The Revenge of the Poverty-Stricken College Professors Is Underway in Florida. And It's Big.

[friendly_iconoclast]

https://splinternews.com/the-revenge-of-the-poverty-stricken-college-professors-1835381061

“Two half-time adjunct jobs do not make a full-time income. Far from it,” Ximena Barrientos says. “I’m lucky that I have my own apartment. I have no idea how people make it work if they have to pay rent.”

We are not sitting on a street corner, or in a welfare office, or in the break room of a fast food restaurant. We are sitting inside a brightly lit science classroom on the third floor of an MC Escher-esque concrete building, with an open breezeway letting in the muggy South Florida air, on the campus of Miami Dade College, one of the largest institutions of higher learning in the United States of America. Barrientos has been teaching here for 15 years. But this is not “her” classroom. She has a PhD, but she does not have a designated classroom. Nor does she have an office. Nor does she have a set schedule, nor tenure, nor healthcare benefits, nor anything that could be described as a decent living wage. She is a full-time adjunct professor: one of thousands of members of the extremely well-educated academic underclass, whose largely unknown sufferings have played just as big a role as student debt in enabling the entire swollen College Industrial Complex to exist.

As Barrientos chatted with another adjunct in the empty classroom, the conversation turned to horror stories: the adjuncts forced to sleep in their cars; the adjunct who was sleeping in classrooms at night; the adjunct who had a full mental breakdown from the stress of not being able to earn a living after all of the time he had put in getting his PhD. Such stories are common, from campus to campus, whispered by adjuncts who know deep down that they themselves are living constantly on the edge of personal, professional, and financial disaster. Other than academic credentials, most adjunct professors don’t have much. But recently, Ximena Barrientos, and her 2,800 colleagues at Miami Dade College, and thousands of others just like them throughout the state of Florida, have acquired, at shocking speed and on a grand scale, something of great value—a union. And they want nothing less than dignity...

About fucking time- colleges everywhere have *always* relied on cheap labor, both faculty and staff

Go SEIU!

[Sherman A1]

1. K&R

[Firestorm49]

2. More power to them.

Unions made this country great before, and they can do it again.

[saidsimplesimon]

3. Go SEIU, thanks Steve

[friendly_iconoclast]

21. The name's not Steve, but you're welcome regardless.

[saidsimplesimon]

23. Sorry, my intention was to respond to Omaha Steve.

Nice to meet ya, that was a kind way to make a needed correction.

[bobbieinok]

4. Adjuncts and community college teachers do most of teaching of 1st 2 yrs of college

When I 1st began to hear about this in the mid 90s, it was claimed that tenured profs--esp at major universities--refused to acknowledge this fact or try to do anything about it.

'If it doesn't affect me, I don't want to hear anything about it.'

[gtar100]

5. Republicans. Who else is to blame?

Republicans do everything they can to dumb down the educational system and under-paying teachers is their primary weapon. It's cruel and insanely short-sighted. But that's what they love. They don't stand behind a line of reasoning or have the laudable goal of helping as many people as possible. No, based on their actions I can only conclude that they are either indifferent to or get pleasure out of the suffering they cause teachers. They have no plan to make our educational system better, not even one that matches their backward ideology. They are best served by a world of ignorant people who only care for entertainment and instant gratification. We must not let them win.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. K&R. Truth! A dumbed-down and 100% work-oriented public is easy to control.

Throw in a heavy dose of fear, xenophobia and mysticism and put a leash on them for life.

That's the Republican way.....

[friendly_iconoclast]

22. Not just Pubbies-plenty of thoroughly Democratic states do this as well

Including mine, unfortunately:

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/boston-adjunct-professor-salary-SRCH_IL.0,6_IM109_KO7,24.htm

Adjunct Professor Salaries in Boston, MA Area

Average Base Pay
$23,507/yr

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Unions are an important antidote to wealth & income inequality. . . . nt

[Blue_playwright]

7. I was a full time adjunct ...

12-18 credit hours taught each semester. I quit to work part time managing a small restaurant and it’s social media for a friend for $13 an hour. Wound up making more for a lot less time and stress.

[FakeNoose]

8. I hope they don't lose their jobs over this

Unfortunately Ronald Reagan has ruined it for every one of us.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

13. Ironic that he was the president of the Screen Actors Guild Union for years.

It still angers me that the true story behind the PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Union) strike was never properly covered by the news media. Reagan raged that they just wanted more money. WRONG. It was never about their wages.

It was about replacing antiquated equipment, upgrades to radar and (get this) computer systems that better tracked aircraft from one navigational aid/site to another. But he refused to acknowledge this because they were afraid that the flying public would find out just how dangerously outdated the equipment (Some of the gear still in use was left over from WWII.) was and stop flying.

Almost all of the fired ATCs were (quietly) back to work within months. Most FAA controllers come from the military or are trained at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, so there is always a supply of qualified folks.

However, there are still to this day, serious lags in equipment upgrades and replacements. The skies keep getting more crowded and the technology - though available, but system overhauls are pricey - struggles to keep up.

You are safer in the skies than you are on the ground.

[Mosby]

9. where is all the money going?

Why does a state university cost 30K+ per year?

[jayschool2013]

16. That's a good question, but

an equally good question is where has the state support gone?

The University of Colorado Boulder receives less than 5 percent of its funding from the state of Colorado. It is a public university in name only.

That is the story across the country, where public universities used to draw most of its revenue from tax dollars, now they have to rely on endowments, tuition, research funds and taking advantage of adjunct professors.

[flamin lib]

10. Once I got my BS in photography/English (double major) I had the privilege of being a

graduate assistant. I taught freshman and sophomore classes at minimum wage. Paid by the course at a greatly reduced rate. They made a pile of money off me. This was back in the 70's so I'm sure it's worse now.

[OMGWTF]

11. Studebt atheletes are used by universities without pay other than a scholarship.

[pangaia]

12. The entire adjunct game is a shitty scam.

I know classical musicians, many, many of them, all extremely talented with all the necessary degrees. So many of them are 'adjunct' it is a joke.

One, as an example, who has played as soloist and chamber musician all over the world for some 15 years; at international festivals, highly regarded chamber music series, recording sessions, and on and on.

Only after 9 years teaching as an adjunct at 2 universities on the East coast, did she FINALLY, get a 'promotion' to Assistant Professor at one of them. Her salary went up by 500%! -- to a living wage.

What a crock of shit.

[Kurt V.]

14. one issue is ppl that are already established professionals taking adjunct prof. jobs

while maintaining their careers hurts the ppl described here.

[jayschool2013]

17. True

Though I wouldn't blame the professionals in professional schools — journalism, business, etc. — because their expertise is important in a school or college that is predominantly staffed by academics, most of whom haven't worked in the profession.

That said, there's no reason why academic departments and schools — the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, etc. — should have more than a couple of adjuncts. But when public universities get less than 10 percent of their funding directly from the state (in some cases that's less than 5 percent), they need to cut costs and raise tuition.

Full disclosure: I have a full-time job running a journalism nonprofit and I teach as an adjunct at the University of Iowa's School of Journalism (one course per semester) at $6,000 per section. That's more than Vonnegut made when he taught here, I'm sure.

[Kurt V.]

19. i agree and well said. my niece is an adjunct prof and has a full time job in her field as well.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. Graduate students do a lot of the teaching

at many universities and have for a very long time now.

When I was first in college in 1965 about half of my instructors were grad students.

[CrispyQ]

20. Everyone born after 1980 has had it drilled in their heads that unions are bad & evil.

Kind of like socialism.

Repubs are masters at manipulating the narrative. The fear of socialism has been stoked by the likes of Limbaugh for decades. Too bad the dems never hired George Lakoff & worse, don't seem to see any value in framing the issues.