Dear President Obama,
I am
writing you this letter though it might, easily, cost me my job. I say this because I am an adjunct professor
at Cleveland State University. Recently,
as I was reading the Facebook posts of my fellow adjuncts circulating after
February 25th (National Adjunct Walkout Day), I happened upon a
fellow adjunct professor who wondered whether you knew about adjunct professors
and our plight. I didn’t know. That’s why I’m writing you this letter.
Let me
begin by saying that my name is Dr. Brian Johnson. I have a doctorate in English from the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where I graduated five years ago. I have a $140,000 in student debt, two
children, and I make $14,000 a year.
While I’m on the subject of presenting important statistics, I belong to
a class of professors who generally make less than $15,000 a year and who make
up 75% of this nation’s teaching force in higher education. I will say that again, because it’s
important, 75% of college teachers make less than $15,000 a year.
At one
time, the adjunct work force was much smaller, and was made up almost entirely
of professionals who wanted to earn a little extra money on the side, but now
American colleges, all of them, are replacing retired faculty with adjuncts in
order to save money. The job I trained
to do for 9 years of my life, after graduating from college, has been replaced
by a low-paying doppelganger which requires the same amount of work, but pays
20% as much. Most of the rejection
letters I receive from tenure track job searches list between 300 and 800
candidates for the job: 300-800 people
with Ph.D.s in 20th Century American literature, and every year, the
universities around the country graduate more doomed souls into this dried up
labor pool.
Moreover,
my job has no security. Last year, I was
let go from Case Western Reserve University.
Nobody told me why. They didn’t
have to. The rumor is that it was
because I had to watch my children, and couldn’t, therefore, go to
non-mandatory meetings on Friday afternoons.
The rumor is that my contract was not renewed because I have children. I could sue for discrimination if I were
working in any other field, but because I am an adjunct, I don’t have those
basic rights despite the fact that I am a citizen of this country.
On the
25th of February, I walked off my job for a day with my fellow
adjuncts around the country to protest my treatment. My department seems to support me. Even my dean seems supportive, but let me be
blunt, my contract here will not be renewed.
I know this. I will be let
go. I won’t be told why. I won’t have a recourse against this
injustice. My only consolation is that I
will be let go from a job where I make less than minimum wage for my efforts.
The
result of the adjunctification of higher education is frightening. Adjuncts are working 250% of full loads at
multiple institutions just to make ends meet.
How much time can they honestly give to a single student when they’re
teaching 150 or more students a semester?
Fewer and fewer full time professors exist in departments and most of
those that remain are pulled into low level administrative positions over the
adjuncts. The adjuncts are removing
scholarly rigor from their class because they haven’t the time to do things
like grade essays or even to check in with students on whether or not they’re
reading. I will repeat, because of the
overworking of adjuncts, reading the course material has become optional in
many college campuses. The American
Education System, at its top, is toppling.
I cannot imagine what would happen if the 75% just decided one day,
rightly, that they could make more money working the counter at a fast food
restaurant.
What is
happening in this country is sickening, but it isn’t criminal. I have no legal recourse against whatever the
university does to me. I, an American
citizen with an advanced degree and an avalanche of student debt, am treated
like a second-class citizen. I have no
legal recourse for discrimination at my workplace. I cannot complain if I am let go without
explanation. I cannot even organize to
improve my situation. My only hope is to
either leave the job I love and for which I feel called into service, or to
change the system.
Mr.
President, I know that you are concerned with situations like mine. I also know that the adjunct problem remains
quiet because of a very real fear of reprisals, and so I know that this may be
the first time you’ve really heard the scope of the threat now facing American
colleges and universities. I ask you, in
the name of 75% of the higher education workforce, help us, please!
Thank you for your time and for your support,
Dr. Brian Johnson, an adjunct at Cleveland State University
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