Throw it Away and Get a New One: The Disposability of Adjuncts in the Millennium
James Brian Wilson

As an ESL instructor, I have recently noted the curious, but profound definition of the term "adjunct" in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: "something that is added or joined to something but is not part of it." We know that, paradigmatically, college and university systems have been working under this definition for years, but it was an eye-opener to actually see it in print. Just think of it, you work for and contribute positively to an educational institution while not being considered as truly belonging to that institution.

Now, I worked as an adjunct, a part-timer, a freeway flyer, a temporary instructor for six years prior to making a concerned effort to apply for and obtain a full-time instructor position in the California Community College System for the 2000 ­ 2001 academic year. I felt a certain urgency during the previous academic term for several reasons. First, I was tired. I had worked three positions for most of these six years, driving from one site to another just so I could have the privilege of doing what I had just done at the site before. When I started, after I had obtained a Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature from California State University, Fullerton and a TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) Certificate from the UC- Irvine Extension, I drove from Huntington Beach to Pasadena to work in the morning, hurried back to Garden Grove in Orange County, as I had two hours to drive back and eat before an off-site class, and proceed to Walnut for my evening course ­ a four day-a-week journey of 165 to 180 miles a day, depending on the routes I had chosen to take. On Fridays, I only had to drive to Pasadena.

I did not, of course, continue this madness for my six years as an adjunct, but it goes to show what some (many?) of us will do to get our feet in the door and gain useful, practical experience. And I did gain that. I learned how to think quickly and teach classes without any preparation. Why? Because, on some mornings, when I had completed my hour and a half to two hour morning commute, I would be told upon entering the adult education site where I was employed that I was substituting that day without the benefit of lesson plans or materials. This didn't happen often, but it highlights the expectations of some who use us for the FTE's available: better to get the available funds by sticking someone qualified in the classroom, isn't it?

There is another point. I have taught in high school adult education, non-credit community college, and college credit programs and have the necessary qualifications and training to do so, but, as an adjunct, am paid for my classroom contact hours only. The time preparing or creating materials for classes was my own. That must be the real reason adjuncts have come to dominate the profession. Administrations save money. In fact, one former community college president (name withheld to protect the guilty) stated at a meeting of part-timers, " I can hire three of you people for the cost of one full-timer." What this promotes, unfortunately, is a tiered pay system where adjuncts are not paid at the same rate as their full-time brethren, despite the fact that the qualifications for part- time and full-time positions are, for all intents and purposes, the same.

In those six years, I only earnestly applied for two or three full-time positions. I naively assumed that I would be rewarded for my persistence, my work, my professionalism, my ideas, my active participation, my curriculum development, my teaching, but I discovered that this was not forthcoming. No, it did not take six years for me to realize this. After the first semester, I was able to drop one position and pick up more hours at one of the institutions. This is the proverbial carrot at the end of the stick that keeps many adjuncts temporarily content. In the absence of full-time possibilities, non-credit community college programs can dangle savory possibilities of picking up another class here and there at one location. I must admit that this satisfied me for a time. When I switched one of my part-time positions from a non-credit to credit one at the same institution, my hours dropped from fourteen to five. Given the maximum load prohibitions that stifle us all from real life and real money, this constituted an economic disaster. In fact, I had to volunteer two hours of teaching time per week just so I could cling onto five hours in the non-credit program simultaneously. Thankfully, this lasted only to the end of the semester when I was able to pick up more hours at another institution.

Believe me, I could continue this monologue in a seemingly endless manner because adjuncts, though they are "part-time," actually teach more hours than many full- time instructors. That was number two in the list of "final straws" that drove me from adjunctland. I found, that after six years of all of this, I had accumulated 1.45 years of service credit for my retirement. At this rate, I could have continued for twenty more years and have enough to pay for my funeral services and a good wake, with a little left over for my lovely Latina partner to pay some bills. Ah, the American Dream never looked so palid in the face of what could be or what should be. An associate, who was teaching simultaneously at four community colleges had earned three years of STRS credit after ten years as an adjunct. It was her lot and mine that led me to advocacy, letter writing, committee work, research, fact-finding, and the job listings at the California Community College Chancellor's Office web-site, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the weekend edition of the Los Angeles Times, and daily searches of college web-sites that contain jobs not posted on the Chancellor's office site. It couldn't hurt to have the information, right? I even posted a few in a teachers' break room. After all, we had a department with over sixty instructors and served a semester student population of over twenty five hundred students, gaining acclaim on campus for some ideas and programs, yet we had no full-time instructors. Let me repeat that. We had no full-time instructors in a program where an M.A. or enrollment in a graduate program was an (un)official requirement.

The final push came when I was told by someone who conceptually supported the part-time issue and someone with whom I was in complete accord in terms of teaching philosophy told me that, if I did not like the scheduling of my classes or the scheduling of my office job, I was completely free to leave and "pick up some more teaching hours" there or somewhere else. After all, I was a "part-time employee." This, after six years doing more than my share, even taking on an instructional specialist position to assist with developing department tests and promoting classroom instruction to transition learners from non-credit to credit programs, even creating a new class for the department, which has been successful for three and a half years now in doing exactly what it had been designed for. After all, I was a "part-time employee." I knew this, philosophically, for six years, but I was never before made to feel so temporary. This is the great tragedy of the over-reliance on part-time faculty. No matter how much you contribute or how well you do your job, you are always considered temporary and disposable. That a system that purports to value the benefits of education continues to perpetuate fundamental inequality is, at its foundations, hierarchical, paternalistic, outdated, and wrong. And this comes to the reason I have decided to include my two cents worth in the name of equality and justice for all. I have seen too many good teachers give in to the system, to become constant complainers who do just what is necessary to get by and pick up their paychecks. Thus, departments stop offering opportunities and chances to broaden one's horizons. Take the opportunities that are offered to you. Develop curriculum. Go to meetings. Sit on committees. Submit proposals for classes or use of departmental funding, even if no one asks you to do so. You see, simply complaining is a self-fulfilling prophecy that defeats everyone. It hurts colleges and universities that want faculty to be professional but fail to accord professional status, salary, benefits, or even attitude toward us. It hurts administrators who lose good teachers or a source for good ideas. It hurts instructors who lose their edge and forget why they entered the profession to begin with. It hurts programs that hire more and more part-timers who are stretched to the limits of their time, creativity, energy, and patience. Ultimately, it hurts the students in our classrooms who are, in general, there to learn and see us as their guides to a world of discovery, knowledge, ideas, and their link to better lives.

I made it out my friends. What I now receive in terms of reciprocation from the college where I am employed benefits me in a multitude of ways, some of which I did not even anticipate. I make more money at one job than I did before at three. I receive medical and dental benefits, in addition to life insurance, as part of my benefits package. I determine my office hours and am paid for those hours. It is assumed that I do my job because I am held accountable for doing so in my time and in the manner that I deem appropriate for my work and communication style. Deadlines I meet. How I meet them and where I do my work is my decision. I get fewer headaches than before. I function better physiologically than I have for six years.

I applied for six full-time positions last year and was given interviews at five of the institutions to which I applied. Schools are looking for good instructors to be sure, but they are also looking for faculty with program-level experience, experience developing curriculum, teacher-training experience - experience, not following, but creating. They are looking for people who are good in the classroom and for those who will offer suggestions for solutions to issues that arise outside the classroom. I knew I would not be able to continue in a dysfunctional paradigm indefinitely. I would have had to eventually leave the classroom in order to have a better life and a possible life after retirement had I not obtained my current full-time position.

Do I do more work now than during the adjunct years? I do a lot, but I have fewer contact teaching hours, so I can concentrate on quality work. Plus, I have those precious office hours. I have to concentrate on instructional delivery, while at the same time, participate on committees. I chose one (Or did it choose me?) that actually accomplishes something: curriculum revisions and new course curriculum to meet the needs of a growing student population and developing program. In addition, I have to concentrate on that tenure thing, the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the goal that lends itself to that most precious of all gifts ­ job security, an oft mythical concept in the land of the part-timer.

I keep in touch with part-time issues through COPTEC (the Council On Part-Time Employment Concerns) and forward interesting items to the faculty association and a contact who puts together the campus newsletter for associate faculty. I have written state representatives concerning bills and legislation that affect the California Community Colleges, information obtained through the FACCC. It is the responsibility of all faculty to do so, as this issue affects us and our ever-increasing workloads. I have no regrets because everything I did as an adjunct benefits me in my current position. There is no conflict between having been an adjunct faculty, continuing to be involved in the issue, and maintaining integrity as a full-time faculty member working toward tenure. There is no inherent dichotomy between my part-time past and my full-time present. As an adjunct, I did my job to the best of my ability, but scheduling, driving, workload, and hundreds of miles of wasted time on the congested freeways (Shouldn't we find another name for these?) of California, in all earnestness, prevented me from doing what I am truly capable of doing. In fact, it is my general belief that, due to the over-reliance on adjunct faculty, what quality work does get accomplished, does so in spite of the "system." When people's time and effort are spread out over two, three, or four institutions, they have to make choices in order to survive. The part-time issue remains an interest and concern because I am human and recognize injustice when it stares me in the face and spits in my eye.

One can learn from this madness. Though there are not full-time positions for all, there are vacancies for those who get the proverbial "big picture" and are open to all of the experiences available in the world of the adjunct, the part-timer, the associate, the freeway flyer, and the temporary instructor. The journey has been long and hard, but the destination is, comparably, idyllic. Sincere good luck to all.