> They are the minority of
>
>instructors in colleges and universities, and their numbers are
>shrinking. Depending on location, pay for adjunct faculty at most
>colleges is about 1/3 that of full-time faculty, annualized load (i.e.,
>what adjuncts would be paid at the adjunct rate if they taught the
>full-time, annual courseload that tenured faculty are assigned).
>
Some thirty years ago a friend who spent a lot of time in Italy told me
that profs there got paid almost nothing, but that it all worked out
because it had simply become a profession for the aristos -- who could
afford to teach....(those who don't go into dress or shoe design anyway.)
Perhaps this is what will eventually happen in the U.S. -- that academic jobs will be mostly staffed by the adult children of the rich who will want some sort of socially redeeming activity to accompany their trust funds.
If the wheels of the meritocracy grind inexorably forward, it might all work out, as these trust fund scholars dispense the wisdom of ruling class consciousness to the upwardly scrabbling middlings who want to join the club. -- With a little spicy pomo thrill on the side, to be sure.
Joanna