6 ms·

I've taught a bit at Arizona community colleges, which also rely heavily on part-time faculty. There are many more people with grad degrees than demand for them

I've taught a bit at Arizona community colleges, which also rely heavily on part-time faculty. There are many more people with grad degrees than demand for them from universities, resulting in the obvious when supply exceeds demand: https://jakeseliger.com/2016/02/25/universities-treat-adjuncts-like-they-do-because-they-can/ https://jakeseliger.com/2016/02/25/universities-treat-adjunc.... In the 1945 - 1975 period, demand for faculty exceeded supply: https://jakeseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-louis-menands-the-marketplace-of-ideas-reform-and-resistance-in-the-american-university-2/ https://jakeseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-l..., and many in or adjacent to academia yearn for a return to those days. But it's probably not happening. The administrators and Boards who control budgets are also keenly cognizant of the fact that birthrates fell off a cliff in 2009 and haven't recovered since. Those of you who can add 18 to 2009 will know what's coming for an industry that depends heavily on 18 year olds for customers. Tenure is, in the absence of mandatory retirement ages, a 40+ year employment promise. And one dark truth is that academia insiders with tenure accrue far more power over their adjunct colleagues than they do over their tenured colleagues. Academia insiders rarely emphasize this, for obvious reasons.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
epicureanideal 4y ago
> But it's probably not happening. I really wish they’d allocate Covid-like money to R&D or prizes for solving various challenges like curing diseases, which would drive universities. However first remove the bloated administration and DEI/Woke Discrimination Industry.
- xzel 4y ago
  > I really wish they’d allocate Covid-like money to R&D or prizes for solving various challenges like curing diseases, which would drive universities. They already do via DARPA, NIH and medical patents. Making a drug and selling it is the prize for solving a challenge like curing diseases.
  - epicureanideal 4y ago
    Let’s add a zero to that (as a string). And add things like adversarial research to try to disprove findings, etc.
    - s1artibartfast 4y ago
      Start a GoFundMe
the_jeremy 4y ago
> birthrates fell off a cliff in 2009 US births per thousand fell from 13.8 to 13.5 from 2008 to 2009, less than a 2% decrease. There wasn't a sudden cliff; US birth rates have decreased every year but 9 (1979-1988) from 1950 to 2019, going from 24 in 1950 to 12 today. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/birth-rate#:~:text=The%20birth%20rate%20for%20U.S.,a%200.09%25%20increase%20from%202019 https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/birt....
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  The birth rate seems less important to the universities than the raw number of births. Though as with the birth rate, nothing in particular happened in 2009: https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-in-the-united-states-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-...
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    I would think even more important to universities should be the raw number of high schoolers and high schoolers’ parent that are questioning the ROI of universities, especially private universities.
    - peanuty1 4y ago
      The ROI of elite private universities like MIT, Harvard, and Stanford are still very high. The private universities that should be worried are the ones that don't have an elite reputation but still charge the same tuition (or higher tuition, if you account for financial aid) as the elite universities.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    For the field as a whole I guess, the rate must matter, right? Like, if the birth rate increases, then a higher percentage of the population will be employed in teaching related jobs, because there are more kids per adult.
  - twelvechairs 4y ago
xmddmx 4y ago
Background: the California Master Plan for Higher Eduction (1960) essentially set up a system of free college education to all residents. It was slowly chipped away until "free" became "not free". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Master_Plan_for_Higher_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Master_Plan_for_Hig... The Adjunct job title makes sense in certain situations, but when a college system is relying on Adjuncts for the majority of credit hours taught, simply to save money, this becomes a problem.
- ta988 4y ago
  It is not just about money it is about "flexibility" or else said, ability to kick people out to update curriculum and take younger ones more up to date with recent research.
  - dhosek 4y ago
    No, it’s totally about the money. You can get the classroom coverage of a TT faculty member for a tiny fraction of the cost if you use adjuncts.
    - eigenman 4y ago
      For reference, a typical adjunct (non tenure track instructor) will make $5000 per course per semester with no benefits. Tenured and tenure track faculty in STEM are typically paid around $60-120k per year with benefits and will teach, at most, six courses a year.
      - robotresearcher 4y ago
        The job of a tenured STEM faculty member is not the same as contract lecturer. Tenured faculty do research and run the university as well as teach. At a major research school a STEM faculty member will often raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in outside research funds, which will pay upwards of ten graduate students and the other running costs of a research lab. They will do and publish new research, usually while training graduate students, review the work of others, run conferences, sit on hiring committees,, take turns being Director of this or that (ie. management positions). Many STEM professors raise more external money than their salary costs. They are dollar positive to the school before they teach anything. And they teach too. Yes, it has a salary better than contract teaching.
robotresearcher 4y ago
Tenure does not disallow being let go for redundancy or financial reasons. Full time permanent employees have more power than limited term contractors. Isn't that kinda normal in every workplace?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

epicureanideal 4y ago

> But it's probably not happening. I really wish they’d allocate Covid-like money to R&D or prizes for solving various challenges like curing diseases, which would drive universities. However first remove the bloated administration and DEI/Woke Discrimination Industry.

xzel 4y ago
> I really wish they’d allocate Covid-like money to R&D or prizes for solving various challenges like curing diseases, which would drive universities. They already do via DARPA, NIH and medical patents. Making a drug and selling it is the prize for solving a challenge like curing diseases.
- epicureanideal 4y ago
  Let’s add a zero to that (as a string). And add things like adversarial research to try to disprove findings, etc.
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    Start a GoFundMe

the_jeremy 4y ago

> birthrates fell off a cliff in 2009 US births per thousand fell from 13.8 to 13.5 from 2008 to 2009, less than a 2% decrease. There wasn't a sudden cliff; US birth rates have decreased every year but 9 (1979-1988) from 1950 to 2019, going from 24 in 1950 to 12 today. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/birth-rate#:~:text=The%20birth%20rate%20for%20U.S.,a%200.09%25%20increase%20from%202019 https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/birt....

thaumasiotes 4y ago
The birth rate seems less important to the universities than the raw number of births. Though as with the birth rate, nothing in particular happened in 2009: https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-in-the-united-states-since-1990/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-...
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  I would think even more important to universities should be the raw number of high schoolers and high schoolers’ parent that are questioning the ROI of universities, especially private universities.
  - peanuty1 4y ago
    The ROI of elite private universities like MIT, Harvard, and Stanford are still very high. The private universities that should be worried are the ones that don't have an elite reputation but still charge the same tuition (or higher tuition, if you account for financial aid) as the elite universities.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  For the field as a whole I guess, the rate must matter, right? Like, if the birth rate increases, then a higher percentage of the population will be employed in teaching related jobs, because there are more kids per adult.
- twelvechairs 4y ago

xmddmx 4y ago

Background: the California Master Plan for Higher Eduction (1960) essentially set up a system of free college education to all residents. It was slowly chipped away until "free" became "not free". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Master_Plan_for_Higher_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Master_Plan_for_Hig... The Adjunct job title makes sense in certain situations, but when a college system is relying on Adjuncts for the majority of credit hours taught, simply to save money, this becomes a problem.

ta988 4y ago
It is not just about money it is about "flexibility" or else said, ability to kick people out to update curriculum and take younger ones more up to date with recent research.
- dhosek 4y ago
  No, it’s totally about the money. You can get the classroom coverage of a TT faculty member for a tiny fraction of the cost if you use adjuncts.
  - eigenman 4y ago
    For reference, a typical adjunct (non tenure track instructor) will make $5000 per course per semester with no benefits. Tenured and tenure track faculty in STEM are typically paid around $60-120k per year with benefits and will teach, at most, six courses a year.
    - robotresearcher 4y ago
      The job of a tenured STEM faculty member is not the same as contract lecturer. Tenured faculty do research and run the university as well as teach. At a major research school a STEM faculty member will often raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in outside research funds, which will pay upwards of ten graduate students and the other running costs of a research lab. They will do and publish new research, usually while training graduate students, review the work of others, run conferences, sit on hiring committees,, take turns being Director of this or that (ie. management positions). Many STEM professors raise more external money than their salary costs. They are dollar positive to the school before they teach anything. And they teach too. Yes, it has a salary better than contract teaching.

robotresearcher 4y ago

Tenure does not disallow being let go for redundancy or financial reasons. Full time permanent employees have more power than limited term contractors. Isn't that kinda normal in every workplace?