Once Upon a Time in Adjunctland

When I was an adjunct, I was desperately seeking full-time employment. One job I applied for required a reference from a current employer. I had three to pick from, and I thought I had chosen the one who would be most supportive.

And, in a way, I had. He wrote a wildly enthusiastic recommendation letter.

And then he took away the two classes he had scheduled for me to teach in the fall.

In his defense, he wasn't being vindictive. He sincerely believed, as he explained to me, that I would get the job since he couldn't imagine anyone better qualified.

What he was suffering from was insufficient imagination. I didn't even get an interview.

This is why full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty need to be aware of the plight of the adjunct. Because there had not been an opening in his department for years (hello, we have adjuncts. Who needs an opening?), he didn't have any idea about the intense competition for every job out there. He didn't know how tenuous my grasp on my mortgage was. He probably didn't know I didn't have health insurance.

I was able to scrounge other courses at other colleges - fortunately, he had cut me from the schedule early. If I hadn't, I would have gone back to retail . . .

If I had, maybe you'd be reading a fashion blog right now instead of this one . . .