Today’s Consternation

Whine whine whine. I know it’s a summer class, but why do my students complain all the time? I mean, it’s a 1:30 pm class, so no excuses for being tired, right?

Wrong.

So finally I had to get tough and tell my students, “Hey, I think you’re whining because you see me as an easy professor.” They smiled. My turn to turn on them, so I said, “Okay. I think I’m changing the course requirements and I’ll have you take tests every week instead of take home papers.” Instant silence.

What does it take to get respect these days as an adjunct professor? Does it mean I have to be mean and rigid so students don’t dare whine to me about them being tired?

Who knows the answer? Not me. Especially at my meager salary. Why give it so much thought?

Lowly Adjunct

I am your child’s college professor. Not literally, of course. But at least 60% of the time a college student is taught by someone like myself. I get paid by the class, with no benefits, to the tune of anywhere between $2,000 – $3,000 per class. Sounds like a lot? Fifteen weeks of class, at say, my top pay of $3,000, so to get the math easy I can get $200 each week for a 3 1/2 hour class. $57 per teaching hour, your say? Not bad?

But that’s if you sit on your ass and do nothing the rest of the week. That hourly rate doesn’t include a few hours of prep work each week, grading papers, creating exams, attending a few meetings with students. Add in another 3 1/2 hours per week. Which means my hourly rate jumps down to less than $30 per hour. So after all the taxes I take home less than $20 per hour.

Now think of it this way. I teach about ten classes a year (double the normal load for tenured professors earning four times my salary) and I earn less than $25,000 per year.

Yup. You’re right. IT SUCKS!

Why write this blog? Partially to bitch off. Okay. But also, to let the world know — especially that ever growing world of parents paying upwards of $45,000 per college — that their child’s teacher is probably earning less than what they hope their kid will earn his/her first year out of college.

Pathetic.

So why do I do it?

Sadly, because I love teaching.