just got off the phone w/ a grad school pal who gave up on the job market. adjuncted max load at 3-4 campuses, barely got by. this summer she landed a job with a curriculum development company. she makes 2x what she made and has full benefits, works M-F, is treated like a person.

she is the best writing/literature teacher you could possibly imagine--a pedagogical marvel, beloved of her students, a highly regarded teacher, because she loves teaching. she adjuncted for YEARS, barely eking out a living, without health benefits. for years. she's not dumb...

...she is, like so many of us, deeply committed to the value of *sharing* an education, particularly with first-ben students. the kind of prof students would be LUCKY to have. but academe treated her as disposable and interchangeable. a gap-filler. and she couldn't make it work.

she said she has gone from being invisible, a ghost, to a valued employee who is treated like a person, at a company that foregrounds the well-being of its employees and safety during COVID. and she has health insurance, vision, dental. and she can more than make ends meet.

I am happy for her to move from financial precarity to stability. but I'm indignant that outstanding teaching professors, as she is, can't land a full-time job. 75% of professors in the US are adjuncts. temp labor, w/ just-in-time staffing, paid a pittance for true expertise.

and I just think of @tressiemcphd's Lower Ed: everybody's gotta have a degree, a credential, but society is going to offload a former public good onto individual students/families, let the profiteers flourish off the scramble for the degree, and leave education & educators behind

society to the working-class families: "get a college degree. it's so important. no upward mobility without it!" society to colleges: "sorry, we're slashing your funding. make up the difference however you can." colleges to students: "this unique college experience for $50k!"...

...per year!"
colleges to PhDs: "yeah, demand for college degrees is way up. yeah, we should totally hire more profs to teach. here's $3,000 to teach a class of 50." college one week later: "oh, sorry, one of our full time faculty needs that class. best of luck finding a gig!"

One semester my friend taught 11 CLASSES. Two classes at our university (part of grad student funding) and 3 classes each at 3 different cc systems in the area. at the time our graduate stipend was $10,000 per year. PER. YEAR.