Last updated on December 19, 2023
I am honored to be joining the faculty at Texas A&M University for the 2023-24 academic year as a full-time lecturer.
The COVID-19 pandemic had, in theory, marked the end of my teaching career. However, friends and colleagues persisted in sending me academic job listings. One friend, in particular, persuaded me to apply for posts at the University of Texas and Texas A&M. I secured interviews with both. To my surprise, A&M’s hiring committee contacted me within 48 hours of the interview to extend an offer.
When a university wants you enough to make an offer within two days, that’s a good sign.
Though I had previously vowed to teach only if I was on the tenure track, this post offered an ideal schedule. The hiring committee was polite and supportive, which impressed me greatly. The faculty and staff I’ll be working with sold me on this position.
If I am a lecturer for several years at Texas A&M, I’d be content to conclude my teaching career at the university. I was that impressed. It’s a good feeling to be returning to a university campus after teaching part-time and entirely online during the pandemic.
Many of my friends and colleagues have struggled in the higher education job market. I have shared my struggles with the academic job market on this blog. Every few years, I’ve found myself trying to locate another position.
Autistics struggle through any job search. Our high unemployment and underemployment rates suggest the barriers have little to do with the careers we attempt to pursue. Data suggest less than 17 percent of adult autistics are employed in the United Kingdom, for example:
Fifteen to 17 percent of adults with ASDs work full-time, according to a U.K. study (2007). Other researchers have found similar trends. Even those of us with doctorates struggle with academic employment (Diament, 2005). Outside technology fields, the world is less than welcoming (Anthes, 1997).
We are attending college, obtaining degrees, and ending up unemployed. Finishing college is a struggle, yet that only marks the beginning. We love the success stories of students with ASDs in college (Erb, 2008). Those stories don’t answer the “what next” question. A U.C. Berkeley study found adults with ASDs struggle with unemployment:
— Almost all participants … reported lengthy periods of unemployment and/or underemployment, as well as lack of opportunities for career advancement. In the words of one participant, “I spent much more time being unemployed than being employed altogether” (Müller, et al 2007).
Despite the challenges I’ve encountered while pursuing a career in higher education, teaching remains something I enjoy.
Most aspiring professors face a difficult, often discouraging, job market. Although my autistic traits make the application and interview processes particularly challenging, I’m under no illusion that the job market has been easy for anyone.
Most colleges and universities have shifted to adjuncts, lecturers, and graduate students as the primary undergraduate instructional workforce. And that’s what we are: a workforce.
- 75.5% of college faculty are now off the tenure track, meaning they have NO access to tenure.
- This represents 1.3 million out of 1.8 million faculty members.
- Of these, 700,000 or just over 50% are so-called part-time, most often known as “adjuncts.”
– Source: Dept of Education (2009) / https://www.newfacultymajority.info/facts-about-adjuncts/
Instruction in higher education is dominated by “contingent” faculty, those of us not on the tenure track. We have titles ranging from “adjust instructor” to “professor of practice.” Every year, we reapply for our posts and hope to teach full-time. What might be considered a delusional subset of contingent instructors cling to the dream of being hired as assistant professors on the tenure track.
Over two-thirds (68 percent) of faculty members in US colleges and universities held contingent appointments in fall 2021, compared with about 47 percent in fall 1987.
Nearly half (48 percent) of faculty members in US colleges and universities were employed part-time in fall 2021, compared with about 33 percent in 1987.
About 24 percent of faculty members in US colleges and universities held full-time tenured appointments in fall 2021, compared with about 39 percent in fall 1987.
– American Association of University Professors
https://www.aaup.org/article/data-snapshot-tenure-and-contingency-us-higher-education
For the uninitiated, the standard ranks on the tenure track are assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor. Some universities include research professors on the tenure track with similar ranks: assistant research professors, for example.
To make the non-tenure track faculty feel better, we’re sometimes given titles such as “assistant teaching professor.” However, our salaries don’t match those of our tenure-track colleagues, even if we produce research and publish articles.
Teaching was why I completed my various graduate degrees. Whatever the future holds, I’m glad to have this opportunity. If it turns into more or if it leads to other opportunities elsewhere, that would be a pleasant surprise.