I really hate discussing education and employment practices though it’s been on my mind a lot. Various factors, including small paychecks and increasing expenses, are guaranteed to put those things at the forefront of my thoughts, even though there are more important things that need my attention (like my lessons and my students’ homework assignments). While I have been polite about the subject, it is no secret how I feel about the issue of adjunct teaching. I often find articles and blog entries that confirm my feelings, such as a recent piece in The Nation.
I have made some meaningful connections with faculty and students at the institutions where I have taught. However, I have been in some less-than-ideal situations and dealt with some “scary monsters.” Also, regardless of the class load, it feels like I kill myself with work. I am all for hard work. I’m just not for overwork. Working day and night on things really isn’t that efficient, but it is reality for many “freeway flyers.” I’ve had quite a few semesters where I’ve driven to several campuses, had lots of papers to read, and not much downtime between it all. I have become so sick of “killing myself” for little pay.
How the hell did I get myself in this situation? I only have myself to blame as I willingly took on low-paying jobs in graduate school, seeing them as stepping stones. I essentially worked as an editorial assistant for Professor K’s deviant lit journal for $200 a month. Even though it stressed me out a great deal, tutoring for the Rhetoric department added a few hundred dollars to my income. I also worked for an independent bookstore one day a week, which I really enjoyed. Then there was the TA’ships, which paid $345 a month each. One semester I taught creative writing to lower division students, and $345 a month covered keeping track of 30 students, prepping, grading work, dealing with stage fright, and putting up with abuse from Mindy Shatner and some others. A semester later, $345 a month covered two breakout sections of a large lecture course taught by a tenured professor (so I was responsible for 60 of her students), reading & reviewing works on her syllabus even if I’ve read them before, giving quizzes (thank God for Scantron), and then whizzing through the half-baked student essays written for the midterm and final. Given that I got used to having low pay, teaching a community college English class (which grossed at $700-$800 a month) seemed like a great job to have during my thesis semester.
I must add that before graduate school, I worked for a grocery store for over a decade and I hated it. The income was more stable, I no doubt made more money per month than on any of my piddly academic gigs, and I had great benefits. Somehow, those things weren’t enough to to keep me doing one grocery job or another, so I walked away and never looked back.
Some people have been able to feign excitement at sales or some pointless functionary job in a corporation, but I’ve never been able to do that. What kid grows up thinking, ‘Yes, I want to be mindless pencil pusher who has all the time in world to look at I Can Has Cheezburger?’ I wanted to be an actor, a violinist, a dancer, a painter, etc. I never became any of those things. However, I found writing to be a worthwhile pursuit and got into an MFA program. The employment prospects were never abundant, but risk and pursuing passion were much sexier than getting stuck behind some desk in a pseudo-office, AKA cubicle. Perhaps I should have taken a cubicle and stuck with it. I would have hated it much more than I ever hated the grocery store, but I’d have resources to abuse such as a computer, broadband networks, printers, and copiers. Then I could raid the supply lockers for things such as Post-It’s and glue sticks. But, I know the perks don’t always outweigh the hell of such environments.
On some perverse level, I wanted something to show for my education, even if the pay was the proverbial peanuts. Also, there was a recent time in my life where pursuing teaching gigs was more of a sure bet than non-teaching ones. I took jobs where I could get them. Even with a worsening economy, I don’t want to be resigned to that. For my own personal economy, it’s not sustainable as paying some bills and keeping up with some expenses have been difficult over the past few months. A bail-out would be nice.
That I’ve taken a few small steps to get out of this, such as getting in to an MLIS program, has given me some hope. Patience, hard work, and sacrifice are in order. So, my experience with academic poverty may serve me well in the next couple of years. Here’s to longterm goals and the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
Tags: adjunct teaching, economy, nickel and dimed
Shindotv,
It seems as if the program where you did your MFA did not guide you well as far as jobs outside of the MFA. While I know it is grim out there for us artists we have to be smart. I’ve taken two courses now that have discussed job opportunities in the world of academia and one of the first things that has been said is, “never become an adjunct.” The only exception, I have been told is if you already have a good paying job. I’ve been told to adjunct if I have disposable income and free time.
I think there is a huge risk in taking an adjuncting postion, which is getting stuck doing small jobs, none of which pay well or provide health care, and getting stuck doing them. I had a girlfriend who received her MFA a few years back, and when she finished she was forced to adjunct at two seperate univiersities in order to make a decent living. She was driving around her city like a nut, overworked and tired. She was, however, super lucky and eventually hired on a tenure tracked job, but I don’t think this happens often.
What is even scarier, I think, is that univerisities are facing budget cuts in this time and are on hiring freezed. Then, instead of hiring tenure tracked professors, and or instructors, they hired adjuncts because adjuncts are qualified and not expensive for the univeristy.
While I know, I’m still working on my MFA and reading your post does scary me because soon, (like next spring). I’ll be competing in the same world as you for a job. Finally, outside of the world of academia trying to break in. The one thing my professor’s keep telling me is, if I want a tenure track professor job I need to publish, publish, publish. This is of course not easy, but apparently necessary (at least to work as a professor). Because I’ve been warned, repeatedly, I keep trying to.
I had a professor recently do an entire lesson on the kinds of jobs we would do, outside of academia and of course all jobs are competive right now, but you do have options and you shouldn’t settle for adjuncting if it’s not what you want to do. Maybe an office job, where grading papers isn’t something that eats away at your writing job would help tremendously. You could work that 9-5 job with benefits for a while, work on your brillant writing, then be a professor who gets benefits and has job security thanks to having tenure. It will happen. Don’t give up.
I will say, I am an idealist to the core but I think in times like this being cynical (which you are not) doesn’t help. There is a “light at the end of the tunnel.”
All the best,
One Mean MFA
OneMeanMFA’s last blog post..The Writing Experiment: The Results
One Mean MFA,
Only one professor, my thesis chair, had the integrity to tell me not to get into adjuncting. He was even horrified at the idea of MFA students working as TA’s or GTA’s as it detracted from their work. I should have listened to him. Perhaps I’d be better off doing something blue collar instead of adjuncting. It has occured to me that some of them do make much more than the part-time instructors who must drive around the equivalent of a small East Coast state to patch together an income.
I suppose I could go after all the full-time openings at various CC’s, but my heart isn’t in it anymore. I’ve just decided to focus on another career path altogether.