[batman-farts]

It's not always people with industry jobs taking these part-time positions; there's a whole subculture of "freeway flyers" who are teaching at multiple community colleges, and sometimes lower-division classes at private universities, while trying to break into a full-time position. A few years after I was in his class, one chemistry professor I really enjoyed burned out from doing this and disappeared from all his classes in the middle of the semester. The replacement professor apparently wasn't at all prepared to step in, and the students had to petition the dean to have their grades thrown out and retake the class.

That's obviously the worst-case scenario I encountered, but I heard other tales of people like a math professor shuttling back and forth between Merced and Contra Costa counties every week. A biology professor I had was making a go of it doing half the week at Contra Costa campuses and half the week at USF, and told me her situation was not at all uncommon, even in the Bay Area. There's definitely a precariat associated with keeping the community college system going, which is a damned shame because it's the most accessible rung on the ladder. Perhaps the state will be able to do something about this, but it's understandably wise to be skeptical of statewide education initiatives in California.

[dhosek]

I was one of those. California has a law that was intended to protect against exploitation of adjuncts that makes things worth where an adjunct is limited to 10 LHE (lecture hour equivalent) per district. In Orange County, it’s not too bad because there are a lot of districts in a smallish geographic area, but LACCD covers a huge geographic area which makes L.A. County much more challenging. Add in all the competition and the low wages (although, as I recall, the L.A. County districts paid more than the O.C. districts) and life is pretty painful for an adjunct.

[labster]

I had a chemistry prof with the same story: a PhD who had to work in two different counties to scrape together a living while avoiding limits on hours. And the department chair was younger and only had a master’s degree in education.

The situation with adjuncts is terrible everywhere in the US, though. The situation at Hamline University could only have happened because the professor lacked tenure, otherwise academic freedom protections would have kicked in.