Effect of Adjunct Faculty on University Teaching

Braverman's analysis of the changing division of labor is crucial for understanding the impact of the neoliberal assault on higher education on academic labor. Much like Taylorism a century ago, adjunctification of the faculty, online education, and data driven planning are rationalizing academic labor. Teaching is being " unbundled " and its components parts automated, outsourced, and transferred to a growing middle level administration. As a result, faculty are becoming " just-in-time, " deskilled, disempowered, contingent labor. This newly emerging new division of labor is fundamentally transforming higher education. No longer merely subject to commercialization, academic labor is being reorganized to resemble the interchangeable contingent work that is ubiquitous throughout the labor market. To resist these developments it is necessary for faculty to study the new division of academic labor in order to devise new organizing tactics and strategies, such as the systemwide local and Metro organizing models.

As universities increasingly employ adjunct faculty in both teaching and research positions, how these individuals influence university governance, university research, and university instruction becomes of greater concern. The conditions in which adjunct faculty work are disparate to those of ladder faculty are exploitive, which dampens the contributions they make to the university ecosystem. This also poses a threat to academic freedom from both teaching and research perspectives.  In a nation where universities are quickly shifting more towards a part-time faculty majority, effective organizational inclusion and utilization is essential.

The distinction between adjunct faculty (non-tenure professors, lecturers, contingent faculty members, etc.) and ladder faculty (tenured and tenure-track professors) is first defined.  Then, the soaring use of adjunct faculty is quantified in nominal, real, and proportional terms.  This trend is then explained using a comprehensive set of both economic and non-economic causes for higher education’s increased use of adjunct faculty.  The consequences and implications for university governance, university research, quality of education, and faculty labor standards are reviewed.  Finally, the article concludes with recommendations for the more effective incorporation and utilization of adjunct faculty.

The reorganization of higher education has been made possible by a new division of labor that is rationalizing and deskilling college teaching. These new relations of academic labor are disempowering the profes-sorate by transferring control over teaching to a growing middle management and automating it as online distance learning. In order to respond to this threat to higher education, it is necessary to shift the focus from the commercialization of higher education to the adjunctification of the professorate. This requires a critical rethinking of organizational tactics, strategies, and objectives of academic labor organizing. Higher education is being reorganized. Privatization, disinvestment, online courses, for-profit colleges, tuition and fees, budget cuts, centralization and outsourcing of maintenance, food service and administrative services, and the use of " adjuncts " like myself have become rampant in the past four decades. The logic of the market subtly transforming the very work of teaching is obscured by discussions about commercialization. A new division of academic labor is being gradually imposed in order to expand control over academic labor, produce labor power better disciplined for contingent work, and design and build the technology to exploit that labor power. In order to develop new tactics, strategies, and objectives to respond to these threats, it is necessary to do a class analysis of the new division of academic labor. From the Mass to the Taylorized University The academic labor of the professorate is being rationalized, fragmented, deskilled, standardized, and disempowered, a process commonly called " adjunctification. " This Taylorization of academic labor is proceeding in order to increase " output " of both the exploitation of adjunct faculty and the students disciplined and trained for flexible, part-time, contingent work. 1 The adjunctification of academic labor is the dominant model for the relations of contingent labor throughout the economy. 2 Prior to World War II, higher education almost entirely served the elite and played little direct role in the disciplining of labor power. However, the wildcat

There has been little analysis of how neoliberal adjunctification and online education (OLE) are shaping a new academic division of labour in US colleges and universities. OLE rationalises academic labour by separating it from the delivery of educational content while transforming learning into the self-disciplined completion of sequential tasks (e.g. 'competency-based learning') under the panoptic surveillance of online course management systems (CMS). OLE is subtly shifting the very hidden curriculum of higher education to meet the needs of global capital for a more effectively disciplined labour force that can work contingently and remotely with little or no overt coercion. This analysis of the process by which OLE is rationalising academic labour draws upon the ideas of Foucault and Tronti to argue that OLE is a tool for producing a type of disciplined labour that breaks down the borders between productive and reproductive labour in order to colonise all life as work.

This brown bag discussion is aimed at shedding light on the conversion of university faculty positions into temporary jobs and the effect on the quality of instruction.
Michael Behrent, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University, will discuss the problem of contingent academic labor in the context of the corporatization of higher education. The history of adjunctification, as well as how it relates to broader trends in our economy and society, will be considered.
A question-and-answer session will follow.
The event will be held in the Toy Lounge on the fourth floor of Dey Hall just northwest of Wilson Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill quad. Map: http://www.unc.edu/toylounge/map.php
The event is hosted by Faculty Forward North Carolina, a voluntary group uniting all faculty across the state of North Carolina to advocate for a system of higher education that values instruction, faculty and students. For more information, see www.facebook.com/FacultyForwardNC. On Twitter: @NCFaculty.

Lebanon, like other countries, has a special interest in conserving the integrity, quality, and fairness of its higher education, especially that it serves approximately 200,000 students registered in the scholastic year 2017-2018; these students injected millions of dollars into the private institutions. Students are seen as customers whose satisfaction and comfort jump to the front and prevail as the main doctrine that governs the educational process. The student-as-customer concept is a fundamental factor that plays a major role in educational institutions, even the traditional non-profit ones that basically depend on tuition fees incurred by the number of enrolled students in order to cover their inflated budgets; hence, the need to have satisfied stakeholder —students. This orientation has made the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) a key criterion to evaluate the teaching process; especially since SET is currently used to assess and improve teaching and learning processes. F...

The campaign for a New Deal for Higher Education in the United States must address the fact that more than two-thirds of faculty members in higher education today are temporary employees working in demoralizing gig-economy conditions, too many of whom suffer from low pay, large class sizes, and excessive workloads that punish rather than reward excellent teaching.

This study examines the perspectives of adjunct (short-term contract) faculty teaching at offshore branch campuses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The rise of the global adjunct labor class and the expansion of universities to overseas markets in the form of branch campuses are just two examples of the extension of neoliberal and consumerist ideology to higher education. While the problems of implementing corporate-style practice and policy in higher education is much critiqued in the literature, this research centers on the intersection of the two issues just mentioned. The primary motivations for undertaking this study were to explore a) branch campus adjuncts' perceptions of being connected to their university community, and b) the possible impact of their labor conditions on pedagogical conditions. Five adjuncts from four separate branch campuses were interviewed, and the semi-structured interviews analyzed using a critical discourse analysis approach. The findings revealed that the adjuncts often felt isolated from their branch campus and considered themselves to be carrying out the educational mission of the home campus despite having no contractual relationship with the home campus. I argue that the working conditions of the adjuncts have a negative impact on teaching experience and, to a degree, on pedagogy. A more formalized employment relationship between branch campus adjuncts and the home campus is recommended, as well as the provision of professional development and research engagement opportunities for adjuncts.


تبحث ھذه الدراسة في وجھات نظر المدرسین الملحقین في فروع الجامعات في دبي، الإمارات العربیة المتحدة. إن صعود الطبقة العاملة العالمیة الملحقة وتوسع الجامعات إلى الأسواق الخارجیة في شكل فروع جامعیة لیست سوى مثالین على امتداد الإیدیولوجیة النیولیبرالیة والاستھلاكیة إلى التعلیم العالي. على الرغم من أن مشكلة تطبیق ممارسات وسیاسات النمط التجاري في التعلیم العالي قد تعرضت لنقد كبیر في الأدبیات، فإن ھذا البحث یركز على تقاطع المثالین الموصوفین. كانت الدوافع الرئیسیة لإجراء ھذه الدراسة ھي استكشاف 1( مفاھیم ملحقي فروع الجامعات لكونھم مرتبطین بمجتمع الجامعة؛ 2( ما تأثیر ظروف عملھم على الظروف التربویة. لجمع البیانات، أجریت مقابلات مع خمسة مدرسین ملحقین من أربعة فروع جامعیة منفصلة. تم تحلیل المقابلات شبھ المنظمة باستخدام منھج تحلیل الخطاب النقدي. وكشفت النتائج أن الملحقین غال ًبا ما شعروا بالعزلة عن حرمھم الجامعي واعتبروا أنفسھم ینفذون المھمة التعلیمیة للحرم الجامعي المحلي رغم عدم وجود علاقة تعاقدیة لھم داخل الحرم الجامعي. أنا أزعم أن ظروف عمل الملحقین لھا تأثیر سلبي على ممارسة التدریس. توصي الدراسة بخلق علاقة توظیف أكثر رسمیة بین الملحقین في الحرم الجامعي الفرعي والحرم الجامعي الداخلي، بالإضافة إلى توفیر فرص التطویر المھني والبحث للمشاركة للمدرسین الملحقین.

The conceptual frameworks that support the widespread practice of adjuncting in academia—as well as those that oppose it—have been evident since the founding of the US, allowing adjuncting to be analyzed within a historical context. This paper considers influences as broad as tensions in utilitarianism, applications for markets, the liberatory role of education, and the impetus for the American Revolution.  It argues that educational institutions are designed to facilitate peace, which promotes prosperity. However, the current trend of incorporating alleged “market values” into educational systems fails to maximize happiness, facilitate learning, liberate individuals, and support the American dream.

M: In your article for Workplace, "Tenure Denied," you describe how the NYU administration rated you about as highly as an assistant professor can be rated—you had some pretty stellar accomplishments over a very short period of years. You were essentially a model for the superachieving young faculty member. The administration changed its tone of approval shortly after you supported the unionization of graduate student employees at NYU, eventually denying you tenure.

A response to the now-infamous Stukel letter, calling adjuncts a bunch of whiners and asking whether they should be allowed to teach our young. I take on the mythologies of Ayn Rand inspired neoliberalism and its denial and obfuscation of systemic and institutionalized inequalities. In so doing, I show that it was not "tumblers," as Stukel would have it, but rather a collection of people who used a system that allows them to deny their own participation.

This study examines the perspectives of adjunct (short-term contract) faculty teaching at offshore branch campuses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The rise of the global adjunct labor class and the expansion of universities to overseas markets in the form of branch campuses are just two examples of the extension of neoliberal and consumerist ideology to higher education. While the problems of implementing corporate-style practice and policy in higher education is much critiqued in the literature, this research centers on the intersection of the two issues just mentioned. The primary motivations for undertaking this study were to explore a) branch campus adjuncts' perceptions of being connected to their university community, and b) the possible impact of their labor conditions on pedagogical conditions. Five adjuncts from four separate branch campuses were interviewed, and the semi-structured interviews analyzed using a critical discourse analysis approach. The findings revealed that the adjuncts often felt isolated from their branch campus and considered themselves to be carrying out the educational mission of the home campus despite having no contractual relationship with the home campus. I argue that the working conditions of the adjuncts have a negative impact on teaching experience and, to a degree, on pedagogy. A more formalized employment relationship between branch campus adjuncts and the home campus is recommended, as well as the provision of professional development and research engagement opportunities for adjuncts. ‫ﻠ‬ ‫ﺣ‬ ‫ﻘ‬ ‫ﯾ‬ ‫ن‬ .

So a few years ago, I decided to make some lifestyle changes and left my career as an investment advisor to teach on-line and work from home. This provided a means to reduce my expenses, nominalize my income taxes, spend more time with my young family, and enjoy the tranquility next to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Lebanon, like other countries, has a special interest in conserving the integrity, quality, and fairness of its higher education, especially that it serves approximately 200,000 students registered in the scholastic year 2017-2018; these students injected millions of dollars into the private institutions. Students are seen as customers whose satisfaction and comfort jump to the front and prevail as the main doctrine that governs the educational process. The student-as-customer concept is a fundamental factor that plays a major role in educational institutions, even the traditional non-profit ones that basically depend on tuition fees incurred by the number of enrolled students in order to cover their inflated budgets; hence, the need to have satisfied stakeholder —students. This orientation has made the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) a key criterion to evaluate the teaching process; especially since SET is currently used to assess and improve teaching and learning processes. Faculty members who are considered by the students, non-lenient, serious, strict, and highly demanding are put under pressure, if not penalized, irrespective if it is fair or not, hence leading to the former being frustrated. This research provides an insight into the frustration state of the faculty members at certain Lebanese universities due to the importance which is given to SET and its effects on the educational procedure and their careers per se. This research is exploratory and quantitative using a survey questionnaire distributed to 146 faculty members. Data is analyzed using SPSS software. Findings reveal that the majority of the said faculty members have a negative view of the SET evaluation process in terms of format, and the content of the corresponding questionnaires; results are seen as being ineffective and inappropriate means of evaluation. The SET evaluation process is complicated and the assessment survey differs from one university to another. Outcomes of this paper serve policymakers at the higher education institutions when setting the institution's mission and vision and purpose; it may direct the continuous efforts to create agreed upon teaching and learning quality standards.

This study examines the perspectives of adjunct (short-term contract) faculty teaching at offshore branch campuses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The rise of the global adjunct labor class and the expansion of universities to overseas markets in the form of branch campuses are just two examples of the extension of neoliberal and consumerist ideology to higher education. While the problems of implementing corporate-style practice and policy in higher education is much critiqued in the literature, this research centers on the intersection of the two issues just mentioned. The primary motivations for undertaking this study were to explore a) branch campus adjuncts' perceptions of being connected to their university community, and b) the possible impact of their labor conditions on pedagogical conditions. Five adjuncts from four separate branch campuses were interviewed, and the semi-structured interviews analyzed using a critical discourse analysis approach. The findings revealed that the adjuncts often felt isolated from their branch campus and considered themselves to be carrying out the educational mission of the home campus despite having no contractual relationship with the home campus. I argue that the working conditions of the adjuncts have a negative impact on teaching experience and, to a degree, on pedagogy. A more formalized employment relationship between branch campus adjuncts and the home campus is recommended, as well as the provision of professional development and research engagement opportunities for adjuncts. ‫ﻠ‬ ‫ﺣ‬ ‫ﻘ‬ ‫ﯾ‬ ‫ن‬ .

M: In your article for Workplace, "Tenure Denied," you describe how the NYU administration rated you about as highly as an assistant professor can be rated— you had some pretty stellar accomplishments over a very short period of years. You were essentially a model for the super-achieving young faculty member. The administration changed its tone of approval shortly after you supported the unionization of graduate student employees at NYU, eventually denying you tenure.
The union filed suit with NLRB, alleging wrongful denial of tenure on the grounds that it was an illegal retaliation against your pro-union stance.
Can you tell the result of that investigation?

Part of a journal section devoted to "Adventures in Adjuncting." This brief article explores the relational/communal aspects of adjunct teaching -- with both an insider narrative and a biblical discussion. The common experience of adjunct instructors often transcends the nature of the educational institution, but those who teach at private Christian universities have other factors to consider, including the distinct roles of the Church and university.

The advent of "administrative excellence" at a Dutch university at the end of the last century/beginning of the current one and its doleful consequences. An article in a book I edited with Steffen Hantke,  Gypsy Scholars, Migrant Teachers, and the Global Academic Proletariat: Adjunct Labour in Higher Education.  Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2007.