Adjunct Law Prof Blog

So You Want To Be An Adjunct

The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a Special Report entitled "The State of Adjunct Professoriate". While directed at college adjuncts, much of it could be directed at law schools as well. Basically, adjuncts routinely are paid terribly and do not do it for the money. Rather, they adjunct out of a love for teaching. Some of the articles in this series include:

You're an Adjunct? Why?

By Audrey Williams June

Adjuncts don't make much money, but for many, the time spent with students makes it all worthwhile. The Chronicle went to Chicago to give you a glance inside the minds of adjunct professors.

• At a 2-Year College, Adjuncts Feel Left Out
• Full-Timers Shoulder Burdens, Too
  
• Chronicle Survey: A Rare Look Into Adjuncts' Work Lives

Frankly, with respect to lawyers who adjunct, some have a different motivation. Quite simply adjuncting looks good and some lawyers may use their position as a way to obtain clients.

As for me, I adjunct for several reasons. I like it. I get a chance to do good, make some pocket change and see what it is like to be real prof.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Adventures of An Adjunct

The AFL-CIO ran an interesting posting about an adjunct at U. Mass., available here. The point of the story is that the Adjunct loved his job, but was underpaid and that about 70% of colleges classes are taught by adjuncts. As the article states:

The pay came in handy, but if I figured it out by the hour, I was making half what a bench-hand makes in the factory where I work. And for me it was a side-job. Most adjuncts are professors who can’t get full-time work and hustle from school to school, without health care benefits or pensions. I have no idea how they make it. About 70 percent of college instruction today is by adjuncts. Just another cheap labor pool in today’s America. 

I read the final papers and took a deep breath. Somebody had been listening. The student evaluations (written by those who were still showing up) were positive. Nearly half of the students used the word “passionate” to describe my teaching, so they got that part. An accounting major—who understood mainstream economics better than I did—told me he got more out of my class than anything that semester. 

One student started volunteering for Jobs with Justice and planned to switch his major to labor studies. The department was happy with my work. 

Honestly, by May I was just relieved that it was over.

Mitchell H.  Rubinstein

 

Adjunct Professor Spitzer

Disgraced former Governor Elliot Spitzer starts a new job on Tuesday. He will be an adjunct professor of Political Science at CUNY. Lower Hudson carried the story here.

I wonder if he applied to be a law professor. I'm guessing that he did, but no law school would hire him.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Rubinstein Quoted In Las Vegas Sun

One of the advantages of editing a blog is that you get to engage in self-promotion. The Las Vegas Sun recently interviewed me and included me my comments along side one of the giants in labor law, Bill Gould who is a prof at Stanford Law School and who served as Chair of the NLRB during the Clinton Administration. I was quoted as saying that the FLSA applies to undocumented Aliens even after the Hoffman Plastics Supreme Court decision. A copy of the article can be downloaded here. Download LasVegasSun

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Adjunct Professor Abuse

Will Teach For Tenure is an excellent June 25, 2009 article by Kevin Clarke who writes for U.S. Catholic.
It outlines how grossly underpaid adjuncts are at colleges-particularly at several Catholic universities which the article focuses on. As the article points out, in 1975 30% of profs were adjuncts. Today that number is between 50 and 70%. Why? Because adjuncts get no benefits, have no tenure and receive embarrassingly low wages.    
One might ask why is that? My answer is because the universities can get away with it. Many adjuncts teach because they like it and it is good for business. Additionally, having the word "Prof." next to you might bring you clients in your day job.
I do not believe that anyone seriously believes that having so few full timers is good for the students. Isn't it suppose to be about the students? So what is the solution?? It is time that more and more faculty seriously think about joining unions. In the private sector, there are issues with full timers unionizing because they may, repeat MAY, be considered managerial employees. However, most adjuncts are not managerial employees and there is no such restriction at public universities.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein 

So You Want To Be A FT College Prof

So You Want To Be A Professor is an interesting April 23rd Wall Street Journal Op Ed which discusses just how difficult it is to land a tenure track gig at a University. The article does not discuss law profs and the point of the editorial is that universities are producing more P.h.d.'s then there are faculty positions and they know it. One of the reasons for this is the increased use of Adjuncts. As the article points out, many P.h.d's wind up adjuncting at several schools and need a FT non-teaching job to make a living because adjunct pay is so poor. 

At the end of the article, the author questions whether adjunct teaching is any better or worse than  FT teaching.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

  

Adjunct Abuse

Inside Higher Education ran an interesting story dated March 24, 2009 entitled Adjunct Solidarity. Its about a school in Utah that presumably is having economic difficulty because of the economy. The school, is not a small school. Its Weber State with 21,000 students. What do they do? They cut adjunct pay by 7%. As you can imagine, this generated a public outcry. This brought the pay down from 2900 in change to 2700 for a 3 credit class. That comes out to a little more than $64.00 per hour assuming no expenses and no prep. or study time and no time to grade exams. Divide that number by 3 to add 3 hours a week prep and you come to 21 dollars per hour and that still does not account for time grading exams.
I hope Weber students read this and question if the university mission . ("The university prides itself in its excellent teaching, extraordinary commitment to meeting the needs of students at every stage of life and ongoing service to the community.") is being met.
Now, you might ask shouldn't everyone feel the pain. My response is that Weber's pay of adjunct is so low as to be abusive. Squeezing 200 dollars from each adjunct is not going to make a material difference to the university, but that could be take away what ever profit adjuncts make from teaching.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Hat Tip: Legal Writing Prof Blog  

More On National Coalition Of Adjunct Faculty

Adjunct Law Prof Blog posted about this new organization on Feb. 22, 2009. I have been in contact with the organizations founders and have decided to join the organizing committee. For you adjuncts out there (both college and law school), this organization is looking for members. If your interested, please contact Maria Maisto emcmaistolynch@sbcglobal.net (University of Akron) or Deb Lewis deb@northmountains.org (Technical Community College & Eastern KY University).
Note, the goals of this organization appear a bit unclear to me. I am sure that the officers would welcome any input you might have. Some of its members appear to active in faculty unions, but this organization does not appear to faculty unionization as a goal.   

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Adjunctnation.com

I just found out about a web site called Adjunct Nation. It appears to be a commercial site geared towards college adjuncts. Adjuncts of all types, however, may find this information useful. Specifically, they have a job posting board, a commercial site where books and professional teaching materials can be purchased and links to other adjunct blogs. Adjuncts may want to check this site out.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein   

National Coalition for Adjunct Faculty

There is a new organization being formed to advocate for adjuncts called the  National Coalition for Adjunct Faculty. Information about it can be found on the Lesko Blog and an article about it appeared in the Feb. 20, 2009 edition of Inside Higher Education.  The exact role of this organization seems a bit unclear as it does not appear to be designed to function as a union; instead it appears to simply be an advocacy group.

I have sent an email out requesting additional information about this organization and will post it when I hear something.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Hat Tip: Legal Writing Prof Blog

More On College Abuse of Adjuncts

And You Thought Wallmart Employees Had It Bad is a most telling December 15, 2008 article from the Huffington Post which documents the low pay and poor benefits most college adjuncts receive. As the article states:

Freeway Flyers; aka "adjunct professors", aka "teaching professionals". They're the dirty little secret of universities and colleges all around the United States. They're the PHDs with decades of teaching experience, award-winning artists, published authors whose names and reputations draw students to the universities, whose work justifies the $50,000/year tuition, raises the million-Dollar donations, earns the sought after rankings in USA Today's annual poll.

In exchange for all that, they are hired only on a part-time basis, made to sign a pledge that they will not work more than twenty hours a week and will not--not now, not ever--have a claim to health or retirement or any other kind of benefits, not even a parking pass. That they are "at will" employees who can be let go at any time, for any reason. Their salaries are so meager, they have to teach two, three, sometimes five classes a semester, at five different universities, just to pay their rent. That's why they're called Freeway Flyers. One writer I knew taught for twenty years at a Southern California college with more money than the GNP of a small country. He was paid so little, he had to supplement his income by working the graveyard shift at airport gift shops. He was the author of one of the biggest literary novels of the 20th century; when he died, his family couldn't afford to bury him. Another guy--a teacher of mine from the days when I was a student of writing--drove four hours each way to teach the same class for twenty-seven years. He made something near $3,000 a semester. He was recently let go because the school could take advantage of the rising unemployment rates to hire a younger person for less than $3,000.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Adjunct Abuse

Breadth of Adjunct Use and Abuse is an important December 3, 2008 article from Inside Higher Education. It reports on a recent report by the AFT which outlines the increasing reliance colleges have on adjuncts and the poor pay adjuncts receive. That 32 page report is available here. One rather stunning chart provides as follows:

Percentage of Undergraduate Courses at Public Colleges and Universities Taught by Contingent Instructors

Discipline	Community Colleges	Four-Year Colleges	Research Universities
Business	50.4%	31.3%	39.4%
Education	77.0%	42.5%	48.9%
Engineering/computer science	49.6%	38.0%	29.6%
Fine arts	56.8%	47.9%	41.6%
Health science	55.4%	32.6%	56.1%
Human services	71.6%	46.3%	54.0%
Humanities	60.2%	41.0%	44.6%
Life sciences	45.0%	26.7%	28.2%
Natural/physical sciences	57.6%	36.6%	34.9%
Social sciences	51.6%	34.7%	38.5%
Vocational education	54.5%	49.6%	53.2%
Total	57.5%	38.4%	41.8%

As adjuncts, we should all be concerned about this. As parents we should also all be concerned. Colleges certainly charge enough in tuition! Adjuncts can be a wonderful addition to many faculties-both college and law school. However, the key word is addition. They need also need to be paid well, just like everyone else.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Wal-Mart Treats its Part-Time Employees Better Than Universities Treat Adjuncts

Dean Paul Caron over at Tax Prof Blog posted an interesting Oct. 15, 2008 story about a Chronicle of Higher Education article which states that:

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, long criticized for its workplace policies, is a “more-honest employer” of part-time workers than colleges that employ thousands of adjunct faculty members.

Certainly, I believe that we adjuncts are grossly underpaid and underutilized. However, I personally have not experienced any dishonesty. If others have, feel free to chime in.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Adjunct College Instructior Not Eligibile For Unemployment Insurance

Matter of LoRe v. Suffolk Community College, ___A.D. 3d ___(3d Dep't. August 7, 2008), is an important case for us adjuncts. Unfortunately, the decision is very poorly written. 

The professor applied for unemployment for weeks where she only worked one day. The court found her ineligible because her weekly compensation was more than $405 per week, the max. someone could earn and still be eligible for unemployment.

This decision is an important one to be aware of. If an Adjunct looses their full time non-teaching job, this case probably will prevent them from obtaining unemployment if there Adjunct job pays them more than $405 per week.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Law Review Article About Use Of Adjunct Professors

David Lander, Are Adjuncts a Benefit or a Detriment?, 33 U. Dayton L. Rev. 285 (2008), may be of interest to readers.  It is about the use of adjunct's by law schools. The abstract provides:

This article examines the benefits and detriments of the increasing use of adjuncts rather than Full time faculty in the teaching of law school courses. The author presents and analyzes the results of a survey on the use of adjunct during one semester in the 2007-2008 school year.The article turns the spotlight on the use of adjuncts to determine if increasing reliance on them is helpful and harmful. It also suggests strategies that will increase the advantages they bring to legal education and decrease the risks that are intertwined with those advantages.

The article does not contain any earth shattering information. It notes that adjuncts are cheaper and are designed to supplement the faculty with practioners. The article states that nearly  25% of law school classes are taught be adjuncts. This article is designed to be read by full time law professors and law school administrators. However, adjuncts may find this article of interest.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein   

Full Time Adjuncts

On June 17, 2008 Inside Higher Education ran an interesting story entitled Waiting 20 Years for the Tenure Track. It is not about law school adjuncts, but about college adjuncts. The article discusses how difficult it is to get a full time college appointment and how it took the author of the article 20 years to land such an appointment. The author also describes her experiences where a number of colleges treated her unfairly because she did not have tenure.  The author essentially served as a full time adjunct by teaching part time in various schools. However, she was not considered to be part of the full time faculty of any one school. The article states in part:

And then there are the classes we lose every year because of cancellations. Sometimes they are canceled because they have low enrollment. Other times, my class would be fine but a full-timer’s class would be canceled and I would be bumped so he or she could have a full load.

The insecurity is the worst thing about being a part-timer, but there are other things that make life difficult. Typically, I teach a double load in the fall (six classes) because I know I won’t have classes for the summer. During the spring I have to hustle to get four classes, and during the summer I apply for unemployment. Some years, things go smoothly, other years I have to fight to get it.

After 20 years of experience, my income fluctuated between $33,000 and $40,000 a year, depending on whether I had classes canceled for low-enrollment (which would cost me about $3,000) or if I were able to get summer classes. Most of the time, my income was on the lower end.

This article demonstrates that Adjuncts are employees like everyone else. We need the same thing as other employees need. Good working conditions, benefits and of course, a good salary. Unfortunately, as this article demonstrates, this does not always occur.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Hat Tip: Joe Hodnicki, Law Librarian Blog

ABA Adjunct Faculty Handbook

Adjunct Faculty Handbook

In 2005, the ABA published an Adjunct Faculty Handbook that was largely written by Dean Gail Richmond (Nova Southwestern) as well as several other faculty members. The name is a bit misleading because it appears to be a handbook designed for law schools as opposed to adjunct faculty. It covers such things as administration and human resource issues, access to the law library, access to photocopiers, the need to provide adjuncts with certain academic information such as the name of publishers, classroom policies, faculty evaluations, student evaluations, exams, curves, etc.

At St. John's, I was given a copy of this Handbook, a Handbook designed for Adjunct faculty, a Student Handbook and a library handout which I have found very helpful. At New York Law School, I have never been given a copy of any handbooks other than the Student Handbook. However, New York Law School puts on training programs for Adjunct faculty about twice a year which I have found to be excellent. 

Adjuncts may find the ABA Faculty Handbook of interest.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

 

Information For College Adjuncts

College Adjuncts might be interested in www.adjunctcentral.com and www.adjunctprofessoronline.com

The later cite has some interesting postings about college adjunct salaries and faculty unions.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

2d Review Of Adjunct Impact-Law Professors Should Stay Away and College Profs Should Exercise Caution If They Use It

On January 16, 2008, I reviewed Adjunct Impact. That review is available here. The co-developer of the program e-mailed me and asked me to review the program again, which I agreed to do. She also left a comment on my Jan. 16th posting which I published.

Sorry, my opinion about the program's utility has not changed and I frankly now have a distaste for it. I would recommend that college adjuncts exercise caution if they want to use this program. Why is that? What is not obvious from the program is that an administrator at the college can review the adjunct's use of the program. In an email to me from the co-developer, for example, she was able to tell me what portions of her program I looked at and which portions I did not open. In her email to me she states:

  In another email I will show you how we can monitor the progress of adjuncts for assessment and accountability for institutional quality.  As a ed lawyer you know the risk management liabilities of adjuncts.  Boy can I tell you stories!!!!

No, boy can I tell you stories about teacher being abused by administrations. The last thing that we adjuncts need is a bean counter trying to review our performance. By and large we support the university, are underpaid and teach out of the love of teaching or a desire to give back. We each have our own styles and if an administrator wants to review our performance, let them come to class, speak with our students and review the student reviews. 

Now I know that most administrators are fair, but I also know that politics runs wild at some colleges. I am just not comfortable with Big Brother watching.

If the goal is to develop a program designed to truly enhance a professors ability to educate, I believe that the developer should consider dropping the bean counter nature of the program and open it up to all faculty members. Adjunct faculty members should have the same access to resources as full-timers.

Now, in fairness I am a union lawyer who regularly represents K-12 teachers in disciplinary matters and who has also represented faculty members and local unions in community colleges and pubic universities. Therefore, I may be a bit more sensitive to an administrator having the ability to look over an adjunct shoulder than most.

I also have not taught on the college level in 20 years and never taught on the community college level. Therefore, if you have any interest in this program I would encourage you to take your own look at the program (registration is currently free) and make up your own mind.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein          

Adjunct Impact-For Law Professors Not Worth It

I just took a look at Adjunct Impact (free trial available). I do not believe that it is a useful tool for most law professors, but some Adjuncts at smaller colleges may find it somewhat useful. Basically, Adjunct Impact is a program which allows classwork to be continued and supplemented online. It includes items such as a syllabus builder, a message board and a lounge where students and the professor can converse with each other.

However, both TWEN and LEXIS already do a much better job in providing the same type of online course work. Each of those programs also have the ability to link to statutes and cases that might be discussed in class. I believe all law schools have access to TWEN and Lexis so I see no use for this program on the law school level. The additional information provided, such as a checklist for the first day of class which includes the class roster are so obvious that they contribute nothing.

However, I recognize that all colleges-particular small community colleges-may not utilize TWEN or Lexis's Blackboard program. For those few colleges, this program may be worth it. As any professor who has used TWEN can tell you, communicating online has changed the way education is practiced.

I am not sure why the program is called Adjunct Impact because it seems to me that the program would be useful to full time community college professors as well if they do not access to a similar program.

An article about this program that ran in Insider Higher Education is available here.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein