Help Wanted: Low-Cost Adjuncts

Re: Adjunct Pay

But NOT as a PT job for extra income - pays far more than MickyD's or 7-11.

The problem begins when people try to make it into a FT career.

 

Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

I dunno about "big leagues" but being good at something does not automatically translate into being good at teaching it. We have an attriton rate of 50% - largely because many very talented people lack the patience or the presentation skills to be a good instructor. The two do not go hand-in-hand.

And quite frankly - some students can take the fun out of teaching

 

Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

I know quite a few people that make a living out of being an adjunct. In Canada, this could be possible as many colleges have part time faculty unions that protect adjunct conditions. Most colleges have seniority points that allow part timers to have more job security as they teach. Salaries at some colleges are in proportion to full time, this means that if I tech 20% of the full time load then I get 20% of the full time salary. So if I teach at 5 colleges with 20% load, it is possible to make a full time salary. Universities pay around 6K per course that is not so bad.

I know at least one guy that makes 100K a year by teaching as adjunct.

I think that adjunct work can be an excellent source of income if combined with a business or private practive. A career as an adjunct is not ideal but some people manage.

 

Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

Being a tenured professor doesn't seem to correlate too well with the ability or desire to teach, either. A lot of the tenured crowd in the USA avoid teaching to the extent possible. Far too important, and way too busy with more important stuff, like stuffing and strutting their CVs. The difference is that the tenured boys and girls are not vulnerable to attrition because of teaching failures, provided that the facade of research is kept shined up to bolster institutional prestige.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

No more than being employed necessarily correlates with being talented.

I have found that getting rid of excess baggage the best way to travel.

 

Here's the link to the unionization of adjuncts at George Washington University.

"On May 6, 2005, the National Labor Relations Board handed down a decision that concluded adjunct faculty voters had approved a union in the October vote, 341 to 331."


http://www.adjunctnation.com/magazine/article/?id_article=455

 

Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

Living in the US - I know of no documented examples of an adjunct earning six figures as an adjunct.

I know lot's of miserable adjuncts trying to make ends meet.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

100K Canadian. Do the math. 10 courses per term at 6K is 60K per semester x2 = 120 K a year. He has a full time assistant and pays him about 20K so he makes about 100K and gets the summer off. Because most of the schools he teaches have unions, he is at the top of the seniority list and he gets to choose the courses he wants to teach.

Of course this did not happened over night, he has been teaching for 40 years.

 

Is this a normal course load for a professor? 10 courses a semester? Assuming they are 3 credit classes, this is 30 hours a week of teaching. On top of that, there would be gradings etc. Does this part not take up much time at a college level? I would have thought that papers, exams, etc. would take up at least as much time as teaching the class. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

Unless the Canadian system is radically different, I have to say that someone teaching 10 courses at once is seriously over-extending themselves.

Also, I don't know of any adjuncts in the US that get paid health insurance, which in and of itself is a huge drawback.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

So your example is essentially worthless?

 

"Also, I don't know of any adjuncts in the US that get paid health insurance, which in and of itself is a huge drawback"

Some of the state universitiy systems consider you a benefit status employee if you are teaching > .5, such as New York.

 

The adjunct faculty gig is a losers game. Concentrate on a career in the private sector, government, non-profits, or the like. You will make more money, have real benefiits, and, quite frankly, work with better colleagues (most hardcore academics are egotistical weasels).

 

The trick is to teach exactly the same course, large universities have sometimes 10 sections of the same course. He only teaches stats. Yes, marking is time consuming but he has a teaching assistant full time that gets paid 20K a year.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

If you say so. I personally worked as an adjunct while working on my doctorate and was making 60K a year with health benefits. Yes, you kill yourself teaching many courses but eventually you get used to it. However, Canadian universities are goverment based and normally provide benefits for adjuncts working many hours. As matter of fact, we are not called "adjuncts" but sessional lecturers. I was also elegible for unemployment as the University gives you 10 hrs of work for each hour taught at the University. So I was making about 55K in teaching contracts and summer off with unemployment for another 5K. I was also getting part of my tuition paid off given the professional development fund that was about 6K of tuition fees a year that paid most of the fees.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Adjunct Pay

So your example is essentially worthless UNLESS you are in Canada? - UNLESS - and I don't know the answer - teaching an online course(s) as a US resident for a Canadian University also entitles you to these benefits - neat if true - but doubtful.

As far as that goes - are there any examples of online adjuncts not in residences teaching at a University in another country and being entitled to residence benefits?

 

The $100k Adjunct

Here is a link to someone on a Yahoo Group who teaches adjunct, online only at the $100k mark. I was sincerely impressed. 23 courses at one time!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onlineadjuncts/message/2714

"I do work long hours up to 60 and sometimes even 80 hrs/wk. However, I do not know many people earning mid 100K incomes who do not. Even physicians have to put in those hours. I try to teach about 17 courses at a time and go lighter in the Summer. I hav etaught as many as 23 courses at one time. The length of
these courses varies from 5, 6, 8, 12, and 16 weeks. I am teaching at about 10 different colleges and always looking for others"

 

What is C-I?

I might have missed something on the forum but what is C-I?

I can't imagine that being an adjunct is such a killer career. It may kill you if you are going to make a decent wage, though. I knew some adjuncts at Indiana U. that strung together many teaching assignments in Indianapolis colleges to make a living. They "lived" out of their car trunk. They were hoping to get on full-time. I taught a programming course at Indiana and couldn't see doing it more than 2 times per year. It took up a lot of my Saturday and Sunday.