Anyway, LGM/Loomis has a post up that's kind of a labour-sympathetic labour-market perspective on adjunct professorships.
Adjuncts should probably go on a general strike to force improvements in their conditions. But to be honest, most adjuncts should also quit their jobs and find something else to do.The post -- and the comments -- give me the impression that the situation in the US is actually worse than it is in Canada, disgraceful as it seems to be here. (I'm not in that world.) Loomis thinks it would be useful if adjuncts could organize. Here in Toronto, by contrast, we have been in the midst of a couple of strikes and of narrowly averted strikes by contract faculty -- highlighted by reports that up to 60% of classes are now taught by non-tenured staff.
For an image of how depraved academia has become, check out the discussion of "textbook farming" as an income source in the LGM comments. Ivory towers, clay feet.
Image: Matt Groening, Life is Hell
