The state of higher education is changing dramatically.

The 'adjunct' role in teaching classes is becoming an item of necessity for Universities to stay cost competitive. Unfortunately, the rate of pay for many adjuncts is extremely low.

Doug and Jacob explore the situation and impacts to the broader health of higher education.

YouTube Video of Episode: https://youtu.be/PguZK0qn9cM

Doug helps businesses and non-profits optimize their overhead costs so that more capital can be invested in accomplishing their mission. Schedule time with Doug at www.MeetDoug.Biz.

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[Music]

[Introduction]

Welcome to the terminal value Podcast where each episode provides in depth insight about the long term value of companies and ideas in our current world. Your host for this podcast is Doug Utberg, the founder and principal consultant for Business of Life, LLC.

Doug: Okay, everybody welcome to the terminal value podcast. I have Jacob Richman on the line here. And so the way that I know Jacob is we're actually both adjuncts at Portland state university. He probably adjuncts more actively than I did because I taught a class on finance information systems a couple of years ago. And then Jacob reached out to me to help with observing for the labor negotiations with the Portland state faculty. And he's actually a really, really interesting guy. He, in addition to his adjuncting, he's also done quite a bit of work with homeless advocacy and community art. And because one of the things that I really like to do with terminal value is just to bring a light onto just the uniqueness that people, you know, the uniqueness of people because I think that a lot of times there's a tendency to categorize people into you know, sort of one pigeonholed in one box or another, and there's not really any boxes everybody's really unique. And I think that it's, it's really illustrative to learn about that uniqueness. So Jacob welcome.

Jacob: Well, thank you for having me, Doug. It's I'm so glad to be here.

Doug: Yeah. And now I have to say, just speaking for myself, I found it a very unique and illustrative to be observing the negotiation process between the adjuncts and the faculty, because of course, right. You know, and in my semi simplistic mind, I think, okay. You know, Portland state, you know, progressive university, they're probably going to be really, really in favor of making sure that everybody's fairly represented and like, you know, but it is, you know, that is not the way that it works at all.

Jacob: No, unfortunately not.

Doug:  Yeah, there, there, you know, there, there, there was very much an upstairs and a downstairs in effect here.

Jacob:  Absolutely. And it's a little illustrative of the whole American higher education system as that the adjunctification of faculty throughout the country. Um, so I don't know if it's, if it's worth giving a sort of heads up, if folks have no idea what an adjunct faculty person even is or.

Doug: Jacob the Floor is yours. Yeah. Take the next two minutes. 

Jacob: Sure. Well, an adjunct faculty at a university or college is a part-time faculty person somebody who teaches a few courses or teach even a lot of courses, but it's through different hourly or credits requirements kept under full-time level. They are generally paid very little. They are almost entirely as a case that they're not paid, they're not, they don't have healthcare or other benefits. And it's not just as a small group. It's the majority of, of courses. And certainly the majority of students cause they tend to...