Universities that rely on adjunct professors pursue profit over academic integrity; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/9/15

Samuel Hazo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Universities that rely on adjunct professors pursue profit over academic integrity:

"Many observers would agree that a lot of universities today no longer champion liberal education but are little more than academic corporations that bequeath to their graduates a degree in debt. Such debts often reach six figures and require a lifetime to remit while the lenders receive millions in interest and enrich themselves.

It’s been said that we often accept what we choose to get used to. Sadly, we have chosen to get used to the corporate university with its rising tuition costs, which are passed on in true business fashion to the consumers (students and their parents). How many families can afford tuition, room and board costs that often run $40,000 to $68,000 per year — and continue to rise? Unless we favor education only for the most affluent, the answer is that only few can afford college without extensive borrowing. This cannot go on.

The effect on students is predictable. They are drawn to technological and related programs (job training, actually) that seem to promise sure employment upon graduation so they can repay their loans. (This, by the way, is based on a myth, as the constant change in technologies makes specific preparations soon obsolete). They defer marriage and home purchases.

The effect on “accommodating” universities is that the ideal of the liberally educated student (he or she who is primarily concerned with learning how to live rather than how to make a living) becomes secondary.

It seems only logical to me that universities, to avoid the corporate drift to bottom-line thinking, should be even more devoted to liberal education and strengthening their faculties accordingly. However, the recent trend toward hiring adjunct teachers and professors, competent though they may be, is part of the problem, as universities save and accrue money by not hiring full-time faculty. This is nothing but profiteering."

Crowded Out of Ivory Tower, Adjuncts See a Life Less Lofty; New York Times, 1/19/14

Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times; Crowded Out of Ivory Tower, Adjuncts See a Life Less Lofty:

"Mayor Bill de Blasio has turned the spotlight on the issue of income inequality in this city. We know about the struggles of low-wage workers without college degrees, the widening gap between rich and poor and the erosion of job security in corporate America. But seismic shifts have shaken the academy, too, creating a society of haves and have-nots, outsiders and insiders, among instructors...

From 1993 to 2011, the percentage of faculty members without tenure surged nationally from 57 percent to 70 percent, according to the American Association of University Professors, a research and advocacy group. Of those faculty members, a vast majority are adjunct professors like Mr. Hoff...

They are increasingly restive, prodding universities over late pay and classes that are canceled at the last minute. Adjuncts say they are typically excluded from university governance and decision-making regarding the classes that they teach. And there are smaller indignities that grate, like being denied keys to the supply cabinets or access to offices after hours. “They feel a lack of dignity, a lack of respect, a lack of visibility,” said Barbara Bowen, the president of the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY, who said her union would demand increased job security for adjuncts in coming contract negotiations."