by Christopher Cumo

Science may be remarkable not for Superstring Theory or gene splicing but for the obliviousness of academics in the sciences to the rise of casual labor in academe. Science has no Cary Nelson. Stephen Jay Gould, Brian Greene and Jared Diamond let their science do their talking. They have nothing to say about labor conditions in the academy. The National Science Foundation has no policy statement on the use of part-time faculty and does not study the issue, admits Curtis Suplee, NSF legislative and public affairs director. This inertia typifies scientists of all ranks.

Walter Oechel, biology professor at San Diego State University, draws no distinction between full and part-time science faculty; both teach and do research but leave reform to others. Adjunct scientists are inert not because they lack the interest or the will but because "a lot of us are just too damn busy to get involved in much of anything beyond our work and our families," said Steven Ward, once a Visiting Assistant and Associate Professor at Harvard University and now chair of the anatomy department at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

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