I wouldn’t be leaving teaching if I could teach one class a semester and earn enough to live on. That would be amazing and a total grift. LOL. A standard teaching load for non-research faculty is three courses per semester. The time prepping, teaching, grading, meeting students during office hours, plus academic advising and reviewing applications for graduate program admissions is a full-time job.

Teaching a single course is NOT EVEN CLOSE to a full time job.

I teach in a College of Education. It is, essentially, an eight-month job. If you extrapolate that out to a true, 12-month job, I’d earn six figures. In a college of Education. It’s much better pay in business schools and STEM departments.

The pay is much better as a full-time faculty member than as an adjunct but I create far more value in this role than I did in the adjunct role. I must be able to teach multiple courses (both UG and grad), assist students with Honors projects, help with curriculum decisions, etc.

I’m leaving Vandy at the end of the semester because I’m valued more elsewhere, but I don’t feel bad for adjuncts. That isn’t meant to be a job that supports a person or a family. It’s a supplement.

I also don’t know a single adjunct who is trying to live as an adjunct. Maybe those people exist, but I’ve never met one. They are usually retired professionals who don’t need the money, or they are supplementing other income (as a therapist, consultant, attorney, etc.).