The Teaching Job Interview That Inspired Me to Become Autonomous

Years ago, I interviewed for an adjunct teaching position, specifically the head of a jazz guitar department at a university in the San Francisco Bay area. The school had fewer than five guitar majors at the time and was a one-hour drive from my residence. Despite being guitar majors, each student received only one half-hour weekly lesson. As with all university positions, a PhD was strongly preferred. The school required extensive teaching experience, including experience teaching at the university level. You also had to be recognized as an accomplished professional guitarist, preferably with publishing credits to your name.

The interview started well. The sample lesson taught to a senior went very well. I swiftly fielded questions about my teaching experience and philosophy and ways I intended to recruit more students. Among my responsibilities would be creating a curriculum and attending juries.

Despite being part of the faculty, I would have to pay the $2.00 per hour parking fee and coordinate a teaching schedule with the students. There was also the chance that I would have to come in on one or two days to teach only one student for thirty minutes.

The final part of the interview revealed that I would be paid only for teaching lessons. No compensation would be available for creating the curriculum, attending juries and recitals, or spending time recruiting students. While this was a bit of a surprise, the final blow had yet to arrive.

The department chair took out a calculator and reviewed the university's convoluted breakdown of how many teaching units each student represents. He continued to make several calculations. When he finished, I looked down and saw the number 75 encircled. "This is what you are paid per student, per month," he said. I asked him to confirm the number represented the monthly rate, not the hourly rate. He nodded.

I quickly did some math and realized I was being offered $37.50 per hour before taxes, parking, etc.; this was at least $10.00 less than I made 25 years ago before I completed my undergraduate schooling when considering inflation rates.

Of course, I politely declined to go further, especially when I realized I might have to spend three hours teaching one student, amounting to less than $10.

Most of us are aware of the ever-increasing university tuition rates. Where is that money going? Certainly not in the pockets of the professors. The biggest losers in the end? The students, as always.

How is it that any academic institution demands of its prospective professors graduate degrees, extensive teaching experience, and publications and expects to find any self-respecting professor for such a meager wage?

As much as I love to teach, my skills, experience, and educational credentials warrant more significant compensation. To accept less only foments resentment and contempt for the institution.