Aduncting is Good for Your Career, As Long As You’re Not an Academic 01/31/2010

Today’s NYTmes article, “Back to School, As An Adjunct,” really pissed me off. Here’s the letter I sent in response.

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Dear Phyllis Korkki,

While I appreciate that teaching college may function as a good resume-builder for some, I am disappointed that your article does not mention at all the controversy surrounding the increase in adjunct positions available at most universities, much less provide a better account of why these positions are available, and what this may mean for the future of higher education in America.

Financial times are particularly hard at the moment, this is true, but the elimination of tenure-track positions began long before this recent economic downturn. Many of us inside the profession have been discussing this distressing trend for quite some time now as more than a budget-saving maneuver. It’s also an effective way to consolidate power at the university within the administrative class, and to alter the fundamental nature of college education in America. The American university positioned itself as a place where the twin goals of research and teaching were brought together as the best way to promote the production of new ideas, not merely functional workers. The general success of this model (not without its problems) largely explains why the best students from all over the world, including other highly developed countries, covet degrees from US institutions (particularly graduate degrees) in all areas of study, not only fields in science and technology that benefit from generous funding from private research. That you should encourage people who are not particularly dedicated to a) advancing knowledge-production or b) teaching, when there are so many of us fiercely attached to these goals forced into financially and professionally untenable part-time hack work, is sloppy and irresponsible. It is also, frankly, insulting.

Instead of embracing a system gone wrong in narrow-minded self-interested terms, we need better journalistic coverage of what this means for students, for academic professionals, and for the future of the United States as a global leader of ideas.

Sincerely,

Alicia Gibson

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