{"id":2225,"date":"2019-04-16T20:30:06","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T01:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/?p=2225"},"modified":"2026-11-11T22:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T03:03:48","slug":"106365-utility-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/106365-utility-player\/","title":{"rendered":"106:365 | Utility Player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Facebook post by Dr. Thomas Reeves today<\/a> about a new book called “The Adjunct Underclass” from the University of Chicago Press<\/a> prompted some good commentary. I noted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look forward to reading this book. I could probably be a case study for this book. I love being a \u201cutility player\u201d with my PhD. I teach at the University of Virginia as an adjunct. I started a nonprofit. I publish research on my nonprofit\u2019s work. I present at both practitioner and academic conferences. I do the one-off consulting project. But, this isn\u2019t a \u201ccareer path\u201d that was laid out for me … or to the title of this book that is valued or encouraged by the academy. I never wanted or pursued a tenure track position – mainly because I completed my PhD in my mid-40s, but it would be nice if \u201cwe\u201d (as a field) could foster a separate and equal path for all those who want to further their education but take (or create) a non traditional path. *steps off soapbox*<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With estimates of 70% of college faculty coming from the adjunct ranks, this is a big deal issue. I LOVE teaching, but as I note within my comment, I do it as a “utility player” who also started a nonprofit and a participates in the field in a variety of ways (research projects, presentations, publications, etc.) Unfortunately, I don’t see how it would be financially possible for anyone to make a living wage as ONLY an adjunct. But, this is a reflection for another day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I want to address those who say we’re pumping out too many PhDs. It’s not hard to see where this perception comes from when “the US is graduating 50,000 new Ph.D.s a year into a system that can sustain 10,000”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I want to think about how we’re defining this “system”. If you mean a system that equals “only tenure-track faculty in higher education”, then it is ridiculous. But, I’m asking us (as a field; as a society) to broaden our lens when contemplating the opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having too many qualified workers hardly seems like it should be dubbed “a problem”, am I right? How is it a problem to have thousands of smart, educated, and motivated people who want to work? Instead, I suggest we need to widen our lens and think about the potential career paths and jobs that need really smart, educated, and motivated people. Again, how is this a problem? It seems more like opportunities not being pursued. That said, we also need to ensure that we’re NEVER implying to PhD prospects that universities will have sufficient full-time tenured positions waiting for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, maybe these students are already a step ahead. As one commenter noted, they have a hard time convincing students to pursue positions in academia. Given the anecdotal stories I hear of 50+ applications for every open tenure-track position, I don’t know how widespread this problem of keeping people in academia is outside of some isolated cases. Either way, the core issue is helping people find\/make a path. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Facebook post by Dr. Thomas Reeves today about a new book called “The Adjunct Underclass” from the University of Chicago Press prompted some good commentary. I noted: I look forward to reading this book. I could probably be a case study for this book. I love being a \u201cutility player\u201d with my PhD. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[194,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2225"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2239,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions\/2239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}