adjuncts

I recently discovered Invisible Adjunct which in one sense is a crying shame because the blog is "over," but I've still been browsing the archives.

One of the posts (linked above) discusses unions and adjuncts and gate keeping of the "guild" of teaching, namely, the writer believes that terminal MA's (or MS's) that teach in 4 year universities are a problem, are taking away from other people's chances at tenure (Universities don't have to offer as many tenured or even full time positions if they can hire lots of part time teachers), and that we need to be more careful who we are hiring on as faculty in a school--that people need to have PhDs in order to be teaching in 4 year institutions.

That strikes pretty close to home--I've spent the past year teaching in a 4 year institution with what was essentially a terminal MS, even though I had every intention of going back to school and have done so. Most of the people I work with, and whom I hold near and dear, are also people who earned their Masters and stopped (many even earned it online, which I find untenable and unequal to the degree I worked to earn, but if they are good instructors I'm not exactly going to complain!)

Should this school be hiring people with "real" PhD's? Tuition is already $180 per credit hour, classes are 4 credits, and we are on quarters still. That's a lot of tuition per year when students can take more than 20 credits providing sufficient academic advancement. If we employed PhDs to teach all the courses then tuition would be higher, and undoubtedly students wouldn't get all that much better of an education (perhaps even worse, as the article states).

So what does the PhD do that the MS/MA doesn't? I assume the answer is "research," although I'm currently involved in a group research project at that institution. And if adjuncts are performing research, writing grants, and teaching courses, who needs a PhD?

And that is, perhaps, exactly the question that universities are asking themselves.

Given that question, perhaps I should fear the adjunct. Will I be hired, or will an adjunct steal my job away when I do finally finish my degree? Am I part of a greater problem? And given that the money I make as a TA at my school is no where near enough money to live in the region the school is located in what ELSE am I supposed to do (other than flipping burgers, which would take more time and net me less cash) in order to make enough money to--you know--buy food?