Advice to a Friend on Becoming an Adjunct

My Dear Present or Future Adjunct:

I know of no words to satisfy the professional aspirations you mention; and if I did, I might well keep them to myself. The tenure track is the proper remedy. It is a vaunted state within academia, and therefore the state in which you are most likely to find social capital, financial remuneration and, dare I say, job satisfaction (even as job security erodes in universities across the nation). The barriers between you and a career as a college professor are not always logical, but they are long-standing. The obstacles are nigh on overwhelming. As each year passes, you are less (not more) likely to succeed.

Gravity has little tolerance for one-legged stools. Taking on the adjunct faculty role is oft to balance on a tippy one-legged stool, that leg being teaching. The tenure track involves the proverbial three-legged stool—teaching, research/creative activities and service to the university, discipline and community. Thus, despite high-quality teaching, the adjunct or contingent faculty member may not hold the sturdy value of those on the tenure track. At base, you’ll see this in the tens of thousands of dollars less you’ll be paid per year. Your industry may be required in teaching five or more classes a semester, with occasional overload schedules depleting your very marrow. With economy of mind (and possibly with help of stock lectures, text-heavy PowerPoint slides and multiple-choice exams) some, including those on the tenure track, may approach a work-life balance. But woe be to the composition program adjunct assessing a thousand-plus pages of first-year essays each semester. Little economy exists in such a realm.

If you insist on accepting an adjunct teaching position with a university, then I offer this advice. Limit your years as an adjunct or confine your teaching to a side hustle. Don’t sleepwalk into decades of toil, given the phantom rewards that come with life adjacent to the tenure track and academic-year schedules.

You call this a paradox. Surely with years of experience and training your marketability and value will rise above others seeking the tenure track—the less diligent adjuncts, the A.B.D.s (all but dissertations) or those with newly minted doctorates with little teaching or work experience. I swear this is not so. You demand my reasons. They are these:

1. As an adjunct, you function as little more than a high-quality paper towel within the academy. You are amenable, absorbing new initiatives with gusto, yet contractually you are easily used and discarded. Some deans and administrators will admit this because cultivating lower tiers or castes of instructors saves them thousands of dollars but requires no long-term commitment. Don’t forget that your semester-by-semester or year-by-year adjunct contracts serve only the institution. Yes, you make some money and, maybe, qualify for health insurance, but do you ever progress toward financial sustainability and long-term growth professionally? Does the academy offer you advancement or a safety net? The answer is no, especially in nonunion workplaces. That undercurrent of unease at living on the margins of academia? Listen to it.

2. Your appointment letter may start cordially with “I am pleased to offer …” Keep reading. Pay attention when the tone of the letter shifts to something like, “There is no expectation that this position will continue … Renewal of this appointment is not intended, and therefore no further notice of nonrenewal is required … this offer is contingent upon satisfactory enrollment in assigned courses, or related courses.” Recognize who carries the risk in this employment scenario: you. You rely on your classes filling, although you have no control over recruitments or enrollments. Your courses may be canceled if “related courses,” a.k.a. those of your tenure-track colleagues, don’t fill. Indeed, you may find yourself without a full-time job with as little notice as seven days before the semester starts. Or you may find yourself in a part-time position that doesn’t qualify for health insurance or other benefits.
3. Outside of teaching, continuing your research or creative activities may prove to be a Sisyphean challenge, especially when you’re provided little to no institutional support for these legs of the stool. Nonetheless, congratulate your tenure-track colleagues when they’re funded for travel to conferences and collaborations or for equipment, materials and lab support, not to mention their release time or sabbaticals. Adjunct faculty rarely receive such resources, and the best you may hope for is a stipend related to teaching initiatives or course development. Seek ways to circumvent deflected or derailed career-building work, but realize the risks when your efforts receive acknowledgment outside your home institution. Colleagues on the tenure track need similar achievements, publications and awards for their dossiers, and you may seem inconvenient to them.
4. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “in the dark all cats are gray.” Likewise, any adjunct instructor is at least equal to enrollment dollars. Amid the fog of scheduling deadlines, a ready queue of adjuncts leads to a completed slate of classes and potential enrollment gains for the beleaguered scheduling committee. Realize that your name is but one of many in institutional efforts to fill seats by assigning adjuncts to course schedules that may include both a 7:40 a.m. and a 6 p.m. class on the same day. On the plus side, your tenure-track colleagues may be less likely to accept those early-morning or late-day teaching assignments, so classes on those potentially 12-plus-hour teaching days are less likely to risk reassignment.

5. While colleagues may realize your tenuous position, as well as the essential nature of adjuncts given the university’s budget and course schedules, some will try to improve your working conditions. Others won’t. Some pockets of academia have treated the teeming masses, whether undergraduates or adjunct instructors, as weeds. Attitudes have changed toward most students, given the value of their tuition dollars amid demographic shifts. However, with the fiscal reliance on cheap adjunct labor, when will other changes come? Perhaps, when union membership rises or graduate enrollments drop after students outside of top-10 or Ivy League programs contrast their burgeoning numbers to the scarcity of tenure-track jobs. Or, maybe after ongoing program closures bring enough former tenure-trackers into the adjunct marketplace.
6. Meeting attendance and committee service is seldom part of your contract (your paid work), unlike your tenure-track colleagues whose service strengthens another leg of their stool. Many institutions include contingent faculty in governing and advancement initiatives, although your votes may not count. Look around the meeting rooms at the people who are being paid to be there. Realize what they may not: You and your fellow adjuncts are volunteering your expertise and time, even though your serial nine-month contracts pay you less than almost everyone in the room, including most of the university’s entry-level staff. Acknowledge the costs of conveying your collegiality and belief in shared governance.

Thus, I advise you to pursue the tenure track directly or keep an updated five-year plan that builds on your scholarship, expertise and network as an adjunct to launch the next steps of a more professionally and financially rewarding enterprise. Of course, university systems could realize that sustainable career paths for adjunct faculty align with their missions (and student retention goals) better than a revolving door of cheap academic labor. But such glacial shifts take time. Meanwhile, enjoy academic-year schedules that offer some flexibility in work hours and may enable outside pursuits, such as raising children or starting a business. During the worst moments of any semester (when you feel most taken advantage of), your work with students in and out of the classroom may help sustain you. Similarly, when possible, appreciate your access to health insurance, but realize you may need a plan B or quick exit strategy for all the reasons listed above. Smile, and plan your next act.

Your colleague in steerage,

Melissa Olson-Petrie