Here's the letter:
17 February 2008
Dear Mr. President, or whom this may concern,
When speaking of education in the country the immediate needs and concerns of the K-12 system often overshadow the needs of the University system. The need to get children ready for, and interested in, going to College, outweighs the need of the students who’ve chosen to remain in College to further their education. As a graduate student, I’ve watched my ability to get grants diminish and my reliance on student loans swell.
As I work toward earning my PhD in Rhetoric and Composition, I watch the job market around me shrivel. More and more Universities rely on adjunct faculty, people who will work for a certain number of credit hours rather than a salary and benefits. Hiring adjuncts is cheaper for the University because they can use them as needed and not be required to maintain a tenure track line in their budget. From personal experience, I can see that when I graduate I am more than likely to spend a few years as an adjunct before I can find a full time position.
The problem is that an adjunct’s pay rate is usually quite low. A recent article in the LA Times about Dr. Biden stated her salary was, “$900 to $1,227 per credit hour. (That means each semester her pay could be from $9,000 to $12,270.)” Dr. Biden works at a Community College, but University rates are not much better. If you look at what Dr. Biden could make for a year of teaching, it’s about $24,540, before taxes. If I made that amount, and I will not make much more, I would have to pay my rent, own health insurance, bills, and a student loan bill, which would be nearly impossible.
University and Community College budgets must feel the squeeze of these hard economic times, but they will also see an influx in students, require more and cheaper faculty. They will not increase more expensive and long term full-time positions. They will increase their adjunct faculty. In the English department this has happened time and time again. (If you are interested read Eileen Schell’s Gypsy Academics and Mother Teachers.) I propose a plan to help Universities and Community Colleges save money and help graduate students relieve their student loan dept.
Universities and Community Colleges around the country could enroll for a specialized adjunct work force of recently graduated graduate students. These students would work full time for adjunct pay for a period of years. By agreeing to teach wherever they are assigned for a certain amount of years they will be relieved of a certain amount of their student loan debt. This kind of program would help prevent the glut of the Humanities job market and encourage others in nursing or science programs to teach for a while.
While I have other more specific ideas about implementing such a program, I won’t share them until asked. Thank you for taking the time to read through my proposal.
Respectfully,
Of course, I tweaked it all a little bit for my senator, but not much. Since it was an email, I also signed my own name, but that is strictly a need to know basis.
Posts
