Breaking me down

Cover story: Walking the Tenure Tightrope | September 19, 2016 Issue - Vol. 94 Issue 37 | Chemical & Engineering News.  The article caught my attention, I scanned the faces of professors who had and had not made tenure, as well as those professors who chose to work at institutions that do not use the tenure process at all.  Eventually I came across the figure below and I was like, Oh OK.

http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i37/Walking-Tenure-Tightrope.html

Sometimes I feel like "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"  I've already let various institutions know that I will give my best effort without a promise of long-term employment.  I have tried to focus on all the good things about being part-time faculty: flexibility, variability, diversity.  It's tough to hear that tenured and tenure-track faculty teach one or two classes while I'm teaching five.  It's tough to hear that students are ignored while their tenure-track faculty are focused on research results, while I'm giving my students all my attention and best energy.

Luckily, this figure made me feel better.  Because the situation is out of my hands.

https://www.aaup.org/report/status-non-tenure-track-faculty 

https://www.ccsse.org/docs/PTF_Special_Report.pdf