The Adjunct

I recently attended a department meeting where a fellow adjunct asked the question, “Why do part-time instructors outnumber full-timers nearly 3-1?”

Indeed, the meeting was filled with adjuncts; only a few elderly full-time instructors were in attendance. I’d always known the adjuncts outnumbered tenured, but it never dawned on me by just how much. I soon learned why.

“It is state law that colleges keep a ratio of 75/25 between full-time and part-time instructors.”

This took a moment to settle in, but when it did there were mutterings of discontent in this mostly adjunct crowd.

“You’re saying that the state requires that this college have 75% full-time instructors?” someone asked in shock. “That can’t be right! What’s the ratio in our department?”

The chair chuckled softly.

“We are almost exactly 75% part-timers. The exact opposite.”

He went on to explain that most departments had the same ratio as ours, and that he didn’t know of any college in the state that was any different.

I imagined if every college in the state suddenly had to go from 75% adjunct instructors to 25%. I’m working at three districts right now, and would likely lose my job at all three of them. However, while they were purging part-time instructors, they would also being hiring enough full-timers to triple their current numbers. Chances would also be likely that I’d get a full-time position at one of those three colleges, or somewhere else.

“So why doesn’t the state enforce the 75/25 law?” I asked.

“They do,” our chair told us. “They fine all colleges that do not comply with the law. The problem is that it is cheaper by far for the colleges to pay the fine than to hire full-time instructors.”

People went on to ask about the college’s financial situation, etc. The chair told us the college was doing fine; we were very profitable. Soon the conversation drifted to talk about our lack of offices, and supplies, and so forth and so on. I felt a growing discontent within me, and my pen absently scribbled down the following words in my notebook, from which I drew the thoughts of this entry:

They’d rather break the law than give us a job with healthcare, and security.
College professors.
What will become of us?