An adjunct is a part-time, non-tenure track professor. Like full-time professors, adjuncts have PhDs, MFAs, MBAs and JDs, yet they receive a fraction of the pay, have fewer benefits, and zero job security. In 1975, the majority of university faculty consisted of tenure and tenure-track professors. Today, it’s the opposite: 70% of university faculty are adjuncts, and that number is only increasing.
On average, a tenured professor has an annual salary of $79,424 plus benefits, receives research stipends, and has job security. Meanwhile, an adjunct averages $3,000 per course; for a full eight-course load, earning around $22,000 - $25,000, often without benefits, professional support or even office space. To accumulate enough courses to survive, adjuncts teach at multiple universities each semester. While a tenured professor has a guaranteed course load and receives compensation whether or not a course runs, most adjuncts live semester to semester and aren’t compensated when a course is canceled.
As tuition rises, universities are adding new non-faculty positions with competitive salaries and benefits packages. Universities have money! So, why are they divesting in professors? Simply put: it’s more lucrative to spend the money on frills than on educators. Most students and parents don’t know what an adjunct is. Because adjuncts are just as dedicated and qualified, most never suspect that their professor sleeps in a car.
CUNY prides itself on offering world-class academics and award-winning faculty across its 25 campuses. CUNY’s legislative mission is to be “a vehicle for the upward mobility of the disadvantaged in the City of New York.” Ironically, the majority of CUNY’s professors are adjuncts who make less than a New Yorker with only a high diploma. An adjunct who pursues a year-long Fulbright Fellowship — which CUNY celebrates on its subway ads — loses access to health care and other benefits when they return to teach. The adjunct who accomplishes something that CUNY uses to boost its acclaim, must now rely on medicaid for at least a year while they regain eligibility for health insurance.
We are told the only way to achieve tenure is to research, write, and publish — yet the severe lack of job security makes academic pursuits nearly impossible for anyone who isn’t independently wealthy. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked at CUNY, how much of an asset you are to your field, or the quality of your teaching reviews. There are no guarantees. Adjuncts may find out a course has been canceled just a couple of days before the start of the semester, after having prepared a syllabus and course material. Not only would they not be compensated for that work, they might also suddenly lose their health insurance.
Adjuncts who teach at least two classes at a single CUNY will receive one paid office hour per week. What this means in practice is: if you are teaching three literature courses, totaling 75 students, you only receive compensation for one hour of work outside of the classroom. How are you expected to meet with students, prep, respond to a myriad of emails, provide feedback on 225 essays (not including pre-writing and drafts) in one hour per week? The insinuation that one could even attempt to do so is offensive—especially when writing intensive courses demand between 3-5 formal essays, with page requirements and a research component. The administration knows adjuncts are dedicated and they take advantage of the free labor.
Adjuncts don’t need to stop whining, or to a get another job. This model of academia is not sustainable. Students who take classes from adjuncts are more likely to drop out, and less likely to find professors to mentor them and write them recommendations. This isn’t because adjuncts are bad teachers — this is because they are simply spread too thin, and the nature of their postings too tenuous.
What is the solution? $7k per course and meaningful job security. This would mean adjuncts teaching full course loads would earn between $42,000 - $54,000 annually.
CUNY has the money.
Paying adjuncts a living wage would not come at the expense of student financial aid.
Paying adjuncts a living wage would not mean adjunct jobs would be cut.
Paying adjuncts a living wage would mean less hustling from campus to campus and more time with students.
Paying adjuncts a living wage would mean less adjunct turnover and more long term support for students.
Paying adjuncts a living wage and providing them with meaningful job security means adjuncts can plan their lives and families, tend to their health, and enjoy the same academic freedom as their tenured colleagues.