Reality Checkpoint Ahead

A former Fulbright scholar to Budapest, who is now a university instructor, sent this article around.
Opinion: Adjunct professors are the new working poor. Shortly thereafter,  she or someone else shared an article titled Death of an adjunct from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Both grabbed my attention since I taught as an adjunct in a California college for 15 years. Many times, I not only taught in the two full semesters, but in the summer semester as well when the full-time instructors chose not to do it. Often, I taught three classes a semester, the same load as a full-time instructor who had benefits. Apparently the article on the death of the one instructor has hit a national cord in academia.

These articles have been sitting on my desktop for some time now. I read them and then reread them and read them yet again. With each rereading the message doesn’t get any easier to accept. I wanted to share them, but first I needed to process why I was motivated for doing so and how much I wanted to reveal.

The dictionary defines adjunct as: “a thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than an essential part”
Though I haven’t had difficulty putting the pieces together, my feelings were further denigrated by an article in The Budapest Times titled Teacher pay rises not ideal but important first step. The article reads “Teachers with a university degree, combined with three years of work experience to date, will see their salaries rise from HUF 135,975 to HUF 203,330, whereas those with qualifications obtained from teacher colleges will receive an increase from HUF 126,270 to HUF 185,573.”

The numbers immediately struck me. Teachers with a university degree and three years are getting 135,975 Huf a month now? This is so very close to what I earn that I couldn't afford an excellent dinner with the difference in our salaries. Yes, they have to be in the classroom five days a week, but I think any university instructor would argue we work just as diligently and reading and correcting papers is significantly more difficult. I have a doctorate degree, but as I am continually told, my position only requires a master’s degree. That still did not lessen the pain of the slap. It was another wake up call. It made me consider my future more seriously than I have in the past. More to come.

Related articles

• Infographic and Personal Perspective - 'Un-Hired Ed: The Growing Adjunct Crisis'
• Not Teaching Anymore?
• Class Segregation in Academia
• Adjuncts, Class, and Fear
• Growing Number of Part-time Professors Join Unions

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No Cents for Hungary

People have been asking me for years when Hungary will join the Euro Zone and are flummoxed by the fact they have not yet. Of course, these are all tourists who are asking, because they are still cautious about handing over a 5,000 forint bill and barely getting any change back. All of those zeros can be alarming. I remember when Italy had lira. There were so many zeros on some of the bills; they had to add an addendum to it.

Well the Budapest Times had an enlightening article concerning Hungary and the Euro. It has never been an issue of desire, but a need to meet all of the required Maastricht criteria, the treaty that sets the rules for the Euro. "Orbán admitted that the country will not be able to meet the criteria of a 3% debt threshold until the next decade. This is a requirement that must be maintained for 2 years to be eligible for joining the Euro zone.

Tourists you need to bring your calculators or print out a currency cheat sheet here.

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Hungarian Birthdays

The kiddies in my Journalism minor had their Creative Writing class today. I am forever impressed with the undeveloped talent that is taking shape as the semester continues. At the end of the class, one of the students, had brought a cake to share, but had not said a thing. When another student asked why she was carrying around a cake, she said it was her birthday. We gathered in my office, sang Happy Birthday, and shared the cake. I was a little surprised as I have been told numerous times that birthday celebrations are usually for families and close friends. When I mentioned it to her, she said she felt our group was so tight, she wanted to include all of us. I have been working on finding these students internships with English media for next semester. The Budapest Times may be interested, but wanted some of their writing samples. In their Blogging class tomorrow, I will have them proofread their blogs and then send the link to the editor for review. My fingers are crossed.

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The Sun Sets on The Budapest Sun

After a run of sixteen years, The Budapest Sun, the English language newspaper is closing its presses down for good. Though many ex-pats had a love-hate relationship with the paper, it was a fairly reliable source of what was happening in the city and country in English. There were columnists and restaurant reviewers that readers loved to hate and always prompted a number of letters to the editor. Now that negativity will have to be vented elsewhere. There were clues when the longtime editor, Robin Marshall left the paper. Then the paper switched from an every two week newspaper format to a magazine style issue. This only lasted for the month of January 2009. Employees were only told this last week that the news portal was being nailed shut. The website www.budapestsun.com will continue, without its printed partner. This comes as no real surprise as many newspapers are crumbling under the pressures of economic times and the exponential growth of readers preferring to read their news online for free rather than shell out some money for paper versions of the news. This leaves the Budapest Times (www.budapesttimes.hu/) as the sole survivor in the English language printed news arena.

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