The food drive is not for real in that adjuncts are starving to death, although I am sure they often miss a meal or two, but it is a statement on the way in which we pay a large portion of our higher ed workforce. Not well.
The critical situation applies mostly to the adjuncts who are trying to make a living from teaching part time. That is an exercise in putting a square peg in a round hole. It doesn't work. There is little time to do what will get them hired full time: research, publishing and other academic pursuits. There are no health benefits and, for those lucky enough to get retirement benefits, they are small.
The pay does work better for those adjuncts who are employed full time elsewhere and are teaching for extra cash, as a service to the community and even just because they love teaching. It is definitely a nice way to say "Thank You" but not a realistic compensation for hours worked.
From my experience working with adjuncts for fifteen years, most of the adjuncts I know love teaching and sharing what they feel passionate about. They do enjoy the pay, but that is not the main motivation for them spending countless hours outside of class preparing tests and assignment, grading and meeting with students.
The IRS has just passed new rules that the number of hours adjuncts work outside of class has to be calculated "reasonably". The benefit to that is higher ed institutions have to sit down and really understand how much time adjuncts are spending on courses. The actual time, not the hours they spend standing in front of students. I bet it is mind opening.
Bless the adjuncts for they are wonderful for what they do. Even in this time of cutbacks, they should be put forward.
P.S. For those of you teaching in the Rio Grande Valley look at the compensation the article reports the adjuncts make.
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