Faculty on Food Stamps 2

Part 2 of a professor on public assistance. Andy Smith describes his ten years as a contingent faculty member.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Colleges
• universities
• professors
• students
• adjuncts
• faculty
• food stamps
• public assistance
• Bousquet
• economics

[zhara42]

You forgot to mention how the administration system in higher ed is structured in a way that deliberately discourages collaboration and instead encourages petty squabbling, jealously, vicious territoriality, and hostile competitiveness.

Coming together won't be easy.

[StatisticsQuest]

As a graduate student I read the book "Ghosts in the Classroom" about adjuncts and the outlandish system they have to work in. I vowed to myself that if I did not find a tenure track position I would not work as an adjunct period. I worked one year as an Asst prof at a rural college and I promised myself if I did not end up at a location I deemed suitable for me I would leave the profession. Luckily, I got the job I wanted in the city I wanted. But, I was ready to jump ship and recoup my losses.

[sergioapuzzo]

PhD = pretty horrible deal

I got a PhD in Biochemistry and published 6 papers during my PhD and still no decent job, so guess what, I went to med school and had to postpone my life another 10 years.

Please tell the world to avoid higher education in the form of PhDs or Master's - it is actually dangerous for your future - for example I have to consider staying childless since I have no time with med school and being older I get tired more easily. Again please do not do a PhD

[TheChromelover]

I pity you my friend. I was accepted into a graduate program as a phd student. But once I got a taste of what a phd is, I walked out with a masters degree.

[MultiSmartass1]

The posters here are clearly not informed. Professors are not really teachers. They are scholars. Universities and colleges even if they are not research oriented are based on a research model. That is why adjuncts and TA's do all the teaching which is Frosh and soph level anyway.

[altha2008]

they get paid, if they do not like the income go to another place and teach.

I made $30,000 teaching overseas, they provided me a place to stay 2 meals a day

stayed there 3 years saved all my money

paid for my house when I got back I'm 23

own it free and clear,

I'm going back next year and going to teach again

[altha2008]

teacers do not work 7 days a week

again / would love to have the summer months off

in florida average teachers makes around

30,000 dollars. most people do not make that in Floirda working all year.

When I lost my job 2 years agao that paid $72,000 I lost everything. now after 2 years of woking 2 jobs, I own my home free and clear, I have not had a holiday off in 2 years there are a lot of peolpe who would love to have teachers job

[actione99]

Teachers work all year round...They just aren't in front of a classroom every minute of the day. As the school year starts, my father (a teacher) will be working 7 days a week, often until the wee hours of the morning just to keep up. And this summer, becuse of low teacher wages, he got a part-time job at minimium wages. Teachers work long and hard. I do not understand where people who make comments like your are coming from....

[actione99]

All work should be valued and no one should be exploited...in teaching, industry, or in any other field. We have reached a real low in our history when the services of teachers are no longer valued, and when education is no longer considered an essential resource in society. Shame on universities and colleges for allowing this gross exploitation of the teachers who are teaching my children. I wish that more parents and citizens understood the extent of the problem!

[altha2008]

teachers get paid also they do not work full time like regualr people do

they get all the holidays off

all the weekends off

months off during the summer

[Wcoltd]

Education should be a civic duty regardless of the profession. If, for example, a doctor or an engineer or a cashier were to discover some new method that makes their profession easier, it is their duty to communicate it. But I think academia deserves special emphasis because the profession is entirely based upon education.