Flying Standby
By Crystal L. Keels
The life of an adjunct professor can be rewarding but uncertain
The plight of graduate assistants in the academy has repeatedly made headlines in recent years. Just last month, the union representing New York University graduate teaching assistants said it had authorized a strike over the university’s refusal to negotiate a second contract.
Low pay, long hours, numerous teaching responsibilities and few if any health benefits have led these students to strategize, and in some cases unionize, to improve their working conditions.
But many of these teaching assistants have discovered that graduation is not the end of their struggle. Masses of newly minted Ph.D.s searching for increasingly elusive tenure-track positions are discovering that they have become part of a growing contingent on campuses across the country — the adjunct professor.
Shifting conditions in the academy account for the increasing number of doctorates teaching in adjunct roles rather than in full-time, tenure-track positions, and much of it has to do with economics.
