She didn’t like it; she just completely forgot that it was in her bag.
I have to admit, the discovery did give me some ideas for some resistance type mischief, should I ever have a need…
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Another major car wreck in front of my house this morning.
The driver’s vehicle flipped over, and my housemate’s new car was dragged down the street and probably also totaled. Fortunately he was not in it at the time.
Slow the fuck down, everybody. Wherever you’re going, it’ll still be there when you get there.
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Kinda wish Trump liked kombucha instead of hamberders.
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Y’all have that one friend who was really smart and just never got their shit together? Yeah, me, too. I had a friend who had good scientific ideas, but never managed to turn them in to actual outputs. She’s struggled with finding employment, in a large part because she’s been in science ten years and gotten large grants [for a grad student], but never actually produced any papers, software, or clinical recommendations. I got into an argument with her about adjuncts Our alma mater has made some strides in reducing reliance on adjuncts. I think it’s admirable, and obviously working. More to be done, but working. She disagrees, because our R1, top three in the field, department won’t create a full-time faculty position for her.
Then she threw it in my face that having a cushy tenure track faculty job has obviously clouded my judgement. I blocked her on the medium we were chatting on to cool off. She went to GChat, and apologized. And I said it was fine. But that she can call my job cushy when I’ve had to worry about going into debt to pay for necessities while my husband redid his licensure, that I took my job because multiple times my fellowship payments were held up by a Trump shutdown, that I’m constantly under stress about “having it all”, showed how little she’d been there for me since I left graduate school.
And then came the litany of excuses about why she couldn’t have possibly been there for me in the way I have for her. And you know what? Fine. I agree that she has had some shit going down. But when you have some shit go down and you can’t be there, maybe don’t infer that you know what their life looks like?
It sucks to lose a friendship, and it will bother me for a while. But I’ve been supportive, and gotten none in return.
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No.
Probably because I am that friend.
Seriously though, this situation sucks. It really hurts to lose a friend, but sometimes there aren’t enough emotional paper clips and duct tape in the world to hold it together…
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This sucks… I’m sorry.
[ETA] Of course, I can’t help but bring this back to the larger issues in the modern academy, and how they are part of causing this kind of conflict. I can understand your friend’s frustration, as I’m sure all she sees is your success, not all the struggles you’ve had (although, clearly, you see her struggles pretty clearly, which says something about the relationship).
I do wonder if the current problems of the academy are helping to create both greater conflict among colleagues, and greater instances of mental illness break downs? Seems likely to be true.
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Yeah … I blocked her from the channel we were communicating on to cool off. And I decided to take some time to cool off, too, and I thought about the relationship. I realized that what you’re saying here is exactly true. I realized I couldn’t even think of the last time she asked a question about me.
I’d never want someone to feel bad for reaching out for support from a friend. When I cooled off, I told her that she was being unfair, and that unfairness is stemming from the fact that this relationship has been one sided lately. She decided to use that as an opportunity to list a litany of her sorrows and say it’s been impossible to support me, and that I don’t understand that just shows how blinkered I am.
Oh, absolutely. I don’t see how it could not. Where I worked, adjuncts are paid at about 80-85% of TT faculty, have access to all the same benefits, and are paired with a TT faculty “mentor” so they can have lab space & get feedback on grants and papers. They’re very happy! That has not been true at other institutions I’ve been at. Inequality and hopelessness among contingent faculty is a huge problem. TT faculty need to step in. I turned down a job at a private institution, and while treatment of non-TT faculty wasn’t the deciding factor, I mentioned it in my decline of the position. We have to use our leverage where we can.
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Yeah, that’s sounding very one-sided. That sucks, but sometimes, you do have to abandon friendships like this, for your own well being.
That sounds pretty good, actually! I wonder if this sort of approach is more common in the R1 universities among the STEM fields? Do you know if the humanities departments at your institution do something similar?
I think this is probably the norm, sadly.
Indeed! I think the proletarianization of the academy is a problem for all of us, not just those who end up adjuncting. It’s a problem for students as well, because unhappy, over worked profs are not going to be at the top of their game or be able to create interesting and challenging work for them.
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Adjunct support is a complete crapshoot in STEM. It’s fairly common if you’re adjuncting at the institution you did your PhD at to keep getting lab space from the major professor, and to keep collaborating. For adjuncts coming from elsewhere, it really depends. Less prestigious institutions or institutions in less cool cities often give more support to adjuncts to retain them. I’m not at an R1, and there was a TT hiring freeze under our previous governor. We have better support for adjuncts because they were the only faculty we could hire. And it’s worked well; many of the adjuncts went on to permanent TT positions elsewhere.
How can you improve a class you might never teach again? People forget the role of iterative improvement and response to feedback in … well, everything.
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That’s my experience in history, too. At the main campus, the adjuncts I know are pretty well ignored and left out. But they don’t make up a large portion of the profs for classes, either. The excess is filled by lecturers (full time positions) visiting lecturers (2 year with full benefits/salary), and grad students.
Exactly… I’m just moving on as if I know I’ll be teaching again, although I don’t know if that’s the case… And then there is the question I struggle with, if I’m not going to be able to do this full time, what am I good for? The answer just doesn’t seem obvious to me, although the American Historical Association has been harping on “career diversity” for a while now, putting out pages and pages of stats about where historians are working, talking about how they’re bringing programs to campuses to better prepare phds for a variety of jobs, but honestly, none of it seems very practical or applicable to me, primarily because I did most of my grad work BEFORE they started this program. I think maybe newer phds might be in a better position than I am, but I don’t know that. I honestly feel like I’ve fallen through the cracks and don’t know how to crawl back up into something worthwhile.
Sorry! This started as a grinding your gears about a friend, and I’ve turned it into a bitch session about my life!
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The terminology around all this is a mess, too. My friend described herself as having been an adjunct, but she wasn’t. She was in a full-time lecturer position, which was renewable, and had the potential for security of employment (a quasi-tenure system for non-research staff). In STEM, we often have visiting assistant professorships, which are often billed as prestigious, but I think in practice are often harmful as you publish less than you would as a postdoc. While I object to paying people per credit, as if every credit is equal work, there are positions that don’t make sense to be evaluated according to the tenure requirements.
There’s a lot of this in biology, too. A majority of PhD-holding biologists have never been employed in academia. But we’ve been quite poor at preparing students for careers outside academia, and now that the number of people who will go on to find TT employment is under 10%, people are starting to say “hmmm, maybe we ought to talk about this.” You know, now that it’s too late.
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Indeed! I’m not officially called adjunct, but part time now. Prior to this I was a visiting lecturer.
Yes, we had that here, too, with some possibility of making it a full time lecturing gig for some folks who were VLs. Although the word on the street this year was that they were not going to do any “internal” hires this year, as they did 2 last year. Once my VL was up (2 years, non-renewable) that was the end of it. It was kind of hurtful, given that I’ve spent over a decade at that institution. No one seemed to care that I’m no longer around… 
I’m sure this involved lots of volatility for people seeking out jobs as well, as they have to move every year or 2 for that next visiting position. It’s hard to settle in to do any research if you’re having to uproot everything so often to go elsewhere. This holds across the academy, I’d argue.
Indeed! Again, this is most certainly a systemic problem, it seems, not just something the humanities or STEM is facing alone. Sadly, there seems little solidarity out there in the discourse about it. I think it all does go back to the corporatization of the university generally speaking, which was driven in part by the drying up of funds across the board.
It’s really depressing, and the increased competition for positions make greater solidarity among faculty less likely. I certainly have no clue how to unwind any of this or make it change directions, and doubt I’m in much of a position to do so, anyway. And lots of people with job security certainly talk a good game, but it always ends up being talk about job diversity instead of focusing on the structural problems that are causing it. Which, to some extent, is understandable - you got to triage the immediate problem before you fix the larger structures.
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OH geez, I was there a few years ago, except it was due to her focusing completely on a man (who was a loser in all areas). It’s like my priorities changed from watching the latest shows and getting into “Twilight” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” (which I couldn’t do anyhow), and just generally getting out of being materialistic (due to being broke and just plain wanting to, lol), and not wanting a man (or anyone, actually) to treat me like a doormat. And I couldn’t watch her do it any more, and she really didn’t care if I did. Because I served no purpose in her world any more, after thirty-odd years.
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For those of us on the outside, what is “TT employment”?
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I’m guessing tenure track.
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Tenure track.
My [former] friend sent me a chat earlier, and I looked back over the history of our chat, and realized that while she describes herself as having been adjunct, she wasn’t. So briefly:
Tenure track: What people normally think of when they think of professors. Do teaching, research, argue in committees, etc. Evaluated at 3 years into the job for if everything is going OK. If so, evaluated again in the sixth year to grant tenure. Tenure is really just a basic workplace thing we should all have - the ability not to be fired without cause.
Non-tenure track: Not eligible for tenure. This can mean many things.
The most notorious meaning is adjunct faculty. Generally, this means the faculty member is [poorly] paid by the credit hour (how many you can work in a year is usually capped). Usually, no requirements for departmental or other professional service. No research component. But … you’re generally notified quite late if your classes make. So you might find out a week before classes start that one didn’t, and that you’re getting 3k less for the semester. Often not benefits eligible.
NTT can also mean lecturer or other instructional staff. These positions are usually either part-time or full-time, and eligible for benefits in the way other university staff would be. Often renewable [can be hired back repeatedly. In many places, you’d have to fuck up colossally to not be asked back] positions; there’s a move towards making these have “Security of employment”, which is basically tenure without research. May have commitments to service in the department.
WHY: Much like an office might need temps, a university might need someone to teach classes temporarily because someone has gone on leave or had a grant funded, and they need buy-out time [time you don’t teach due to obligations of the research]. Or maybe there’s an expert community member you’d like to teach a class in their specialty. In these cases, it can make sense to have short-term faculty.
But should they be paid on the credit hour? If so, how many? Is every class the same work per credit? This system wasn’t meant for people to try to make a full-time living on, what should universities do to prevent this? I don’t think anyone would disagree that adjuncts are over-used, and often used unethically. But I do think there are good debates to be had about when its OK to hire lecturers vs. TT, and how adjuncts should be compensated.
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Around here, one can often find adjunct professors tending bar, because their adjunct positions don’t give them enough to live off of.
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There’s also something called a “research professor,” someone who’s primary (maybe only?) income is from grants – at least in STEM. Not sure how the benefits works out, only having known about them from the student side.
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[note - could a mod split this, it’s become a long derail]
That’s not uncommon. It’s possible to make a living as an adjunct here, but we’ve converted most adjunct positions to longer-term instructor positions that are less volatile. The ones that we have now (mostly here for a semester due to mat leave & grant release) are compensated well, but not meant for long-term employment. We treat them well while they’re here, but there just aren’t enough births, leaves, and grants to promise employment.
The idea of an adjunct has always been to be part-time, ephemeral labor. To keep the temp analogy, an adjunct is like a temp, but who does a specific piece of the job (the teaching, no research or service). Paying a la carte for teaching has caused these positions that aren’t meant to be someone’s sole income, and don’t pay enough to be someone’s sole income, usually. The problem becomes when universities are over-reliant on them, and functionally allow adjuncts to work as a full-time job without full time pay and benefits. If you’re teaching a 3/3 (three courses per semester; my load, incidentally), you have time to pursue other employment or freelancing [but I’d argue should still have benefits]. If you’re teaching a 5/5, you’re precluded from doing that, and really do need to be compensated full-time with benefits.
There are a lot of questions that I don’t know how to answer with this. How can we regulate them from advertising jobs that are unsustainable? What role does the university have in making sure that people don’t take jobs that may be sustainable for others, but are not for them?
I didn’t include these because they’re wildly variable. Everything about them - from what proportion of the base salary the university contributes to if the university contributes any benefits.
One thing that gets wrenched up in all this is that non-tenure track employment is often used as a spousal TT hire perk. Come work for us - we can even make some room for your spouse! The assumption with these positions is often that there’s already a household member employed at the same university, so insurance et al. comes from that individual. Many employers haven’t really thought carefully about what is needed to be successful in these roles as a solo adult.
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I haven’t read this yet, but will do so tomorrow and make some comments…
Yes! Mods! To the splittin’! @ChickieD?
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