The article suggest that some of these non-tenure track jobs are make work for spouses. I don&#x27;t think that is a major use of them now. In fact, if it is then what is the problem? They should have the tenure track salary in the same household.<p>My point is that the people taking these jobs are being foolish. They are taking clear part-time low paying jobs and then wondering why they part-time low pay income.<p>The reason they are taking these jobs is because they can&#x27;t find tenure track gigs. Okay, so they didn&#x27;t succeed. That is no excuse for taking a shitty consolidation job and then bitching about the pay.<p>&gt;Why you think your experience at a graduate program Northwestern can be generalized to undergraduate teaching and is applicable to most other schools in the US?<p>I&#x27;m not saying we shouldn&#x27;t care because these jobs go to millionaires. But we shouldn&#x27;t care because these jobs aren&#x27;t meant to actually support a person. Judging by the fact that they are part time and low pay, I think it&#x27;s clear it&#x27;s not just Northwestern that views them as non real career jobs.<p>In fact, several universities actually only let someone adjunct one class a year because it&#x27;s not supposed to be a career.<p>&gt;Moreover, they are not all &quot;willingly&quot; doing so. Many are trying to unionize<p>That sounds willingly to me. Of course they would rather get paid more. But their is a lot of supply for people who can teach these courses. Especially since the commitment isn&#x27;t very high.<p>These jobs are essentially volunteer gigs that you get paid a token amount for. But some people want to be a part of academia so bad they are willing to live in poverty to do it. That&#x27;s fine, but that is their choice.<p>EDIT:<p>I should also note that schools are exploiting the glut of potential adjuncts. But I don&#x27;t really have a problem with that. As you note, we exploit lowerclass workers. Why should I care if the PhD is getting the same treatment as a janitor. In fact, we should probably care less since these adjuncts would more easily find a better white collar job.