by J. Baxter

I ANTICIPATE AND APPRECIATE the Adjunct Advocate and eagerly peruse its pages. To many of us here the magazine is analogous to a broadcast of “Radio Free America.” But I feel I inhabit the last enclave that will be liberated by Allied forces, pocketed in what, logically, should not be occupied territory, but what is a refugee camp for the meek and unheard, the unrepresented and long-suffering part-timer. I am respectful of those who speak out, and write out, about conditions at their institutions, those who have the courage to demand recognition and fair play. My question is this: How do they keep their jobs?

I have been an adjunct for area colleges and universities for 12 years, and have always felt my positions hung by the frailest of threads. I have learned to steer a moderate course (maybe an ultra-conservative one would be even wiser). I eschew office politics and controversy and profess neutrality. In the classroom, I allow students to speak out and argue, but mute my own opinions. I act the role of facilitator and arbiter. The lectern is not a platform for my thought, at least not to the extent that it would run against purported cultural and institutional ideology. My reliability, preparation and attendance, are near perfect. I am respectful of my supervisors and have not once been involved in any administrative conflict. To act otherwise, I believe, would break my tenuous hold in academe. I am, to outward appearances, an innocuous and ideal sheep.

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