Rattle Tribute to Adjuncts

In addition to work by 17 poets that opens the issue, Rattle #53 features a Tribute to Adjuncts. The editors write, “Over 65% of U.S. college faculty now work as adjuncts, facing low wages, limited hours, and high instability. We wanted to highlight their writing, while also showing support for recent efforts at gaining better treatment by the university system. As always, the goal was to show the wide range of creative work that the featured group is producing, so while many poems address their careers, others cover a variety of subjects. All of them share their thoughts on adjuncting in the contributor notes section.”

Every one of us who teaches in higher ed should buy copies of this issue to give to our dean, provost, vice president, president. board of trustees – whomever is responsible for the decision-making that retains, and continues to increase, these miserable working conditions for adjunct faculty. Perhaps better still, assign this issue in your classes, have students read it; the real change will need to come from dissatisfied “customers.” If they are outraged about egregious labor practices and refuse to buy their products from certain companies, they should be as equally outraged about the education for which they are paying a premium price to support an oppressed working majority. [Rattle cover artist Allison Merriweather]