One phone call....And my life will now be radically different forever... [View all]
Yesterday at about 5 pm, I received a phone call from the HR department of the college for which I have been an adjunct professor for over 8 years.
It was to inform me that I am their preferred candidate for their open full-time, tenure track position.
If I pass the upcoming background check (I'm pretty sure I will as I have no criminal record) they will make me an official job offer.
Full-time. Benefits. Tenure.
It's the holy grail. Well, maybe that would be an endowed chair, but it's pretty damn close.
After working for nearly a decade at starvation wages with NO benefits, it's kind of hard to wrap my head around it.
And, I'm left with a strange sort of ambivalence.
You see, I've been up for full-time positions before. I've even been a finalist before.
The truth is, there are far, far more qualified teachers than there are openings. The horror stories you read in the press about being an adjunct? They are all true.
Am I qualified? I believe so. I also know virtually all of the others who interviewed for this position are just as equally qualified. I have no idea why I was chosen over them. Basically, I've won the lottery. But, I am very acquainted with losing it, and I hurt for my friends and colleagues who will smile for me through their tears and wonder if their time will ever come.
For most of us, it doesn't. We continue as disposable part-timers with crippling debt and bleak futures, hoping to someday win the lottery that I just won.
Whenever anybody says that the US values education and/or teachers, they are either lying, or vastly mis-informed.
I will spend my career as a full-timer fighting to make things better. I will never forget my years as an adjunct.
Every day, I will remember that they are me.
on edit: new professor make grammatical error! 
= new reply since forum marked as read
