Is an Adjunct Revolt Enough?
A friend from graduate school (and a tenure track professor) just shared this article with me from The Atlantic and I suggest everyone read it. It seems that adjunct college professors are fed up with their current (slave) status...and they are organizing. While I agree with much of what they are saying - I fear that forming unions for better pay and benefits might get them a few dollars and a parking space - but it will not solve the longer term problem: the corporatiztion of higher education. The article hints at this fundamental issue without really hammering it home as a systemic flaw. I call for a more radical solution: a university-wide adjunct walk out and a public and very vocal denunciation of the system. Adjuncts who continue to take crap jobs and then complain about them are just as guilty as the universities. Reform is not enough. Adjuncts should quit and thus leave universities with no faculty. Only then will those in charge have to make some changes. What are your thoughts? With compliments,
Keith (fight the power)