Maggie's Farm

Professors on Food Stamps would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic. Let me state up front that I am an adjunct prof [but what I am is a full-time, non-tenure track].
Too many of the adjuncts I work with are: 1) fully prepared to teach the soft A grade courses demanded by many students and that the U wants to keep before they finally go away deep in debt; 2) pretty much unaware of how either economics or organizations work; 3) unwilling to admit there are just not enough tenure track jobs for all those who seek them; 4) not particularly good at anything else that pays better, and; 5) unwilling to give up the dream of a tenure track job no matter what the odds are.

It really is sad, because some of my colleagues are quite good and well-versed in their disciplines but will almost certainly never get a tenure track job. I'd argue that if you've had your PhD in hand for more than two years and are still an adjunct then unless you teach something unusual you might as well pack it in.

I happened to be qualified to teach something that only a few can. When we list the tenure track position most similar to what I teach we may get 25 apps of which 8-9 might really be qualified. Each of those 8-9 probably get a tenure offer somewhere.

If we list jobs in most of our other areas we are likely to get around 200 apps, of which 125 or more are fully qualified. Consider the odds.

Finally, of course, the tenured faculty in most colleges/univs are way to the Left except where it concerns their livelihood and they aren't about to push to pay adjuncts better and sometimes treat them like galley slaves.

Look to the organization and what it has become to see why.