BIG NEWS: Rate Your Students is No More

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UPDATE

Rumors of their death may have been premature. A note on the site:

As you can see, there is a problem. Somebody is working on it.

Was there a smackdown by Blogger???

I went to catch a few laughs at RYS and found this:



and an empty blog.

It could be one of their numerous stunts, but I wonder. It was getting a bit crazy at the compound, like someone going dipshit ape crazy.

Well, scratch one more site off my stalking list.

R.I.P.

R.Y.S.

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From the News: An Adjunct Whore Who Has Made It...

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At Boston College, Bonnie Jefferson, a former Adjunct, wins a prestigious award as a full timer:

Full story

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From the News: SUSLA to offer two associate degrees online

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Way to go, Southern University-Shreveport of Louisiana (SUSLA), a GREAT start, with those two Adjunct (Whores).

Full Story

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From the News: 3 from Bard among Guggenheim fellows

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Don't you like how institutions trot out their Adjunct Whores when it's to their benefit?

The Full Story

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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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Today's Wisdom

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You can take the adjunct out of the girl or boy, but you can't escape the stink of the whore.

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My Adjunct Whore Story

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First thing you ought to know: overall, my life has not been awful.

I have a great family and have had some impressive professional accomplishments, which, for obvious reasons, I cannot reveal. Suffice to say that I have published some scholarly articles and given awards in my field.

Being an adjunct whore has not diminished those areas of my life, but it has hit my pocketbook and held me back in academe.

Also, I take at least partial responsibility for my current status; I should have taken my career in another direction before it was too late. I could spend the rest of my life lamenting my unfortunate decision, but it is what it is.

See if this sounds at least vaguely familiar.

Ten or fifteen years ago, I was attending a major conference, and I ran into a former colleague, a former adjunct whore who was now unemployed and looking for another adjunct gig. Due to her husband's job, she had moved halfway across the country and was having difficulties finding a job.

At the time, I felt that my college/university was a good employer; adjuncts were given a lot of freedom, in terms of pedagogy, preference in selecting course times and days, and choices in text selection. More importantly, we received support and help if we had difficult students. Back then, colleges and universities were not so "consumer oriented" when it came to retaining students because just about every respectable college and university was on board when it came to maintaining high standards for top grades. Also, it was assumed that college students would be living in modest dorm rooms and eating mystery meat in the cafeteria--none of this blatant posh pandering to spoiled children.

In addition, my student evaluations were decent; the chair did not worry about the occasional disgruntled student. More than that, this chair listened to adjunct suggestions and concerns. Sure, it sucked that we received no benefits or decent pay raises, but there was something to be said for a pleasant workplace with friendly colleagues and a sympathetic chair.

"I wish I would have never left______________," my former colleague said over coffee.

"Yeah, it's a great place to work," I said, beaming. "I'm so fortunate."

Then we got into a discussion about complaining adjuncts and how they "drag" down the department with their negativism. We talked about two individuals in particular, two older women, one long-time adjunct and one fairly new hire. Both had complained of unruly students who misbehaved in class and treated them with disrespect. According to these adjuncts, nothing was being done about their plight.

"M. and S. make their own troubles," I said. "If you do your job in the right way, you have nothing to worry about."

My colleague nodded. We even agreed that tenure was an outdated practice that ought to be banned.

I wasn't about to go to bat for people who couldn't get on board and take control of their classrooms.

They were truly in this alone because the rest of us were not about to "risk" our adjunct capital on two whiners.

Soon, one of the women was fired outright, and the other stayed on, but barely hung on, only to get the ax a few years later while growing too old for the chair's taste.

Two years after that meeting with my former colleague, the climate department changed. My chair stepped down, and the school hired a new one from the outside.

The new chair took an instant dislike to me and a few other older adjuncts, particularly those who dared to ask questions at the mandatory adjunct meetings. Our past chair had welcomed our questions and actually listened to what we had to say. Even if our ideas were not always implemented, we always felt that we had been heard.

The new chair's implicit message soon became clear: "I'll ask for your opinion, but it had better be the right opinion." In short, meetings were held to see who was and wasn't on board with his/her policies, not to elicit true discussion.

It also became clear that he/she preferred adjuncts fresh out of graduate school, young hotties of both sexes, who spent the next several years, coming and going, often giving notice a day before classes were to begin. A small core of "regulars" remained, but we became fragmented and suspicious of each other, long-term friendships cooling and even ending.

We were in this alone, the old camaraderie up in smoke.

Eventually, adjunct meetings became a clusterfuck of nodding yes-women and yes-men, a continuum of the great zipped lip. Staying firmly below the radar became the norm.

At one point, one feisty and ill-advised adjunct even tried to organize an adjunct union, but, by then, the young revolving-door hotties were in the majority and were more interested in getting letters of recommendations for their real upcoming jobs. This rabble-rouser was nearly laughed out of town and, eventually, was out of a job.

So now I'm now the "older" adjunct who must worry about student evaluations and maintaining class decorum without being viewed as the old crotchety adjunct whore who is just plain mean and not fit to teach the "delicate" flowers who populate our classrooms. God help us should we hurt a misbehaving brat's feelings by asking him or her to turn off the GD cell phone or ordering a disruptive asshole out of the classroom. God help us if we punish a plagiarizing cretin by flunking his or her cheating ass.

No doubt, I will soon be called in and given the ax; some bogus reason will be given, but I know for a fact that my age and no-nonsense manner will be the main factors. Yes, it's illegal to discriminate against someone because of age, but adjuncts belong to a special class of workers who are offered contingent contracts as "independent contractors," a contract that binds us to the college/university for the semester but gives them all kinds of loopholes for getting rid of us.

This is why I am in this alone.

We're all in this alone.
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Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Adjunct Whore Life

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Hello.

My first post.

I don't have a lot to say, really. In my intro, I have said just about all there is to say about being an adjunct whore.

It's an all too familiar story.

I settled for scraps. I made a choice when, years ago, I signed that first adjunct contract. I didn't realize what I know now: my institution would never hire me full-time. I was naive and idealistic.

My bad.

Institutions of higher learning that hire adjunct whores are pimps. Sometimes the pimps are benevolent, most often not. In every case, the pimp holds all the Aces.

Even benevolent pimps can turn on you--fair-haired boy or girl one day, and with one change in chair or director, trash the next.

Truths:

--Adjunct Whores do not enjoy academic freedom. Not one iota. I don't give a shit what the AAUP says about adjunct academic freedom; unless a union is involved, there is no adjunct academic freedom. Period. It's a fiction that tenured professors like to tell at conferences.

--You have little or no recourse when someone with power over you decides he/she doesn't like you. Performance in the classroom has nothing to do with it. It's all about personality and politics.

--Students can torpedo your job with one complaint.

--The tenured faculty doesn't give a shit about you, although they may pretend to be sympathetic.

--Working hard is no guarantee you'll keep your job.

You are always overhead, the students profit. Overhead is expendable and replaceable, students are pure gold nuggets, no matter how they behave or perform in your classroom. If you are too hard, you'll lose your job; if you're too easy, you'll lose your job. And you're expected to know how to hit that middle ground, although the middle ground is forever shifting.

If you settle for adjuncting, no matter how much you love academe, you're a fool--I guarantee that you will come to hate the hypocrisy of "higher learning" within a few years, if not sooner.

I recommend that you flip burgers for a living. At least, when you go home, you're done for the day, and you might even get promoted.

But once an adjunct, always an adjunct whore.

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