How Did They Become Adjuncts? And Are They All the Same? I Don’t Think So.

There is a sad article in The Atlantic.

The Adjunct Revolt: How Poor Professors Are Fighting Back – Elizabeth Segran – The Atlantic.

I tried to comment and express my concern for adjuncts, especially before they go down the road to being adjuncts.  I hope my comment made it clear that this is a difficult issue.  There are adjuncts who should be professors and there are those who shouldn’t.  Here is what I wrote,

“As someone who has seen “elite” universities grant Ph.D.’s and/or Masters degrees to people who should not even be in graduate school, I have tremendous empathy for adjuncts; especially the many who were lied to about both how qualified they were and how wonderful getting an advanced degree would be for their future. (I won’t go into all the reasons universities have for wanting these students in their programs, but grants for “national need” programs is one example.)

We will never be able to help the people (and “people” should be the focus of our attention) who become adjuncts until we do something about the unscrupulous behaviors of many in our institutions of higher education – especially the careerists. This won’t be easy. Many “liberal” professors – some of them my friends – are quite conservative and self serving when it comes to “their” business – and amazingly don’t even see it. Our problems (and they are ours, not theirs) will only be fixed when people outside academics look in the tower and realize what really happens. In the meantime, nothing will totally fix the problem of getting more and uneducated, but degreed, people (no fault of their own) mixed in with degreed, and even educated, people. For adjuncts and students alike, this is a mess, and a big problem.”