ADJUNCTS

A PBS story recently had to do with Adjunct Professors. I know something about adjuncts as I've been one. I moonlighted for years adjuncting.  Pay depended upon the number of students. I took it serious: graded papers, stayed after classes in case any wanted to talk. Once I figured I was making about $1 an hour. 

As my mom would say, the way Universities treat adjuncts is scandalous. In the 70s, 80% of college teachers were on the tenure tract. Today, half are adjuncts/part timers. Guess what a busy Adjunct makes? $20,000 a year. Schools give out all this bullshit about they have no choice, have to keep tuition down. Do these f..kers think we just fell off the turnip truck. They have plenty for non academic things like sports. 

I've felt so strongly about the issue that in my latest novel, Fire Mission, the protagonist, Bernie Perterson, takes up their cause and all of the high octane BS of our University educational system.