Adjunctification

[...] but I especially favor it when one looks at the adjunctification of the profesoriate (now 400,000 adjuncts across the country [...])

Among the responses by full-time faculty to the problem of adjunctification is a line of argument that I find rather curious. It goes something like this: grant that the abuse of adjuncts is unfortunate (which concession is often accompanied by the disclaimer that there is nothing we can do about the low pay and lack of benefits), the system is a meritocracy and those who are truly worthy do end up on the tenure track.

I have in mind here, of course, the classic victim of adjunctification: the person who finished a PhD at great financial and emotional expense, would have been willing to go anywhere for a tenuretrack job, [...]

Yet the adjunctification of part of the management faculty raises some concerns.