Why It’s Hard for Adjuncts to Find Other Jobs

Matthew Ussia, a full-time, non-tenure-track English professor at Duquesne (who, until recently, cobbled together a living as a part-time adjunct), explained in an email:

“This means that people who want to get out can look in the summer and for two weeks around Xmas to change careers, but other than that they’re stuck. I was talking to a colleague last week who told me that she saw the most perfect non-academic job for her in Boston the week before, but since we were already 3 weeks into the semester, she couldn’t imagine ditching her students mid-semester. There’s a real sense of duty that comes with the job.”

We’ve covered a little bit about some of the financial difficulties adjunct professors face here, and at Slate, L.V. Anderson addresses a question that often comes up in these discussions: Why don’t adjuncts just find other jobs?

Photo: Seth Sawyers

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