A Plan for the Modern College

By Jerry Harp. As is commonly known, American higher education depends for its existence on the cheap labor of adjunct faculty members. According to recent reports, adjuncts make up as much as 70 percent of college instructors. The average yearly salary for those adjuncts is around $25,000, just above the poverty rate for a family of four, so these members of the professoriate, having put in their years working on advanced degrees while providing cheap labor as graduate students, have learned very well what to expect and really have nothing to complain about; but we academics are a discontented lot, so we do complain. However, I have hit on a proposal that might take some modest steps toward addressing the problem. More...