Call the part-time instructors who make up two-thirds of classroom teachers in the country’s largest higher-education system what you will. What matters most to them is whether they’re called. Every semester they wait for work assignments that may make them eligible for health benefits, pay for groceries or further a slender dream of landing an elusive, full-time, tenured job. Numbering nearly 37,000, the part-time academics commonly referred to as adjuncts are the backbone of the California Community College system that enrolls about 1.5 million students. Working semester-by-semester with little to no job security, adjuncts often take gigs at multiple college districts to cobble together something akin to full-time employment but at pay rates vastly lower than full-time professors.
