The Chronicle: A Philosopher Stirs Up the World of Adjuncts
Gadfly takes on colleges, lawmakers, and unions
Keith Hoeller is an adjunct professor. He teaches philosophy for a living at Green River Community College, just outside Seattle. He has also spent much of the last two decades ruminating about the bigger picture for those at his level of the professorial pecking order.
Why can colleges and universities pay part-time faculty members so much less money than full-time professors for the same course load? On what basis are adjuncts largely denied benefits? How can academic freedom exist for those who lack job security? And what impact will the explosion in the use of part-time lecturers, paid by the course, have on higher education as a whole?
But Mr. Hoeller, 59, does not merely think big thoughts about adjuncts. He has put his ideas into action as an activist on behalf of about 10,000 part-time lecturers in Washington State’s community colleges. He is also a voice for adjuncts on the national level, where nearly 70 percent of professors at colleges and universities hold positions off the tenure track.
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