Crafting a Stable Career in Adjunct Teaching

Adjunct professors can reclaim their narrative in academia by proactively advocating for their needs and securing better working conditions. This episode explores key strategies on how to ask the right questions that can lead to improved stability, pay, and ultimately an enriching teaching experience. 

• The vulnerabilities adjuncts face in academia 
• The transformative power of asking targeted questions 
• Importance of understanding asynchronous teaching and its impact 
• Strategies for negotiating salary and payment structure 
• Essential inquiries about course loads and institutional support 
• Navigating online teaching expectations and resources 
• Future employment paths and advancement opportunities 
• Benefits, professional development, and adjunct networks 
• Proactive hacks to optimize adjunct positions 
• Conclusion on the importance of self-advocacy in academia

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Until next time, keep grading, keep growing, and keep making a difference in your students' lives.

Dr. Rutledge

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Grading Papers, the podcast
dedicated to supporting andempowering adjunct professors.
I'm your host, dr Randi AdidaRutledge, a 14-year adjunct
professor, and I am thrilled toembark on this journey with you.
Today, we are flipping thescript on the vulnerabilities of
adjunct professors.

(00:20):
Instead of talking about theproblems, we're giving you
solutions.
How?
By showing you how to be yourown best advocate, starting from
the interview process.
Adjunct professors often feelpowerless in their roles low pay
, no benefits, unstableschedules but what if I told you
that many of these problemscould be managed, if not

(00:43):
prevented, by asking the rightquestions up front?
Today, we're diving into theproactive strategies you can use
to negotiate better conditions,protect yourself from
unexpected pitfalls and maximizeyour opportunities as an
adjunct professor.
The power of asking the rightquestions.

(01:04):
Why adjuncts need to beproactive.
Unlike full-time faculty, youknow adjuncts don't
automatically get protectionsand benefits.
You have to advocate foryourself.
Many adjunct professors don'trealize they have the right to
ask questions before acceptingany contract.
That's where the power is.

(01:24):
You have to be proactive.
Being proactive isn't justabout the money.
It's about stability, workloadand professional growth.
You got to shift your mindset.
Adjuncting isn't just abouttaking whatever you can get.
It's about finding the rightfit for your career, your

(01:47):
finances, your work-life balance.
Did you hear what I said?
The right fit.
The interview process is yourfirst opportunity, and sometimes
the only opportunity and chance, to get the clarity that you
need.
Before signing on, think aboutit.
I got to tell you.
I remember I was so happy justto get the clarity that you need

(02:07):
.
Before signing on, think aboutit.
I got to tell you.
I remember I was so happy justto get an adjunct position and
I've taught at over 30 schools.
But this one time, doing it solong, I'm just like OK, do I
have any questions?
I asked a few questions, but Idon't ask enough questions.
So here I go, I'm acceptingthis position.
It's for 15 weeks this time andthey give me the fee because

(02:31):
I'm not really teachingface-to-face, I'm not teaching
online, I'm just doingasynchronous work.
So what is asynchronous work?
Asynchronous is when you signup to take and teach a class,
you're not really teaching it,you're just fielding emails.
You might be doing attendanceand then you're grading papers.

(02:51):
But now you know, before youstart teaching the course, you
can take a look in your learningmanagement system and then you
can see oh, I got 10 students.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, as longas I get 10 students, I still
have my class.
It's not canceled.
Let me put a pin right thereOftentimes in the adjunct world,
if you don't get the requiredrequisite of students, your

(03:13):
class is canceled.
So you don't get that money, youdon't teach, and you could have
been teaching somewhere else.
I had 10 students.
I'm thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah,I'm going to get this money.
And it was just like twentyfive or twenty eight hundred,
maybe twenty five hundred orwhatever.
It was 15 weeks.
I'm teaching asynchronous.
So how hard can it be?
Oh, let me tell you how hard itcan be when you get twenty
eight students.

(03:33):
Twenty eight students, I'mteaching data science, big data
course.
That is four assignments everyweek plus discussion times, 28
for 15 weeks.
Right, you're laughing, you'relaughing.
I hear you laughing throughthis microphone.
Now, when I got my first check,it was $250.

(03:58):
So I'm saying to myself, wow,they're paying me for training.
So I emailed the director and Isay, hey, you know, I got this
$250.
I didn't really know what it'sfor and I'm thinking it's for
the training that I took throughtheir learning management, all
the onboarding and all that.
I could be so lucky, right?
She says, oh no, in the emailwe take the money that we give

(04:20):
you and we break it up so youget a check every week.
You know what I wanted to slapmy own self?
Because here I am, you know,making an assumption that the
money I was going to get, youknow I'd get.
They break it in half and giveme half one time and half
another, and and, buddy, theybroke it down in 15 weeks and I

(04:40):
worked and worked, and worked.
I'm talking about from my nineto five.
I worked in the evenings tilltwo o'clock in the mornings,
monday through Friday.
Then my Saturday was gone, mySunday was gone.
And you know what?
This school I haven't taught atthat school since I taught one
time.
But this school was the reasonwhy I created Easy Adjunct, the

(05:03):
intelligent applications thatassist adjuncts so they can
regain 50 to 75% of their timeback.
I'm going to tell you again youhave to ask the right questions
In the interview is the onlytime that you get a chance to
get clarity before you sign on.

(05:24):
So when you think about thequestions you have to ask before
accepting an adjunct position,salary and payment structure, I
got that 2,500, or whatever itwas.
I didn't know.
It was gonna be broken up into15 weeks and $250.
I felt like a fool.
I'm telling you.
I was working 20 to 40 hours aweek for that school and I had

(05:45):
two other schools.
It was ridiculous.
So you have to ask questionslike how much is the per course
pay, when and how will I be paid?
And why does that matter?
Some schools pay per semesteror they pay biweekly or at the
end of the course and you needto know the schedule before you

(06:06):
commit, right.
Another question you want to askis all about the course load
and scheduling.
How many courses will I beguaranteed per semester?
That word guaranteed isinteresting because, remember,
adjuncts get no guarantees.
Can I teach across multipledepartments?

(06:28):
Now, it's pretty good when youcan get in a school and you have
the credentials, 18 credithours and a subject matter, that
in multiple subject areas thatyou can teach at that same
university.
It makes it so much easier.
But why does this matter?
Some schools cancel classes atthe last minute due to low
enrollment I was speaking aboutthat earlier leaving you without

(06:51):
pay because you you've takenyour time, you're going to do it
and you might have alreadyprepped the course, and if
you're at a school that requiresyou to create the course, you
may have already created thatcourse before you even Teach the
course and now the course iscanceled.
Right, ask for a writtenconfirmation of guaranteed

(07:13):
courses, if you can.
If you can get that, that's aleg up for you.
So then, another area you mightwant to think about is
institutional support andresources.
Right, a question you could askis will I have access to office
space, printing and libraryresources?
Now, this could be important.

(07:34):
If you are a adjunct thatteaches face to face, of course
you want to have some officespace where you can go in and
keep your your materials andkeep your books and all of your
information.
You could do printing,especially if you have to hand
out things to the students I'vedone that on my own dime before
and I didn't know it didn't askthe right questions and also the

(07:56):
library resources.
So why does this matter?
Some adjuncts aren't evengiving an email access, office
space or tech support.
You need that, and knowing thisin advance helps you to avoid
frustration and that's adjuncts.
I think we all wear a hat thatsays frustrated because you love

(08:18):
to do this thing and then allthe roadblocks you have to go
through just to do it.
It's very interesting.
It is what I call a dichotomy.
So then the online teachingexpectations.
A question you could ask am Iexpected to create my own course

(08:38):
materials or are they provided?
You want to ask that upfrontbecause if you are getting
$2,500 to $4,000 and you have tocreate that course, think about
it.
That's your intellectualcapital, your property, that
you've created this course andyou've given it to the college

(08:59):
or the university and they ownit.
That's different from if you'rean adjunct and you've signed up
to create a course and you cansometimes get between $5,000 and
$10,000 just for that, then youcould get the money for
teaching it and that is the waysome universities have it.
You got to find thoseuniversities, you need to find

(09:20):
them out and then when you do,it's a better situation for you.
So when you ask that question,why does it matter?
Because if you have to buildthat course from scratch without
any additional pay, that's amajor time investment.
So then another area you mightwanna look at is grading and
workload expectation, and thisright here I'm putting air

(09:43):
quotes all over my head becausethis is where we have the most
anxiety, right?
A question you could ask is howmany students per class?
How many students are in theclass?
Again, before I started thatcourse that I was telling you
earlier about, it was 15 weeks.

(10:05):
It was only 10 students in thatcourse.
They were gonna give me 25 or$2,800.
But by the time the coursestarted it was only 10 students
in that course.
They were going to give metwenty five or twenty eight
hundred dollars, but by the timethe course started it was 28
students.
Four assignments per week for15 weeks, and these were coding
assignments.
That's different than writingassignments.
When you're reading essays, youcan right click on that and let

(10:27):
the computer read that to you.
No, I got to figure thesethings out because no one gave
me the answer key to your coding.
You got to do the coding, putthe coding in the environment,
see what the output is, to makesure students are doing what
they're supposed to be doing.
It's a time drain for you andyou want to make sure that you

(10:47):
understand what's going on there.
And you want to make sure thatyou understand what's going on
there, right?
No-transcript.
No, there aren't any gradingassistants.
And no, there aren't any autograding tools.
At least I've taught for 14years, I haven't had any.

(11:08):
And again, that's the reasonwhy I created easyadjunctcom,
with the various apps that Ihave to help you create courses,
to help you with your courses,your discussions, your
assignments, your announcements,quizzes, everything.
If there's no auto grading, whydoes that matter?
Because more students equal,more grading and without support

(11:30):
, this can be a time draining,nightmare, and, might I add,
nightmare it is.
Another question you could askis around future employment and
advancement.
What is the path to more stableor full-time employment here?
You want to know that up front,because if you're just somebody

(11:52):
who's coming in filling inbecause another adjunct is on on
leave or whatever, and you'rejust going to be here for that
one time, you need to know thatbecause then, if that's all it's
going to be, you can come outand say well, thank you for the
opportunity, but I'm looking fora long range relationship.
So why does this matter?
Some schools never promoteadjuncts to full-time roles and

(12:16):
some schools never, ever, lookat you as more than in the pool
I'm going to pull you one timeevery year.
So it's better to know thisupfront.
Then, when you think about yourbenefits and your perks, even
if it's unofficial.
You want to know, so you wantto ask questions.
Are there faculty discount?

(12:36):
Are there professionaldevelopment funds that I could
use?
Are there any other perks foradjuncts?
Why would this matter?
Some schools offer free tuitionor discounted tuition, like if
you wanted to go back and youwanted to pick up maybe another
course or two, because you'rereal close to 18 hours in
another subject.

(12:57):
Some schools give you gymaccess or small stipends, but
you won't know this unless youask.
There are things like theseproactive adjunct hacks that
help you make the most of yourposition.
When you get a position, one ofthe things that you can do is
you can stack your contracts.

(13:17):
If you stack your contracts, away to do this is to apply at
multiple schools and schedulestrategically to avoid last
minute cancellations hurtingyour income, especially if
you're depending on this income.
Right, you want to make surethat you create an online
presence.
Please do on LinkedIn oracademiaedu and highlight

(13:46):
multiple institution experienceto increase your credibility.
You could even get a referencefrom some of the program
directors that you work for, oryou might even put some of the
reviews that you got fromstudents.
Another way to make the most ofyour position is to join
adjunct networks and unions.
You can get support from otheradjuncts and they can provide
inside information on whichschools treat adjuncts well.

(14:09):
It's almost like being incollege and students tell other
students when to take a certaincourse and what instructor to
take it with, because they'regoing to get the best out of
that and probably good grades,or the instructor teaches well,
or maybe they give youreferences or whatever.
But another hack is you want todocument everything, right,

(14:32):
document everything, save youremails, create a folder for your
adjunct positions and then,within that folder, break it out
into schools and break it outeven further, so you'll be able
to go straight where you need togo to get the information you
need to get.
If you need to bring it up incase you have to show an email

(14:52):
for a question that you gotanswered, you have to show a
contract, you need to show yourpay stubs and if there's any
issues with payments or disputesover course assignments, you
want to make sure you have thatinformation and so you want to
negotiate for extras.
Sometimes adjuncts feel sovulnerable because of just the

(15:17):
name.
Adjunct makes you feel likeyou're just not supposed to get
anything, and I don't feel likethat.
I got a different mindset.
I negotiate and I ask all thetime.
And if I've been teaching forthat school for some time, a
couple of years, I will ask foranother grand in salary.
I mean, what can you?
What could they say?
They could say no, or they cansay yes, which they have, and

(15:39):
I've been very grateful for that.
Can say yes, which they have,and I've been very grateful for
that.
So you want to negotiate, evenif you can't negotiate for
salary.
Ask for extra perks likeprofessional development funds
or teaching, a preferredschedule or seeing if you could
teach another course in adifferent area, asking if it'd
be okay, especially if you havetwo master's degrees.

(16:02):
Adjuncting doesn't have to be anever ending struggle.
By being proactive, asking theright questions and knowing your
worth that is key.
Know your worth you can createa teaching experience that works
for you, not against you.
What's the best question you'veever asked in an adjunct
interview?

(16:23):
Let us know on social media orsend us a voice memo for a
future episode.
Adjuncts need a voice.
If no one is giving it to them,let's create it together.
Join me on Grading Papers,where adjuncts get real about
what it takes to survive inacademia.
We thank you for tuning in toGrading Papers.

(16:45):
Don't forget to subscribe,leave a review and share this
episode with your colleagues andfriends.
Until next time, keep grading,keep growing and keep making a
difference in your students'lives.