“I’ve been on food stamps for, I think, about six months”: from a PBS NewsHour report on adjunct faculty.
The spokesmen for officialdom in this report remind me of tobacco-industry reps: Smoking is an informed adult choice. Nobody forces someone to become an adjunct.
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Friday, February 7, 2014
Adjuncts on the PBS NewsHour
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comments: 2
Ooh, good comparison with tobacco. As a TA, I am unionized and the Contract Instructors belong to the same union. We are going to be voting on a strike soon. While I don't want to strike, I will do so in solidarity.
I am sending this post to one of my fellow TAs who is more involved in the union than I. The tobacco company analogy may be useful.
I’m glad I thought of it. And it’s true: no one is forced to be an adjunct. But relatively few professors are honest with prospective grad students about the real conditions of academic labor. And by the time students begin to understand the shape of things, their very identity is tied to academic life, and breaking away can be difficult.
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