind of new opportunities you mention, I don’t just want the chance to start in at square one on a new track. I hope you got at least some credit for time served.

steve street, adjunct lecturer at buffalo state college (SUNY), at 9:45 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Good job Mr. Jack, it is about time, you will do better than fine. We are all quite proud of you. Mr. Corry

Glen Corry, at 9:45 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

Health benefits

Keith Hoeller has been a strong voice for part-time issues, but I want to make sure that the record is straight. Health benefits for part-time faculty working over half load in Washington State were secured by activists in the 1970’s. In the 80’s coverage was expanded so that work could be cumulated at more than one college. In the 90’s, through the work of Wendy Rader-Konofalski, a union lobbyist, a section was put into law defining how a load must be calculated by a college so that more people were covered.

Keith’s contribution was to go with a few other part-timers to a law firm to suggest that coverage should be expanded over the summer in some cases. The firm took up the case, called the Mader suit, and after much hard work on the part of some very good attorneys, eventually settled it so that coverage was again expanded. In short, health coverage here was the product of the work of many, many people.

But also congrats to Phil and the other part-timers who will benefit from the work of Washington activists this time.

Washington, at 9:45 pm EDT on June 17, 2008

confused,I don’t begrudge him his salary. I’m sick of his sense that he is entitled to tenure or anything else. You sell your skills and get what the market bears. His sense that he is somehow deserving of a tenure track position or that he is being taken advantage of becasue he is not getting guaranteed employment is the issue. If he gets it , great. But if not, don’t complain. No one owes it to him or you. This attitude makes him part of the problem in this country, not part of the solution.

mike, at 11:50 am EDT on June 18, 2008

congrats!

Congrats, Phil, on all your hard work! Your story gives us part-timers hope!

leslie, Graduate Research Assoc., at 12:35 pm EDT on June 18, 2008

Upward Mobility

While it’s personally beneficial for Mr. Jack to attain a full-time position, the real problem is the unequal system that allows most long-time experienced teachers to be treated as second class. The artificially tiered system of adjunct/tenured itself is the problem. Publicly celebrating the instances of upward mobility in this system is self-defeating for any self-respecting academic labor movement.

Doug Collins, instructor at Seattle CC District, at 1:10 pm EDT on June 18, 2008

mike, based on your comment about “what the market will bear,” you have a crude and defective idea about how the “market” works. American common sense is largely based on propaganda spouted by elite plutocrats to cover a political system that serves their interests very well. The propaganda states that there are impersonal forces determining how much things being exchanged are valued, and whatever these impersonal forces determine is the value of those things is either just or futile to oppose. In reality, the system is based on personal interactions, directly affected by power differentials. The majority of the workers who create most of the value with their labor have the ability to bargain for a higher valuation of their product through strikes, unions and the demand that those who are willing to commit violence legally (police and military) listen to their will via democracy. Usually, however, the elites, who add some value with their organizational labor, use the obedience of the police and military to keep the majority’s power latent. The elites’ purpose is to seize as much of the value produced by the majority as possible. The customers then choose products from within the constrained choices produced by the elites’ system. The author is merely asserting (arguing really) that more of the value he produces should make its way back to him in the form of greater (not absolute) job security.

To put this in terms of contingent labor, elites, as donors, order their political flunkies to cut taxes on the wealthy and, as trustees, order their administrative flunkies to stress the majority of academic laborers by taking away job security and paying them lower wages each year. Administrators are then free to spend the value that moves to the top on money-losing sports programs (entertainment for the elites and marketing devices for corporations like Nike), on construction firms owned by local elites (it’s more profitable to build crappy new buildings than to maintain existing infrastructure), on unnecessary — but wildly expensive — technology, on forcing students (including “student-athletes") to work for sub-living wages, and a whole host of other projects that serve their interests. Whether these projects actually serve the interests of lower- and middle-class Americans is beside the point.

Your attitude is directly contributory to the 30-year erosion of the American economy and standard-of-living. High tuitions, declining educational quality and the intellectual blinders that those like you wear are only the academic side of the coin.

Unemployed Academic, Market (Non)Sense, at 5:10 pm EDT on June 18, 2008

Upward Activism

“Publicly celebrating the instances of upward mobility in this system is self-defeating for any self-respecting academic labor movement.”

On the other hand, publically celebrating the success of activism in the academic labor movement can motivate other people like Phil, who are currently in those “second-class” positions, to become more active in making positive change. Two activities must go hand-in-hand: increasing the number of stable full-time positions and improving pay for part-time positions. We’ll need a lot of active people to move those issues forward.

This story isn’t about just Phil. It is about the hundreds of faculty in Washington who wrote, called, and got on buses to help convince the legislature to provide the funds for the job conversions.

It is easy to be a critic. It is hard to be an activist who gives up personal time and energy to advance solidarity.

Washington, at 9:05 pm EDT on June 18, 2008

Phil has written a letter which certainly sums up all the situation of adjunct faculty who got into teaching as a profession. Of course Phil’s now in a different level, and the question remains of how unsuccessful the FACE legislation was. As feared, the legislation only helped a smattering of the majority of faculty in our colleges. 75% are still mis-classified as “part time.” Many of us notice that adjuncts who work with the union often get a full-time job. Those who oppose discriminatory treatment, and oppose the ineffective FACE legislation, do not get full-time jobs. We often are yelled at by union members, or lose our jobs. Those of us who opposed FACE knew that it was another weak bill designed to keep most of adjuncts still treated as less than full-time. Adjuncts do much more than teach. WE do meet with students, whether or not we are paid; we do serve on committees and develop curriculum, even if we receive no money; we do community service, and we research and present, often at national and international events. People must realize that this situation is not only immoral, but illegal. That is why Keith Hoeller and some of us searched for literally years before we found attorneys who took the case. Keith “suggested” nothing. Keith flat out told the attorneys, as he has told the unions and the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges, and the Washington State Legislature, that the situation is illegal. It’s still discrimination, and in violation of Washington State Law. We all deserve freedom of speech and academic freedom. Only 25% of us get it. Without Keith’s work, and the tireless work of so many others, we would not have summer health care, or retirement benefits. At every step of the way, the SBCTC, the college administrations, and the unions, and sometimes the full-time faculty themselves are against giving equal treatment to all faculty. While I wish I could be happy about Phil’s new life, I only feel a loss and bitterness for the 75% who were once again trashed by something like FACE. Teresa KnudsenPlaintiff, Mader v. Health Care Authority

Teresa Knudsen, at 9:05 pm EDT on June 18, 2008

Unemployed Academic,Your name says it all. There’s plenty of opportunity out there. Re-invent yourself and go where the action is. Adjust to change. Do your academics, if that’s what you love, on your own time. And leave out the class warfare, it just sounds silly.

mike, at 8:40 am EDT on June 19, 2008

To what do you object in my post, Mike? This is an important question because the advocates of change in the failed educational model need to know how to reach people like you. The author of this article was accepted as an academic by multiple institutions over 20 yrs. before obtaining a tenure-track position. Obviously, he was good enough to be hired to do academic work. Obviously, there was more than enough full-time work to go around. Why did it take so long for him to find a tenure-track position?

Unemployed Academic, at 6:50 am EDT on June 21, 2008

Unemployed, My objections are as followed: 1. I’m a free marketeer. You have no “rights” to tenure or even a job. Go get tenure if you can. Go get a job if you can. Or else switch fields. No one owes you anything. 2. Tenure was a system created to insure academic freedom. But today, in the era of near uniformly leftest professors and university speech codes and “free speech zones” there is no academic freedom. So professors neither need nor deserve tenure. Especially at public universities. 3. Universities are increasingly places where impressionable students come to be indoctrinated, not educated. 4. As an employer,I give preference in hiring to people that have not attended university. Military or tech school is what I look for. I get a better quality of human being. 5. Academics showed what morally weak people they are in the 1960’s when they caved to student radicallism. I have almost no respect for academics anymore. 6. Smug, self centered, self righteous and “entitled” are the words I associate with academics today.

So convince me you “deserve” guranteed lifetime employment. Go ahead.

mike, at 6:50 am EDT on June 22, 2008

Mike,

I honestly wonder why hostile individuals such as yourself bother to read and subsequently to post vitriolic comments on websites like these, which cater specifically to academics. Certainly, a “constructive exchange of ideas, differing views, etc” are encouraged here. However, you have consistently ignored the many substantive rebuttals raised by other commenters. You opt instead to continue hammering, without elaboration, your one, potentially fruitful point. This is neither a “constructive exchange of ideas” nor even communication at its most basic level.

Also, I fail to see how points #3 through #6 of your latest post merit a response; they merely constitute attacks upon what you see as a uniform body of intellectual elitism. Especially offensive was #4, wherein you insinuate that academics are a poorer quality of human being (subhuman?).

Nevertheless, I would like to inquire about point #2. Are you contending that academic freedom does *not* exist because all academics are “leftest” [sic] and are therefore, somehow, inherently protected in their solidarity from administrators? That speech codes and free speech zones have more to do with professors than with students?

To approach this matter from another angle: how is it that academic freedom or even educational honesty can exist without the system of tenure? I do not mean to instigate a firestorm of off-topic controversy, but I was struck by the disconcerting implications of a story imparted in Professor Jack’s article:

“One college announced that I would no longer be needed there because my students complained about my forcing them to read pornography in the class. The books they referred to were Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings... When I pointed out that these books were on reading lists for classes taught by others, I was told, “Yes, but they have tenure so I can’t do anything about it.””

Since when do works by Maya Angelou qualify as pornography? The sheer travesty that an educator would be bumped from the classroom for teaching Maya Angelou boggles my mind. In my eyes, it is a testament to why tenure, albeit perhaps a flawed system, still serves a purpose in safeguarding education (and, thereby, the interests of the students) from private agendas and disingenuous censors. Even if there are other ways to provide such safeguards without tenure, the point remains that education and the research upon which it is predicated becomes vulnerable to pernicious influence in a true “free market” environment. Is this really the direction in which we want to head?

Congratulations again, Phil.

Basil, Doctoral Student in History, at 1:40 pm EDT on June 22, 2008

Mike, thanks for your response, although your comments are obviously based on an ideology that would require more space to respond to than this forum can provide. I would, therefore, offer only a few points for consideration.

First, the author seems to value his new tenure-track appointment for two main reasons: 1) he will gain some academic freedom and 2) he will not have to cobble together several part-time positions in order to live. Of the two, the latter seems to be the overwhelming cause of his dissatisfaction with his previous employment status and the focus of his efforts in FACE, etc. You should know, if you don’t already, that most universities employ legions of academics as part-timers. These include people with Ph.D.s like the author, who often get paid as little as $1,000-1,500 per course, and graduate students, who are often paid around $10,000-15,000 per year with the requirement that they cannot take another job. Like WalMart executives, corporate university administrators want to externalize as much of the costs of supporting their workforce onto other segments of society (chiefly small businesses and others who lack the political clout to avoid paying taxes). It doesn’t make much sense financially, since exhausted employees are prone to mistakes and lower productivity per hour, but it does make sense politically: exhausted workers do not generally have the time or energy to participate in politics. The vast majority of the efforts to improve academic laborers’ job situation has gone to securing full-time employment and the attendant benefits for “contingent” (non-tenurable) faculty. I interpreted the author’s emotion at his new job status primarily as relief for having obtained full-time employment at one institution.

Second, tenure is not equivalent to a sinecure. Tenure means that one can only be fired for cause (failing in described duties) rather than for external factors, such as an executive’s desire to temporarily inflate a corporation’s stock value on the next quarterly report (there is, however, an exception for financial exigency — whole departments can, and have, been eliminated). Now, it is true that few tenured faculty are actually dismissed. This may be because, as corporate administrators constantly fulminate, the guild takes care of its own. It could also, however, be because of the extraordinarily long probationary period to which academics are subjected. First, one is a graduate student for an average of 5-9 years, depending upon the field (in my humanities field, only about 40% of those who begin graduate school actually receive the Ph.D.). Then, again depending upon the field, one holds a series of short-term jobs for a period of 1-6 years on average. Then, the fortunate few (20% of those who enter graduate school in my field) are on probation for another 6 or 7 years before finally going up for tenure review. Nationwide, the figure I have seen is that 70% of faculty are non-tenurable. Although many complain about “deadwood,” this system (coupled with the miserable salaries) might be filtering out most of the deadwood before tenure: you usually don’t get tenure unless you are committed to the work.

Finally, I have often heard the refrain that academics choose their work and should, therefore, not complain about their status. This statement is akin to the tired conservative slogan, “America — love it or leave it.” In response, I would point out that this sentiment has not stopped conservatives from trying to change the America in which they live. I would also point out that, except for the fortunate top 10% of American society, the average job increasingly includes the same drawbacks about which academics under the corporate thumb complain.

Unemployed Academic, at 5:35 pm EDT on June 22, 2008

Basil,

I’m commenting here because I’m upset at what academics are doing to this country. That’s why. I see a danger, I see problems. You don’t. You can’t even imagine...

“Nevertheless, I would like to inquire about point #2. Are you contending that academic freedom does *not* exist because all academics are “leftest” [sic] and are therefore, somehow, inherently protected in their solidarity from administrators? That speech codes and free speech zones have more to do with professors than with students?”

Yes. Exactly. Ask an openly conservitive person who works in your envirnment what kind of situation they enjoy vis a vis freedom. How about a religous Christian? How about a “global warming denier"? Someone who rejects the premises of virulant feminism? What happens to these people and their careers? Let’s see some “freedom loving” academics rush to defend their rights, rather than rush to protest University of Chicago naming a school after Milton Friedman or rushing to condemn Duke Lacrosse players.

“To approach this matter from another angle: how is it that academic freedom or even educational honesty can exist without the system of tenure?”

Honesty exists when you are honest. You can’t make laws to insure it. Only the character of the people involved insures it.

As for academic freedom, well, why should a leftest academic complain about that? They frequently define ideas that they don’t like as hate speech which should be forbidden. They bring up politics in English or History or Socioloy classes and browbeat their students with their leftest ideas. Do their students have freedom to tell their profs “shut up and teach what yur paid to teach"?

I’m browsing this website to witness the cultural rot of this country, which has its source in universities. That is, I’m slumming. Every now and then I’m just so blown away that I’m moved to comment. This tenure business is just incredible. Who else in the world feels taken advantage of if they don’t recieve lifetime guranteed employment? What opinion must you hold of yourselves? Academics think they are the world’s moral leaders. But they want to be paid for it and they want job security for it. What a joke. [And yes it is a sinecure, that’s why everyone is chasing it so hard. ]

mike, at 8:20 am EDT on June 23, 2008

LOL

This is too precious. Are you reading from one of Bill O’Reilly’s talking points memos? Of course, those lousy Adorno-readin’, Bach-listenin’, PBS-contributin’ academics are out to foment the cultural rot of our great land. Surely instead the red-faced shouters and pundits will raise us from this sorry state to learn to appreciate high culture and all the wonders of the free market. God bless the U$A and Fox News! Down with the “leftests” (sic)!

Fox U student, at 9:30 pm EDT on June 23, 2008

Accomplishment

This is my 3 quarter as one of Phil’s students. I have heard many of his stories and remember most of them. He is a wonderful story teller and really made words come to life for me. After my first quarter with him in English 110, I told all of my friends to sign up for his class. I would tell them how much fun his classes were and how much I enjoyed attending them. Sometimes he spoke of his involvement in the Union and making more full-time positions available. Also, he spoke of commuting from one college to another. Every once in a while he would tell us some of his part-time horror stories (I remember some that were mentioned above). I could never understand why the school didn’t hire him as full time. I realize that there are many things that go into hiring a teacher that I may not know about. I get that, but from a student stand point, Phil Ray Jack is an amazing teacher. I highly recommend taking his classes. He is motivating and uplifting. A true roll model as well as a deserving candidate and recipient for this position. Congratulations Phil!

Chloe Foreman, Student at Green River Community College, at 7:05 pm EDT on June 24, 2008

Great Insight on Adjuncting

This is a wonderful post. It fully describes the feelings, emotions, and anger we adjuncts go through.

This is to all tenured and tenure-track faculty, not just to Phil (I know he works hard to advance adjunct issues), don’t forget those of us still hanging on trying to climb up this ladder.

Congratulations on escaping from adjuncting.

Jim Sizemore, at 12:55 pm EDT on June 30, 2008

Adjunct Faculty

As an adjunct, I have fully enjoyed teaching at the University level. I have developed 3 courses, including a published lab manual, created a course proposal in ethnobotany and instituted an ethnobotany lab for the introductory biology majors series. I have taught at lest 16 different courses many times over, yet, most of the full-time faculty (and the Department Chair) seem to view me and other part-timers as bottom feeders in the Academia food chain.

While I yearn for a career in teaching, I realize that my joyous contribution is nothing more than a job and subject to the whim of the one who schedules the classes. If I am needed, I am asked to teach. If there are graduate students or faculty that need units, then I am pushed aside. I fully understand the economics and the utility that adjucts like myself serve; we fill in the blanks and jump in to rescue every teaching crisis; we are generalists,opportunistic species. Yet,our contribution is often not recognized and seemingly unappreciated. Loyalty is one-sided (we give, they take).

The micromanagement, utilitarian, casualization management practices are a degradation of humanity and are becoming reflected in student attitudes. Many students have become demanding, insisting they should recieve a decent grade if they show up for class and even seem resentful when asked to ‘learn’ something. Students expect lectures to be posted, power point slides to be made available, and have access to extremely specific study guides so that they know exactly what will be on the exam. The love for learning seems to be lost in the endpoint: The Job and the money it will bring.

I am always a bit taken aback when a student tells me that they just want a ‘C’. To be politically correct (so as to keep my job), I have had to drop my grading standards as a few ‘poor student evaluations’ have given the faculty review committe a ‘valid’ reason for non-retention of my contract.

This corporate model is a sign of the times. Fortunately, the community college at which I facilitate has heart and the students seem excited to learn while recognizing that if they don’t do well, it’s not my fault. Yes, I’ve learned to bend over backward and can now do the splits. Wait, there’s more: Chocolates during every exam.

Renee Dutreaux, Environmental Biologist at Mt SAC Community College, at 4:55 pm EDT on July 3, 2008

I have been an adjunct for almost as long as the writer. Unfortunately, I have not gotten the tenure track position. My solution? To file an EEOC complaint — based on age discrimination. I think more exploited adjuncts, especially those who have been doing this for years, should consider litigation.

Anonymous, at 6:20 am EDT on July 5, 2008

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