A long-suffering adjunct at a rural community college dropped me a line to suggest a refinement to my fewer-adjuncts-in-rural-areas theory. At her school, apparently, there is a persistently high adjunct ratio, fed by a nearby Rural State U. The monocultural yield is bad enough that accreditors actually mentioned it in their last report, but it’s not bad enough yet for her college to actually recruit more full-timers to offset it.
My previous school had a version of that. It was literally one mile from Flagship State, so most of the liberal arts faculty hailed from Flagship State. There were enough different disciplines represented that it didn’t get too inbred, but it was noticeable. (I’m sure Flagship State would blanch at the suggestion that it was a ‘feeder,’ but it was.)
So, a possible refinement to the theory: colleges in rural areas that don’t have a major ‘feeder’ graduate university nearby will have fewer adjuncts.
Any thoughts?
