About

The Essential Adjunct is here to write about the current crisis in higher education: the use and abuse of adjunct labor to staff the majority of the teaching positions. These are written from the personal point-of-view of a real-life-adjunct professor. The blog is managed by a fictional character, though, because The Essential Adjunct needs to protect their anonymity. Free speech isn’t free, you might say, when you’re an adjunct professor. College professors have lost their jobs from speaking out. While I long for the day that I no longer need the source of income that comes from my job as an adjunct, until that day comes, I must remain anonymous.

I hope my posts serve three purposes, possibly more, but these three are a good start:

1. Misery loves company. I’d like to offer my company to the miserable. Therefore, some of my blog posts will come across like complaints, rants, venting sessions. These will comfort some readers. Others will just have to deal with it. If it makes you uncomfortable, remember that these are my experiences. This is what I deal with on a regular basis.
2. Make an argument. My claim is this: If a college has a majority faculty of adjunct professors, its leading administrators, including President/CEO’s and the Boards, are in gross negligence to the extreme that they should be dismissed and replaced with people who are better suited to serve the mission of Higher Ed. Short of their dismissal, a change in policy that treats adjuncts better and puts adjuncts on a full-time track could redeem some of them.
3. Spread awareness. Most people still think that college professors are well-paid and well-supported. Students and parents don’t realize the implications of the adjunct situation. And if I can save any unsuspecting graduate students from the dead-end of an adjunct job, it will have been worth it.