Looking At Colleges? There Are New Questions You Need To Ask

This is the time of year when students and their parents are trying to make decisions about which college will be the best fit for them. Yet few people know that institutions of higher education have been undergoing dramatic changes over the past few decades that have altered the basic structure of how they operate.

Universities used to be run by academics, altruistic believers in the power of education with first-hand experience in meeting the needs of students. As colleges devolved to adopt the corporate model, they added more levels of highly-paid administrators, brought on board to run the university like a business. In an effort to maximize profits, they made numerous changes. In many schools, professors were suddenly required to teach more classes, minimizing the time for research needed to keep them at the top of their field. More importantly, they stopped hiring full-time professors and began hiring adjunct professors. In general, adjuncts have exactly the same degrees, experience, and resumés as full-time professors, but they make a fraction of the pay, have no job security, and receive no benefits. Many adjunct faculty live below poverty level while shuttling back and forth between 2–3 schools, or holding down other part-time jobs. They make less than the janitors at their schools, but most of them are still paying off the student loans from their advanced degrees. They are the dark secret of higher education.

The benefit of having full-time faculty is to provide continuity and mentorship for students. In young people’s first experience away from home, professors are the steady presence guiding them in their path from uncertain freshmen to their professional launch into the world. Adjunct professors are every bit as dedicated to students and their disciplines as full-time teachers, but they also live with the stresses of not knowing if they will have employment next semester, dealing with the chaos of teaching on several campuses, and all the pressures of being ‘gig’ workers without insurance.

In some universities, these part-time professors make up over 70% of the overall faculty. Students at these colleges see absolutely no difference in the education they receive from their various professors, (save for adjuncts possibly being less available outside of…