One of the laments one often hears in higher ed circles is how terrible it is that some colleges and universities rely to a significant extent on adjunct professors to do much of the teaching. They don’t have tenure, they don’t get the benefits enjoyed by full-time faculty… And in this article, an official in the Nevada higher ed establishment bleats that “We don’t pay them anything. It’s an absolute disgrace.”
Dry your eyes. Of course adjunct faculty members are paid. They are paid enough to choose to accept the work rather than whatever their next-best choice for the use of their time would be. They don’t get benefits? Big deal. If the benefits package were important to them, they wouldn’t take the job. They don’t have tenure? Big deal. Nothing so induces a ho-hum attitude like tenure.
The good thing about adjuncts is that they are paid to teach, and if they do so well enough, they get invited back to teach again. They aren’t being paid to do research that no one wants to read, much less pay for.
