Comments (7)

1. 

   Community Member

   While I have written to nearly every government official and representative who might possibly have some influence to correct this enormous inequity, I am stymied where and how to proceed with getting it remedied since I have heard of no movement on this matter. My loan for three graduate degrees is my largest expense (and will continue to be my largest expense for another 25 years), as well as the means by which I am able to contribute my expertise and talent to non-profit educational institutions, labeled "adjunct." Labeled "part time." I work 48 weeks a year, with 4 unpaid weeks off. I spend more hours working than my colleagues labeled "permanent." Labeled "full time."

   2 years ago

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2. 

   Community Member

   Adjuncts teaching at the college level spend many more hours teaching than the 3-10 for which they are paid.They certainly don't receive equal pay for equal work.... and allowing them to have their student loans forgiven would seem to be one small step towards acknowledging that "Adjuncts are educating America" (for peanuts omitted here).

   2 years ago

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3. 

   Community Member

   So-called adjunct, part-time, or contingent faculty members teach fully half the undergraduate courses in this country, according to the latest Dept. of Education figures, at compensation rates as low as a fourth of what their tenure-line peers make, sometimes for teaching the exact same courses. Contingent faculty deserve all the breaks they can get.

   2 years ago

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4. 

   bsmith

   Back in the day, scholarships, fellowships, work-study, and a little help from my parents paid for my education. I got a B.A., an M.A., an M.S., an M.Phil, and a Ph.D. with no loans, no debt. I didn't realize how lucky I was. Those who had to take out loans to finance their education and who are now educating new generations of students should have their student loans forgiven whether they teach full-time or part-time.

   2 years ago

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5. 

   Community Member

   My entire career, now going on 25 years, has been spent out of tenure stream, including full and part time teaching positions. Out of the 25 colleges and universities that hired me, only one (Knox College, Illinois) afforded me research support. I have produced a book and that research and writing was funded by my winning national fellowships (and unemployment insurance). My earnings over the 25 years are probably one-third what an academic in a full time, tenure stream position would earn. And for at least half of that 25 years,I had no health insurance and no retirement contributions. As my degree "weathered" with age, my experience counted for nothing when it came to attractiveness on the tenure-stream job market. If anything it was a liability. I used to think my circumstances were a case of bad luck (as one commentator suggests) or my own inadequacy. In fact there were conscious decisions and plans to scale back permanent employment that accumulated over the years at a wide range of institutions -- a "drift" if you will towards a contingent labor force. And within this new system, every aspect conspires to maintain a demarcation between contingent and permanent faculty, including such things as eligibility for fellowships (which often have an age of degree time cut off) and the predisposition towards "freshly minted" PhDs in hiring. Discrimination against part-time faculty on the matter of forgiveness of student loans fits into the pattern. It smacks of violation of the equal protection clause. But of course, it makes perfectly good sense in the logic of social control over both the tenure stream faculty (who are encouraged to see themselves as superior and having a stake in the status quo) and the contingent faculty, who wind up having their opportunities restricted by a web of discrimination that keeps them ghetto-ized.

   2 years ago

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6. 

   habbibte

   My teaching load is much higher than a 'fulltime' 'regular' professor, and I have to endure discrimination, unequal treatment, work two or more jobs a semester just to get by, and I am in debt to the tune of a house for other people. I need a new car which I cannot afford, I need to get my son braces, which I cannot afford, I spend more money on gas to get to work and back than anyone should ever have to. Student loan forgiveness for adjuncts would go a LONG way towards righting the wrongs that higher education is perpetrating against whole generations of Americans with graduate degrees who are unable to get tenure track jobs.

   2 years ago

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7. 

   fibijiberty

   The very language used by higher educational systems is meant to keep us in our place, so it is no surprise the loan forgiveness program excludes adjuncts. When I discovered this, my anger and bitterness lasted months and was almost my undoing. I remember the discovery, particularly, as I wryly turned from the government web page to face the piles of essays spilling on my dining room table threatening to take over my home. I thought—part-time my ass!—in name only. Just that week in fact, one college admin staff had insisted I collect from their office the boxes of portfolios my students had failed to collect last semester. When picking them up, they reminded me student work must be saved for five years. I almost laughed out loud manically. Just in time I remembered my filter and that I needed classes next semester. The “part-time” moniker is a misnomer in every sense of the word. But let’s just assume we are talking class load. As an adjunct I teach six classes at four colleges. This load is considered more than full time for permanent faculty. No loan forgiveness for part-timers is just another notch on the exploitation belt.

   2 years ago

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