Adjunct responses
Christian, thank you for speaking up for all us adjuncts suffering under the current state of affairs (“Adjuncts: the invisible majority,” April 27). As one of those adjuncts you mentioned who has taught several classes at several institutions of higher learning simultaneously trying to make ends meet, I appreciate you making people aware of our plight. Kudos!
Trent, online
As a tenured professor at BCTC I recognize that the system is set up in the classic hierarchical divide and conquer model — diffuse collective power of workers by keeping each of us clawing for a higher position and encourage those above to look down on those below.
Thank you Christian for providing your perspective on this. You are right, it is exploitive and abusive, and it is increasing in scale. For what it is worth there are professors trying to provide support to their “adjunct” colleagues and are working to bring attention to this issue.
Michael, Lexington, KY
A colleague of mine at then-Lexington Community College, worked for years as an adjunct. Finally, they had no classes for him. I last saw him standing alone playing trombone at the amphitheater behind Memorial Chapel. His depression bloomed into a full flowered psychosis.
A coordinator of the Business Writing “department” at UK died alone in his apartment under suspicious circumstances as his meager adjunct position began slipping away.
Meanwhile, professors in the English dept. at UK spouted Marxist diatribes against exploiting workers while wage slaves toiled right under their noses.
Tim, Lexington, KY
What can we do to change the system? My working class family has always been strong supporters of unions, but collective bargaining continues to be weakened.
Jodie, online
Not to be rude, but you are as much a part of the problem by continuing to accept these terms. If you have a Ph.D., you should have found a full time position by now. Adjuncts like you who survive on these terms and accept them only allow the system to continue. Why should the administration change if people continue to work in these conditions?
Anonymous, online
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I’ve seen comments like the anonymous “Adjunct for extra money” post before. Blaming the victim is always easy. Homeless? Heck, like Reagan said, people choose to be homeless. Raped? Like a cop in Canada just told a group a schoolchildren, women invite rape if they dress like sluts. Poor or unemployed? You’re obviously not trying hard enough.
Garry Trudeau had a series of “Doonesbury” strips back in the 1990’s that made the best analogy. He depicted college teachers as migrant workers picked up from the street corner by a farm truck. Yes, like migrant workers, we work for criminally low wages, which, in a cold, free market world, means we’ve priced ourselves too low. But migrant workers and adjuncts need to eat.
“Why not just get another job?” such posts as this usually continue, “You have multiple college degrees, and, as we all know, a college degree is a virtual guarantee of a high-paying job.” Anybody taken a good look at the unemployment stats lately? At the economy?
Trout aren’t native to the Dix
I agree with Wesley Houp (“High Bridge: 100 year drift,” April 27) that trout were never native to Dix River and survive only by artificial means, including re-stocking. So they can’t even reproduce. As for their impact on aquatic species that are native, what are they doing to the smallmouth bass? Do they occupy an eco-niche that smallmouth do not? Or do they compete for food and habitat?
How is a trout better to catch or eat than a smallmouth bass? These tax-funded “trout programs” have been going on for a long time in many places where smallmouth are native. Why? Houp notes that “Of all the native fish fauna of N America, they’re tops in terms of coloration,” and that’s all I can come up with. Smallmouth are just plain brown and may not fit the decor of outdoor-apparel catalogs from New England. But if they are being displaced by exotic game fish that are only exotic, and if this costs money. shouldn’t it stop pretty soon?
Bruce Williams, Lexington, KY
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