EP 292 Adjunct Professors Now Dominate Many Colleges: Does It Matter?

: Over the past few decades, the job of college professor has been completed transformed.  And, according to Herb Childress, for the worse.  He’s the author of ‘The Adjunct Underclass’ and questions whether we can really value higher education when we treat educators like desperate day laborers.  In order to underpin the notion of academic freedom and to encourage the life of the mind, we all imagine professors who are free to study, research and think, not to be harried because they have no security and must amass many classes, often at different schools, to cobble together a meager living at $3,500(or so)a class.  In 1975, only thirty percent of faculty held temporary or part-time positions.  By 2011, as universities faced both a decrease in public support and skyrocketing administrative costs, that number topped fifty percent.  Now, some surveys indicate that as many as seventy percent of American professors are working course to course, with few benefits, little to no security, and very low pay.  Now, that’s a trend we must discuss, particularly in light of the escalating costs of higher education.  It begs the question, then where is the money going?  Listen to this podcast and find out.

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