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Adjuncts facing temporary financial hardship may soon seek out help from PrecariCorps, a new nonprofit organization founded by fellow adjuncts and adjunct activists. The national group is applying for 501(c)(3) status to be able to match donations from individuals and organizations with applicants’ various needs. Brianne Bolin, an adjunct instructor of writing and rhetoric and oral expression at Columbia College in Chicago who was the subject of a recent Elle magazine piece on the “hypereducated” poor, said the group aims help adjuncts pay gas or electricity bills, especially during the summer or winter months or at the beginning of a semester when paychecks are delayed.
“I'm most excited about helping relieve the stress that accompanies our inability to pay for our basic necessities, which helps not only the adjuncts ourselves, but our families and our students, who will be given more attention and care because we'll be able to function more properly without the weight of stress,” Bolin said via email. “To put it in the words of a slogan I saw painted onto a sign during [last year’s faculty strike at the University of Illinois at Chicago,] ‘Cultural capital can't pay the bills.’ ”
Beyond grants, PrecariCorps aims to create educational media on higher education finances for parents and students, create a database of adjunct faculty news, and research adjunct faculty issues as they relate to higher education quality.
