From the NYTimes:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/30/opinion/sunday/adjunct-professors-politics.html
well I can say from experience as a person who taught one semester as an adjunct (as a recent retiree) and was offered another adjunct position, there is zero vetting other than “are you a warm body, willing to teach the class (for peanuts, by the way), who has something that looks like the appropriate credentials.”
The person named in the article isn’t a professor. There’s a big difference between an adjunct instructor and a professor.
There appears to be good reason why this individual isn’t a professor.
I disagree that there is no vetting of adjuncts. It depends very much on the type of institution involved.
But when I was a department chair I resisted the higher administration’s efforts to expand our adjunct pool. In some courses, people who had valuable practical experience could be valuable instructors, e.g., people who had been public administrators, managers, and so forth, could help to teach and advise students enrolled in a program in public administration. However, if I was looking for faculty to carry the full range of responsibilities (teaching, research, student advising, committee work) I much preferred to hold out for tenure-line appointments than to fill the teaching function (alone) with adjuncts.
I think this is a “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” scenario, when it comes to the question of why this person was not a professor. There are far too many people chasing a limited number of tenure-track positions. Some of them opt for adjunct positions. A recent analysis showed that 70% of those in American universities are on fixed-term appointments (not tenure track). For some of them, this makes sense as an deliberate choice. However, others are hoping to make the move onto the tenure track. The odds of that are pretty low. It has to be a really alienating experience. So did the person start out as unsuitable for a regular faculty position, or did the experience of being a low-paid and quite possibly overworked adjunct make him unsuitable?
Or in some cases, even with great creds, there’s no ongoing need to hire a FT tenured faculty member.
That adjunct sounds like he would be a good fit at Evergreen State College.
Give me a break. It was a terribly phrased tweet, but I take it that what he meant was “It’s an honor to teach people who are will be living day to day with the challenges and consequences of our imperfect criminal justice system, trying to be good people and putting their lives on the line, and knowing some of them may have to pay the ultimate price for issues they did not create.”
And you have to be a special kind of jerk to go after someone as close to the bottom of the food chain as a criminal justice adjunct for a tweet, just to make yourself look like a holier-than-thou police supporter. It’s about as admirable as kicking a puppy for barking too loud.
@JHS You are good at putting a favorable spin on a nasty comment. I do not buy your spin.
Well, he now achieved a place in Wkipedia. If you look- and I have no idea of accuracy - no way he’s anywhere close to admiring police.
@JHS The most ridiculous rationalization and deflection I have ever read on this forum - and there is a lot of competition for that honor.
The NYT article has some logical reasoning and merits. But some ladder faculty also behave quite badly.
^Yeah, not seeing what being an adjunct has to do with it.
He was an adjunct professor who was immediately fired.
What else would you like the college to do in response? Adjuncts don’t have a contract, and that’s the end of that. Bye bye Professor Isaacson.
hey, adjunct prof here! Let’s not stereotype too quickly. As we have seen time and time again adjunct status has no meaningful relationship to the idiocy that some instructors practice. Awkward misstatements and open intolerance have been displayed at all levels and in all forums. At least with an adjunct, the problem is more easily solved when the institution decides to solve it (you’re fired)
Sounds like Isaacson doesn’t have tenure, which is good. The guy comes off as very unprofessional.
I had several adjunct professors in grad school, and I considered them better than many of the full-time faculty. They weren’t adjuncts because they couldn’t find a “real” job as a full-time professor, or because they needed some extra money on the side. They were working professionals with years of practical experience, and taught because they liked teaching. One had an extremely high position within a local aerospace company, and he really knew his stuff.
One thing I liked about the adjuncts was that they knew how the theory we were being taught was applied in the real world, and were very open about whether it worked or not. Often it didn’t. That’s something the full-time professors sometimes seemed clueless about.
Are these invalid reasons to be an adjunct?
They are not ideal reasons to be an adjunct.
The situation simba9 is describing in #15 is the appropriate use of “adjunct” status by both the faculty member and the university. The situation that is not good is “pay per class” for people who have no position other than as adjuncts. This is exploitative of the adjunct professors, even if they are independently wealthy.
Michael Isaacson was interviewed recently on Fox. I tuned in thinking I might get some insight into why he wrote that tweet. He was interviewed by Lisa Kennedy on a spotlight segment called “Kennedy.” It was the worst interview I have ever encountered. He did not get a word in edgewise and she just shouted him down and interrupted him every time he tried to speak. It got progressively worse and she ended up insulting him by saying that she didn’t understand how he thought he could protect or stand up for anyone else when he “didn’t look like he could even protect himself.” (He is very thin). Really the whole thing was just awful.
I came away knowing only that he was a member of “antifa” and liked all his students and hoped he might get his job back. Not sure that is going to happen but I would have liked to hear more about the tweet. I ended up feeling sorry for the guy and I am sure that is not the result Lisa Kennedy wanted.