While the word adjunct literally means “a supplementary rather than essential part,” adjunct faculty are an integral part of the new corporate model of higher education that has come to dominate academia in recent decades. As colleges have increasingly cut back on tenure-track appointments since the 1970s, adjuncts, as well as graduate student teachers who also typically work for low pay, have picked up the slack.
According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), 76 percent of college instructors in the United States are no longer in tenure-track positions. Forty-one percent of faculty, according to the AAUP, are adjuncts.
As the ranks of adjuncts have swelled and pay has failed at many colleges to even keep up with inflation, adjuncts have been organizing for years, pushing for better working conditions and representation. They are unionizing in increasing numbers, as well as engaging in grassroots organizing to raise awareness of the issues adjuncts face.
The media and public have taken note. When an 83-year-old longtime adjunct, who was not renewed for her adjunct position at Duquesne University, died on the streets after bouts of cancer and quasi-homelessness in late 2013, adjuncts and their supporters pointed to her as a symbol for systemic exploitation. Stories of adjunct exploitation became commonplace in the news, and social media became an incubator for online activism, with hashtags like #NotYourAdjunctSidekick used to keep the discussion public.
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