From the News: Highly-Paid Whores...

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Adjunct professors and staff members at Columbus State Community College will be getting an overall 3.6 percent salary hike.

Full story

For a new wage of $46.30 per hour, in fact.

But let's look at the overall figures.

It's likely that per hourly wage is for "face time" only and does not include syllabus planning, class preparation, grading tests and papers, mandatory office hours and meetings, etc., so let's parse this out:

1 course = 3 hours per week.

3 hours x $46.30 = $138.90

Let's say that, on average, The Whore teaches three classes, so $138.90 x 3 classes = $416.70 per week.

Now there are 15 weeks in a semester, but if you subtract two weeks for vacations and holidays (because it's highly unlikely that Adjunct Whores get paid vacations), that leaves 13 weeks of pay: 13 weeks x $416.70 = A whopping $5,417.10 per semester.

$5,417.10 x 2 =

* * * $10,832.20 per year* * *

Let's be conservative and say that The Whore spends 31 hours a week prepping, keeping mandatory "office hours," grading, etc. + 9 hours of face time. This equals 40 hours of work:

26 weeks x 40 hours per week = 1,040 hours per year

$10,832.20 divided by 1,040 = $10.42 an hour

Slightly over minimum wage.

The reality is, Adjunct Whores probably put in more time than that, more like 50 hours: 26 weeks x 50 hours per week = 1,300 hours per year:

$10,832.20 annual salary divided by 1,300 hours per year = $8.33 per hour, barely minimum wage

Most adjunct whores hold at least a Master's degree, so this demonstrates very clearly how much community colleges value their contingent workers.

Here's a question for you: When was the last time you lived on slightly under $11,000 per year for your 18 years of education?

Raise your hand, or COMMENT below.

One other thing, if an Adjunct Whore spreads her Academic legs for more than one college, university, or community college, her pay per hour nearly doubles or triples accordingly.

Why?

Because those 40-50 hours are now divided among two or three institutions. For example, it is nearly physically impossible to work 150 hours a week if one freeway flies to three different institutions.

Let's say The Whore is teaching at three institutions (which is not all that unusual). Add to that 50 hours for the first institution another 18 hours of face time + 2 office hours = (for which a freeway flyer cannot skimp), for a grand total of 70 hours per week. Let's assume that The Whore is pulling down a yearly salary of $40,000.

Sounds like a lot of money, doesn't it?

Let's look at the figures:

70 hours per week x 26 weeks per year = 1,820 hours per year.

$40,000 divided by 1,820 = $22.00 per hour

Not bad, huh?

But consider this:

It is likely that the Adjunct Whore is paying her own health insurance and paying into her own pension plan (however, it is unlikely she can afford to do this). In addition, travel costs are involved (gas, depreciation, car repairs), especially if her institutions are far apart.

The Adjunct Whore has only so much energy, so she begins cutting corners, which results in negative student evaluations, for example,

"My professor was never available."

"We met in the parking lot, sitting in the professor's car."

"My professor seemed distracted and ill-prepared."

"My professor was always rumpled and in a hurry."

And so it goes.

In the end, there are three losers:

The Adjunct Whore

The institution

The students.

The institution may crunch the numbers and see a perfect way of cutting costs, but, in the end, they are offering their students (their paying customers) a shoddy product.

We are ALL losers, I'm afraid.

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