Are Adjunct Faculty Exploited: Some Grounds for Skepticism

Abstract

Adjuncts’ rights activists and their sympathizers have a litany of complaints about how adjuncts are treated, but one chief complaint is that universities exploit adjunct faculty. Al Jazeera describes adjuncts as “indentured servants.” Some activists compare adjuncts to sweatshop workers, others compare them to sharecroppers, while a Times Herald columnist calls them “America’s modern slaves.” A reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Vitae webpage labels adjuncts “exploited professors;” op-eds in the Guardian and the Boston Globe concur. An article in the Observer claims “colleges would implode without exploited freelance professors”, while a prominent adjunct activist claims she decided to leave academia because she was tired of being exploited. The American Prospect celebrates that “exploited faculty members” are “eager to band together” under unions.