The week before last I graded more than seventy papers. Last week was a little better because I only had around fifty papers to grade… well, that plus discussion boards, student emails, rehearsals for a play, work on a magazine story, meeting with the guys I’m discipling, and research for a paper I’m presenting… along with all the normal stuff of life like seeing family, cleaning (not that I do a lot of that), errands, food, etc, etc. Now I’m not complaining… ok, maybe I’m complaining a little bit, but I’m not trying to complain. I love my job, and I love writing, acting, working with young men, and I even rather like research (at least when I’m in the mood). I love seeing my nephew, cooking is a joy, errands are… well… tolerable, and cleaning… like I said, I don’t do a lot of that. However, I do want to make a point. The average college professor (something like 70%) is an adjunct instructor, and most of them make less than $25,000 per year, some of them are lucky to make $10,000 per year. Very few of them have even partial benefits (most have none), and adjuncts have no job security, often teaching on a contract basis only getting their schedules a few weeks in advance. An adjunct might have to go a month or more without work between contracts.
Adjunct instructors often teach multiple classes, sometimes over several universities, just to make enough money to support themselves. When I have three or four classes going it’s not unusual for me to be working ten to fifteen hour days, and sometimes my days are longer. Oh, and all that other stuff like research, writing, and acting… I do that in on my own time. Suffice it to say that most of your adjuncts work their @$$es off trying to give you the best instruction they possibly can, and they do this for some of the lowest pay in the nation. Not only this, but it’s not unusual for adjuncts to get at least one email a week that reads something along the lives of, ‘Hey Jerk you grade wrong my paper. I away get A and you give me D you need to regrad paper now.’
Needless to say, many adjuncts live for the rare call or email from a student thanking them for doing their job well. Add on top of this the fact that without the chance to get involved in serious research (remember all research done by adjuncts is done in their free time), there is very little chance for an adjunct to move his/her career forward. Given all of this, you might think that teaching college is a miserable job, but most of the adjuncts I know (myself included) love their jobs. They put up with the inconsistency, the long hours, the limited career prospects, the low pay, or even the abuse from students. They’re willing to put up with all of these things because they love teaching what they teach, they love helping students, and they love seeing students succeed, and while I’m sure plenty of you are convinced that your professor’s goal in life is to fail you, I promise that it isn’t.
However, the low pay, limited career prospects, crippling debt (did I mention that it’s not uncommon for an adjunct to have $50,000+ in school loans), long hours, and consistent abuse definitely take their toll. So, this is my little bit of advice for today: be nice to your adjuncts. Treat them well, try hard, ask for help instead of demanding better grades, and thank them for putting up with all of… well… ^that so that you can get an education. Plus, pushing for better pay (or maybe some health insurance) for the adjuncts at your school would be nice as well.
Broken Mirrors 
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