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Old 01-18-2015, 04:48 AM
Status: "Wishing all the best of health and peace!" (set 10 days ago)
 
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It is a shame that an educated person teaching at the college/university level doesn't get a decent living wage. Don't you think so?
College Professor With Masters Lives in Poverty AnonHQ
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Old 01-18-2015, 04:55 AM
 
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Originally Posted by Chava61 View Post
It is a shame that an educated person teaching at the college/university level doesn't get a decent living wage. Don't you think so?
College Professor With Masters Lives in Poverty AnonHQ
Chava, the traditional academic is a saturated career. For the longest time it's been excruciating just to land a tenured spot and that was before the '09 recession. Some enterprising academics made more money by instead teaching at the primary or secondary level, or offering private lessons.
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Old 01-19-2015, 09:11 AM
Status: "Wishing all the best of health and peace!" (set 10 days ago)
 
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Originally Posted by Forest_Hills_Daddy View Post
Chava, the traditional academic is a saturated career. For the longest time it's been excruciating just to land a tenured spot and that was before the '09 recession. Some enterprising academics made more money by instead teaching at the primary or secondary level, or offering private lessons.
I don't think that is exactly accurate. The universities wanted to cut costs. So instead of hiring full time instructors with benefits, they hire adjuncts part-time with no benefits and low pay. Not everyone is suited to teach children with all the discipline issues that go with teaching primary and/or secondary students.
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Old 01-19-2015, 09:14 AM
 
Location: Southeast, where else?
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You would think with the non-stop increase in college tuitions, far outpacing inflation, and the social rhetoric of pay more for others this chap would be in good shape? Perhaps they should weigh-in with their left leaning colleagues for a bailout?

What? Not a chance?

Besides, Thoreau overrated but, those Math and Science skills did indeed turn out to be much more valuable, huh?
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Old 01-19-2015, 11:22 AM
 
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Simply put, there aren't a lot of fulltime college professorships. Most are now adjunct which means part time and no benefits. Yet colleges keep increasing tuition and people wonder where it goes which is another debate. I was a college professor but got tired of working for little money and no advancement.

ETA: I see she teaches at the college I graduated from. Not surprised since they tend to rip off both students and teachers and most teachers there are part time.

Last edited by Idon'tdateyou; 01-19-2015 at 11:52 AM..
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Old 01-20-2015, 04:18 AM
 
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Originally Posted by Chava61 View Post
I don't think that is exactly accurate. The universities wanted to cut costs. So instead of hiring full time instructors with benefits, they hire adjuncts part-time with no benefits and low pay.
Therefore it is a saturated career, as I put it. To phrase it another way, if this so called "adjunct" resigned, there would be many other people lined up to take his or her place since the university can substitute full timers for part timers.

It's been like this for a long time and it's not just adjuncts who are paid less. Even FT non tenured faculty get paid a pittance and they bounce around from one university to another until they can land that coveted tenured spot. There are Harvard PhDs who get denied tenure even in state universities. What this article is saying is nothing surprising or new.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chava61 View Post
Not everyone is suited to teach children with all the discipline issues that go with teaching primary and/or secondary students.
Well, that's life - same is true for many industries where there is a big supply of job applicants. What happens to people who "are not suited" for jobs that are in demand? Either they make themselves suitable or they settle for whatever they can get. In my kid's school, there are teachers who also lecture in nearby universities. Or join the corporate world, do private tutoring, immigrate, etc. The same article you posted mentions looking into alternative careers.

Last edited by Forest_Hills_Daddy; 01-20-2015 at 04:46 AM..
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Old 01-20-2015, 05:23 AM
Status: "Wishing all the best of health and peace!" (set 10 days ago)
 
43,459 posts, read 44,172,248 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Forest_Hills_Daddy View Post
Therefore it is a saturated career, as I put it. To phrase it another way, if this so called "adjunct" resigned, there would be many other people lined up to take his or her place since the university can substitute full timers for part timers.

Well, that's life - same is true for many industries where there is a big supply of job applicants. What happens to people who "are not suited" for jobs that are in demand? Either they make themselves suitable or they settle for whatever they can get. In my kid's school, there are teachers who also lecture in nearby universities. Or join the corporate world, do private tutoring, immigrate, etc. The same article you posted mentions looking into alternative careers.
I don't think that the word "saturated" is really accurate as the universities charge more and more tuition and should hire a few full timers rather than many part-timers. Not everyone can make themselves suitable if their personal situation or financial circumstances don't give them that opportunity to change easily.
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Old 01-20-2015, 06:25 AM
 
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Originally Posted by Chava61 View Post
I don't think that the word "saturated" is really accurate as the universities charge more and more tuition and should hire a few full timers rather than many part-timers. Not everyone can make themselves suitable if their personal situation or financial circumstances don't give them that opportunity to change easily.
Careers being saturated has little to do with revenue. It has much more to do with supply of workers and available employers. Take a Stony Brook organic chem class for example. There is only 1 tenured professor teaching a class of 300-400 students. That professor is assisted by around 12 TAs who are either grad students or persistent undergrads. There is nothing stopping Stony Brook from using 12 underpaid TAs instead of 12 tenured faculty. That's how businesses operate. If a TA resigns, another one will take the place. If the tenured professor resigns, there are legions of other applicants to take the place.

When you have so many job applicants chasing so few openings, you have a saturated market. This is not unique to the academe, nor is this a new problem. Time and again the only feasible way of coping has been to switch or alter careers.
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Old 01-24-2015, 12:03 PM
Status: "Wishing all the best of health and peace!" (set 10 days ago)
 
43,459 posts, read 44,172,248 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Forest_Hills_Daddy View Post

When you have so many job applicants chasing so few openings, you have a saturated market. This is not unique to the academe, nor is this a new problem. Time and again the only feasible way of coping has been to switch or alter careers.
I agree that switching or altering careers is good idea when possible. But not everyone can do that depending their life circumstances!
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Old 01-24-2015, 12:30 PM
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She's not a professor. She's part time faculty. What was she expecting from a part time teaching gig? Doing some quick math, she's working maybe 20-25 hours/week. She's getting paid like a grad student because she works like a grad student.

She should have a real job and teach a class or two on the side if she wants. She shouldn't be making a career of working part time teaching English.
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