The Myth of the Tenured Faculty, By Barbara McKenna
Kathleen Lopez comes from a family of teachers. Her mother was an adjunct professor until she retired two years ago at the age of 82. Her daughter has a doctorate and is headed down an education path. Lopez hopes her daughter’s degree will lead her through the hallowed hallways of academe, not along the asphalt roadways that have marked Lopez’s teaching career. In her view, “the big myth in higher education is, if you work hard, get a degree, take on extra, you will get hired as full-time faculty.” She wishes someone had clued her in earlier that that wasn’t going to happen.
