Wednesday, June 17, 2015

The Cost of an Adjunct: what about the impact they have on the students they’re hired to instruct? - LAURA MCKENNA, the Atlantic

Imagine meeting your English professor by the trunk of her car for office hours, where she doles out information like a taco vendor in a food truck. Or getting an e-mail error message when you write your former biology professor asking for a recommendation because she is no longer employed at the same college. Or attending an afternoon lecture in which your anthropology professor seems a little distracted because he doesn’t have enough money for bus fare. This is an increasingly widespread reality of college education. Many students—and parents who foot the bills—may assume that all college professors are adequately compensated professionals with a distinct arrangement in which they have a job for life. In actuality those are just tenured professors, who represent less than a quarter of all college faculty. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/the-cost-of-an-adjunct/394091/