By Rick Baum, Part-time instructor at City College of San Francisco
Adjunct, a feature-length film written, directed by, and starring Ron Najor, realistically covers much of what happens in the life of a higher education teacher without tenure who could be labeled an adjunct, a part-timer, a contingent faculty member, a lecturer, or a visiting professor. The film was shown by the Higher Education Labor United (HELU) Contingency Task Force on Saturday, October 25, in a “coast-to-coast and wall-to-wall” online watch party.
A trend in higher education, especially since the 1970s, is for more teaching jobs being held, approximately 70%, by these well-educated gig workers who, unlike full-time tenured faculty, endure low pay often with no benefits, and little to no job security. In fact, due to their low pay, many adjuncts are on public assistance. Those who work as adjuncts do so for different reasons. Some have outside full-time jobs and careers. They are not dependent on the teaching job, but take it on as a side gig, often for fun, or they work full-time at one college and take on part-time work at a second college to supplement their income.
Many adjuncts exclusively or predominantly depend on the income gained from their teaching work, sometimes at more than one college, to make ends meet. These adjuncts are a dominated workforce. They know that if they cause “trouble,” they may lose their job and harm their chances of obtaining a job at another college/university, and likely permanently undermine their chances of ever gaining one of the few tenure-track positions that are available.
The lead character in Adjunct, Amer, who won an award for a short story, teaches four classes a year at what comes across as a public California State University. He is a caring, supportive, and engaging teacher who loves his job. He is more than willing to help his students. Due to his low pay of $19,000/year, he supplements his income in another gig “profession,” driving for Uber. He also works as a clerk in a liquor store. Nevertheless, he is currently homeless and broke. He has lost his apartment and is sleeping on the couch in his brother’s home until he can save up enough money to be able to pay first and last month’s rent for a place of his own.
Adjunct is more than a film about being an educator. It also shows the impact and psychological stress precarious work has on one’s day-to-day life. When his girlfriend breaks up with Amer, it can partially be attributed to his economic circumstances. The breakup occurs when he is late for a planned evening together because he had to take Uber customers on a longer ride beyond what was first requested.
What makes Adjunct compelling is how it depicts the indignities that one must endure as an educator or a gig driver, many of which I have experienced as a part-time teacher in community colleges for over forty years. The movie is likely to resonate with all part-time faculty, especially if they teach the same classes as their full-time “colleagues” for which they are paid significantly less even if they are more qualified and experienced.
The Film Shows Many Examples of the Indignities Faced by Adjuncts
Many adjuncts try to obtain the “brass ring”, that coveted tenure-track position. To have a better chance at getting such a job, one will do free work to benefit the college and may also have to engage in a lot of ass kissing by being compliant and showing complete respect for those above one and the existing hierarchical structure.
Amer is a candidate for a full-time job, the first available in his department in five years. Not having heard whether he has been hired, he asks his Tesla-owning department chair about the position. Amer is told that the decision will soon be made with the department chair going on to state that Amer “brings tremendous value to the department” while he’s “putting in more time and effort than some of the full timers.” He then asks Amer to volunteer to be a judge for a short story contest, to which Amer agrees.
Shortly thereafter, Amer learns he has not gotten the job. His department chair empathizes with Amer’s disappointment, but that the person hired had credentials that were too impressive to pass up, including being a published novelist (of a book that we later learn has received unimpressive ratings). He goes on to say that he knew Amer would understand because the committee needed to do what is best for the department.
Soon thereafter, Amer learns that one of his classes is being given to the newly hired full-time faculty member. However, he will be assigned a different class so he will not have to endure a reduced schedule. Then Amer receives a letter from the college’s personnel office informing him that he will be losing his employee medical benefits because the new class is classified as an emergency hire and does not count towards the load requirement that enables one to be eligible to receive medical benefits.
Not to take away from the high quality of the story, what is disappointingly absent from it is any coverage of what adjuncts, as a group, can do about their situation or the role of the union that likely “represents” Amer at this California college. There is a good possibility that had Amer reached out to his union over losing his medical benefits, he would have received an expression of sympathy and been told that under the existing rules, nothing could be done. That is why adjuncts cannot solve the problems they face on their own. They need to be organized to fight for equal treatment.
My positive reaction to the film is strong because it effectively depicts many of my own life experiences and what I assume are the experiences of the thousands of other part-time gig faculty members working in our institutions of higher education.
The film resonated with the HELU audience, who were primarily contingent college faculty from around the country. Some of the commentary expressed during the talk-back included:
Disrespect is one of the hardest parts of being an adjunct.
We’re a disposable commodity.
“Institutional betrayal” is indeed what we face.
Adjuncts make many sacrifices in their lives without necessarily realizing it.
Many FT colleagues see us as “less than.”
Many unions talk a good talk, but in the end…the contract always seems to be better for tenured faculty, who primarily run the unions.
Most unions are just fine with the two-tier system. They don’t even blink when they see that PT faculty get a fraction of their salaries for the EXACT SAME WORK.
We get ignored/blamed sometimes and gaslit for being “anti-union” because we are asking for equality!
Unions and districts rely on our passion for the job and the students to give 100% in exchange for 40% pay. They count on it!
The higher ed system depends on underpaid part-time faculty, creating an unsustainable two-tier structure that must be dismantled.
The film is not only triggering, but an impetus to take action!
Some great ideas for taking action came from the group: the move to end contingency must embrace current adjunct faculty with job security and equality in benefits and salary, not just hiring more tenure-track lines, many of which will simply replace long-term adjuncts; and strengthening leadership, involving students, and expanding representation beyond a few voices are key steps toward a fairer, more unified movement.
This film deserves to be widely viewed. Even if you are not an adjunct, the film is educational, engaging, and worth watching. Adjunct is available on Amazon, Apple, and Google. A previous and longer version of this article was published by Counterpunch at: www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/05/the-movie-adjunct-effectively-depicts-gig-faculty-work