Saturday, March 01, 2008

Hey! Do You Have Any Money for Us?

Shopping for summer events?  Looking for ways to expand your professional development?  Don’t see any scholarships or grants for adjuncts?  What do you do?

Click to the next page.  Click again.  It appears that they don’t give adjuncts any money anyway.  Click away.

Right.  That is the quick path to self-defeating behaviors.

If you don’t know if there is money, and you don’t ask about money, you are denying the potential that money is there.

Sure, there may not be any cash.  Chances are there is none for adjuncts—after all, we are the overlooked and ignored mass of teachers.

But if we do not ask, if we do not indicate that we are interested in attending, that we are colleagues who can contribute in valuable ways, that we are just shorter on cash than tenureds, then where does the blame fall?

It never hurts to ask.  And what can they say?  No.

So, if more of us ask, then something may happen.  If more of us get involved, and if more of us show interest, then a mass might get moving.  And scholarships and funding and grants might get rolling.  No, this is not equitable pay.  But, it is a step in the right direction.

Step up and ask.  What does it take?  A click of a mouse and about 45 seconds typing: “Do you offer any scholarships for adjuncts?”

It really is that simple.

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