“PSU students would be stunned to learn many of their professors work part-time odd jobs as servers, bartenders, Lyft drivers or anything else that’ll pay the bills,” said Eli Ronick, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Portland State and Chair of Membership for Portland State University Faculty Association (PSUFA).
“Many adjuncts communicate to me they are on some form of social welfare or find themselves one cancelled class away from not being able to pay rent or provide for their families,” Ronick said.
According to NPR, adjuncts across the country typically make between $20,000–25,000 annually. Across the spectrum, this has led to financial horror stories from a variety of professors.
In 2016, adjunct professors taught 47% of all classes at PSU. Being an adjunct professor in the American university system is no simple task. Adjuncts at PSU face a multitude of challenges, including unstable income, fear of job security and anxiety over being able to teach subjects they care deeply about.
“I guess for me a major challenge is pursuing my profession—the only job I’ve ever had that I really enjoyed and felt like I was really good at—in a context where I don’t actually get to be a professional,” stated Jarrod Dunham, an adjunct professor in the English department at PSU. “It’s hard to really feel professionalized in a position where you’re arbitrarily kept from working full-time. It can be near impossible to pursue the research side of my field, which is the area where most of us originally found our passion and demonstrated our chops.”
“One of the most painful aspects of being an adjunct is learning the stories from other adjuncts about the levels of disrespect they have experienced throughout their careers,” said Ariana Jacob, an adjunct professor in the PSU School of Art and Design. “I’ve met many adjuncts who worked hard to create whole programs for their department only to have someone else be hired into the full-time position that they built. Some of those adjuncts then lost their jobs altogether—others were asked to continue working part-time while the new full-time hire stepped into the role they worked so hard to create.”
Adjuncts are only allowed to operate in a part-time capacity, often so universities aren’t required to pay benefits, like health insurance. According to Jacob, the highest yearly salary most adjuncts can make at PSU is $23,468. As a result, some adjuncts split their time between various schools.
Outside of PSU, Jacob teaches at Pacific Northwest College of the Arts, paired with support from her work as an artist and other side gigs. However, “I would not be able to survive on my income in Portland at this point were it not for the added support from my partner,” Jacob said.
Dunham also teaches as an adjunct at Portland Community College. “In the past, I’ve taught at PCC Rock Creek, University of Portland and Clackamas Community College,” Dunham stated. “I’ve always taught at at least two schools simultaneously; for one year I was teaching at three.”
Jessie Herrada Nance, an adjunct professor in the English department at PSU, also works as an adjunct at PCC in order to make ends meet. According to Nance, working as an adjunct has made it particularly difficult to raise her child. “It’s hard having to split my time between schools,” Nance said. “I’d like to have the chance to put down roots somewhere and have more time to contribute to the campus community. Having to balance teaching at multiple campuses with childcare makes it hard for me to contribute at the level I would like to.”
“My first years teaching at PSU, I made so little money that I qualified for the Oregon Health Plan,” Jacob said. “But once I was making more than $16,000 per year, I didn’t qualify for OHP anymore, and it was really scary to not have any support from PSU in accessing affordable health insurance.”
In an effort to improve conditions for adjunct faculty, many part-time professors are involved with PSUFA. With 40.8% active members, PSUFA represents about 1,500 part-time faculty members every academic year.
Dunham is a steward for PSUFA, operating as a liaison for adjuncts in his department looking for support from the union.
Jacob plays a critical role as the chair of bargaining for PSUFA. The union’s primary goals are raising adjunct pay to match the lowest paid full-time faculty, supporting access to affordable healthcare and creating real job security, according to Jacob.
“Adjuncts love teaching and depend on this work,” Jacob said. “We need to be able to depend on PSU. We are also advocating for more state funding for higher education to make it more affordable for students. As adjuncts, we know what it is like to live with the burden of student debt and we are committed to ending the student debt crisis. Affordable public higher education is necessary for a democratic society, so we all need to work to change the system so higher ed is adequately supported.”
Ronick is the Chair of Membership for PSUFA. His work entails talking with fellow adjuncts about their experiences at PSU and informing them of the benefits of joining the union.
Herrada Nance is also a member of PSUFA, whose biggest concern is healthcare. “Right now, members of the union are working as part of a joint task force with members of university administration, who are researching how to support adjuncts’ access to affordable healthcare,” Nance said. “This would be huge for my family. Right now, we depend on the health insurance my spouse gets from his employer. If anything happened to his job, we would struggle to find affordable health insurance.”
When asked about the status of adjunctification at large in America, part-time professors tend to agree; it is a crisis. With COVID-19 affecting nearly every aspect of the American workforce, these teachers are fearful of the impacts it will have on their profession.
“What I know is a lot of adjuncts across the country have already lost their jobs and many, many more are likely to lose them soon,” Jacob said. “We already know PSU is projecting adjunct and grad assistant cuts for next year. Even though adjuncts cost schools so much less to employ than full-time faculty, our jobs will be cut first because the adjunct portion of a school’s budget is considered disposable.”
“Many universities are already struggling financially,” Herrada Nance said. “I’m worried hiring freezes and other economic issues will push more universities to depend on part-time contracts to cover their teaching needs. Depending on part-time work to cover a large percent of classes is not a sustainable long-term solution, and I am concerned this will worsen the trend of adjunctification in the U.S.”
While the current pandemic has incited a great deal of anxiety among adjuncts, many believe it isn’t the root of the problem. Instead, they view it as an event that has exposed systematic economic problems inside and outside the university system.
“In the bigger picture, the adjunct crisis is a manifestation or iteration of other things we’re seeing in our society: the emergence of the gig economy, the increasing financial need among most American workers for credentials beyond a high school diploma and the general trend toward privatization in our society,” Dunham stated.
“The gig economy is a phenomenon that far predates COVID-19,” Ronick said. “For years, universities nationwide have cut tenure-track and full-time positions in favor of adjuncts while at the same time implementing steep tuition hikes for students. During this same period, upper administration salaries across the country have ballooned to large six-figure sums. Until we are adequately compensated for the work we do, adjuncts will continue to be treated as cheap and expendable labor by universities, trends that will be heightened by pandemics or any other market downturn.”
Every spring, PSUFA negotiates with the university regarding policies for the following academic year. The union recently published “The Adjunct Experience Letters,” a collection of personal stories from a variety of part-time professors. PSUFA hopes these letters will shed light on the dire nature of the adjunct crisis at PSU, facilitating positive changes to the university’s adjunct policies.
Jacob believes there are five key components to fixing the adjunct crisis. First, taxing wealth and business to cultivate consistent revenue for public higher education. Second, capping all public higher education salaries at a reasonable amount. Third, bundling classes taught by adjuncts into full-time positions with benefits. Fourth, labor law reform that benefits gig workers, and fifth, electing officials who will institute universal health coverage.
“Around 50 PSU administrators and other employees make over $150,000 per year in salary, while student workers, staff and adjuncts are told there is no money for raises,” Jacob said about the salary cap.
With social distancing inhibiting opportunities for dialogue between PSUFA and the university, Jacob expects virtual negotiations to begin soon. The uncertainty of the pandemic is likely to figure prominently in the discussions. Updates on negotiations can be found on PSUFA’s website.