Adjunctification

In one visual, here is a major problem in academia.

There are quite a few reasons this is happening, and they also vary according to institution type. The one that is most immediate to me right now is lack of legislature support. We are told, point blank, to do more with less. The number of students who want to attend our university has been going up every year basically ever since I arrived here in 2000 (in that time enrollment has gone up from about 15,000 to 26,000) and we have far more that apply who we cannot admit. If the legislature does not provide adequate funds to hire new full-time faculty, and it has not, then the number of part-time faculty goes up to cover the classes. That is especially true of classes required as General Education for all students because they fill to the brim.

Everyone at all levels of faculty and administration--at least here, and that is my vantage point--wants more tenure-track positions. That graph depresses me and everyone else.

h/t Laura McKenna, who has lived it.