Academia’s Underclass

Academia’s underclass is real, and I am not referring to freshmen and sophomores. Of course, it has to be a foreign publication that carries this story because the American corporate media will not talk about this issue. Please take a quick read and return: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars.

. . . .

Welcome back. I saw that article when it came out. I couldn’t get through much of it without feeling horrible for the whole education system and the people it abuses.

Tuition fees keep rising but pay to lecturers keeps decreasing. The millions in tuition increases go to non-academic buildings and non-academic administrators and “consultants.” The non-academic administrators increasingly downsize lecturer posts to adjuncts who are academia’s underclass and are paid a third or less. These non-academic administrators are deliberately creating academia’s underclass.

Let me be clear: an adjunct lecturer is often paid only one-third what a “normal” full-time lecturer is paid even when they have the exact same qualifications.

Adjunct office. Many universities do not provide space for adjuncts to meet with their students.

The plight of adjuncts is very real and I have seen it myself. I knew a guy who had been an adjunct for 15 years and was still making crap wages. He was paid less for three classes than a full-time professor at the same institution was paid for one class. I met a…