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Perhaps you can consider relocating to be near him, wherever he grows roots.
I have no desire to move to Kazakhstan which is where he seems to have set some roots. We still have 14 year old at home and need to give them stability! But he had it written in his contract that they pay for a trip home every 6 months so that makes me happy. I know some folks who have kids who live only a few hundred miles away and they barely see them once a year so I try not to complain.
I have absolutely no sympathy for university faculty claiming to be underpaid.
I had a BA in History, and let's just say that even from a top university a BA in History is not that valued. I saw a number of advertising, publishing, copywriting jobs that were looking for people with English BAs, and when I applied low and behold I did not get any callbacks.
So I had some friends who had humanities BAs who taught English overseas. Some of the ESL jobs required a TEFL certificate, so I took that course online. The really good ESL jobs overseas require a masters in the teaching of English, TESOL, applied linguistics, or English lit. I ended up getting licensed to teach ESL and taught it for awhile in NY, and then I got into grad school (MA in Teaching of English) and soon I will graduate with my masters.
Keep in mind ANYONE who is able to get an advanced degree has some degree of privilege.
ANY phd can get professional jobs or go the corporate or government route, thought it may take additional training, education, or licensing to do so.
Bottom line if your job doesn't pay well or the working conditions are poor, if you stay on it YOU are a BIG PART of the PROBLEM because you are tolerating those conditions you claim abusive. So if it is terrible working as an ADJUNCT, QUIT if you can't financially sustain yourself and move on to something else.
To the person who said I am very young and naive, I'm actually older and I did quite a number of things in between undergrad and when I finally ended up going to grad school. I know it can be read as some sort period of time ,but it was quite awhile and I am nowhere near YOUNG.
People are responsible for their own careers. Not the university. So if the university isn't paying you or treating you the way you would like to be treated, you need to be responsible for yourself and go out for a better job. Otherwise that is all YOUR FAULT.
It make take additional courses for certification (or not depending on the state) but one could work in the k-12 system as a teacher or even go into administration. You'd probably need to take some courses on pedagogy.
Or with degrees in the humanities you can work on Wall Street, the publishing sector, film or tv, etc. though these options do requiring additional learning.
No one is reducing to joblessness because they have a background in the humanities, but you will have to be flexible and open minded.
This is something I've considered. I've considered adjunct positions once I'm finished with my program (MFA), but am also considering jobs outside academia, especially publishing and film/TV. I also plan to get certified to teach 6-12 social studies/religious studies, which can be useful. It's not my first choice, but it's an option.
You could also try community college. The environment seemed much more laid back when I was there and I have to say most of my professors seemed happy there. They seemed to have plenty of time to meet with students and things like that, as well as more freedom to teach the way they wanted (my biology I professor in particular made his class a lot of fun, with a lot of outdoors assignments). I respected all of them, they were good teachers, not people who couldn't get jobs in 4 years but people who seemed to genuinely enjoy teaching in that environment.
5300 colleges / universities in the USA. That's a lot of applications to surmise that most treat faculty like peons.
I worked in academia for 10 years, and no faculty ever complained about how they were treated. They were all pretty happy; good money, good benefits, plenty of time off.
This is a good point. The big survey classes with 100 or more students have been taught by grad students for generations, now, in public universities, even the top-tier ones.
Not all. Undergrad was a while ago, to say the least, but CalTech rolled out their top big-name award winning professors for freshman survey classes. Why? Each academic division was doing its best to recruit the undecided major student into their own division and programs.
I worked in academia for 10 years, and no faculty ever complained about how they were treated. They were all pretty happy; good money, good benefits, plenty of time off.
There's an enormous gulf between part-time and full-time though. And contingent instructors - whether part-time adjucts or graduate students, are more than 50% of the faculty corps. Arguably it's 70%, which I think is high, but it's definitely 50% at least.
It's not that part-time adjunct instructor is a bad job, but it's an exploitative situation. The greatest tragedy is that so many part-time instructors think that doing their part-time work counts for something toward their career. It doesn't. As experience it's only marginally useful and can look very bad on a CV.
I always tell part-timers, if you work part-time for more than 3 years in a row you have probably torpedoed your chances at EVER getting a full-time position anywhere.
Also, institutions NEVER hire their own adjuncts. Never.
This wouldn't be so bad if academia did not market itself as "Changing the World for the Better!" and all that bs. They charge you high dollar tuition and give you temps and apprentices for your money. That's what I don't like. When I pay high dollar tuition, I want the dang expert tenured/tenure track faculty in my classroom, not some part-time temp or somebody inexperienced, learning the ropes as a grad student.
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