Submitted by Jacqueline Skiles, Dec 29, 2007 21:45

Who are these full time professors who object to treating adjuncts more equitably? Do they live under the illusion that they can easily lure the few "stars" in a discipline to their own departments for the initial salaries that former adjuncts would be offered? Or are they trying to protect new full time lines for colleagues and/or former grad students who did their bidding? No one is saying that any and all current adjuncts should be given the new full time lines, only that they should be given a decent chance to compete for them on a level playing field, with due recognition for long years of service in the trenches (at substandard pay). Why shouldn't long-time adjuncts finally be accorded the dignity of a full-time job with attendant benefits, so that they, too, may be allowed to work to obtain the lofty status and compensation of the tenured Full Professor? Or is it full time faculty who haven't been able to make this grade themselves who object to having to compete with seasoned part-timers?

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.