Fairfax, Va. – It’s Wednesday at 1 a.m. and Reece Quinones is still editing a video for work.

The deadline is Friday at 5 p.m., but she is a graduate student, a mother of her son, and works 84 hours a week at two jobs.

So she sacrifices her sleep to get the project done.

This lifestyle is common for many adjunct professors who juggle more than one job to survive.

Books in hand and a bright smile, she greets each student outside the classroom at 7:30 p.m. After work, she braces the rush hour traffic and two-hour commute from Maryland to Virginia to teach User Experience Design, a required course for graphic design students.

She is inspired by the words of John Cotton Dana, American library and museum director,  “Who dares to teach must never cease to learn,” words that were instilled in her by her mother, a teacher.

“The more you teach, the more you learn and the more you learn the more you grow,” Quinones said, an adjunct professor at George Mason University, a senior vice president and creative director at The Hatcher Group.

However, the modern method of apprenticeship and cycle of professional growth is under threat, she said.

Still, in spite of the low salary adjunct professors receive, jam-packed workload, and no health care benefits, she continues to work.

Critics say universities exploit adjunct professors and the system undercuts education. On the other hand, proponents of the use of adjunct professors say the positions were created to augment full-time staff and allow students to benefit from those working in the field.

Adjunct professors teach on a limited-term contract, are paid by the course, and are often ineligible for a permanent position, tenure.

“The concept of the adjunct is to bring in people with professional knowledge in the field, that is the original purpose of it,” said Professor Thomas Alexander, financial analysis by trade and adjunct professor of statistics. “Now it is cheap labor for the universities.”

Adjunct positions account for over 70 percent of all instructional staff appointments in higher education in America, according to a report by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a nonprofit membership association of faculty and other academic professionals.

The growth in the use of part-time faculty has occurred despite low pay, almost nonexistent benefits, and inadequate working conditions, according to a journal by AAUP.

“Clearly the make up of the faculty is different and that is not something that is happening by accident,” said Audrey June, senior reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education who has been covering academic workplace on campuses for the pass 17 years.

Adjunct professors are the response “to rapid enrollment changes.” Adjunct professors replace tenured faculty when they retire or leave, explains June.

“There is a lot of unionizing because they can’t get the pay they want or benefits,” June said.

The “corporatization” of higher education is the cause according to Anne Mcleer, director of higher education/research at SIEU Local 500 and former adjunct professor at George Washington University.

Instead of universities being a public good, more universities are acting as if education is a commodity. Universities are mimicking the corporate world. Revenue is being diverted away from teaching and into other areas such as highly paid executives salaries and investments, according to Mcleer.

Over 58 university presidents earn more than a million dollars a year, according to the data collected by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

“It is almost impossible for students to have a good learning experience,” Mcleer said.

Professor Mitchell Tropin, makes a living by working at many institutions in Maryland and Washington, D.C, including, Towson University, Trinity University, Loyala University, and Montgomery College. This is a norm for many professors and known by universities when professors create their schedule of courses for the semester at different universities.

Tropin’s friends at other institutions even share the long distances they travel from various adjunct positions. The dry humor gives them a chuckle.

Though Quinones has been an adjunct professor for over 10 years, many universities can’t hold onto adjunct professors due to low salary, their demanding daytime jobs, or the workload teaching requires, she said.

In the classroom, everything about her is warm, including her silver cardigan and favorite flowery shirt. The slightly muted grays and peaches give her enough color, without making her stand in the forefront.

She is ready to listen and challenge all 24 students.

Quinones walks around her classroom in between groups of students gathered around a galore of 20 silver 21.5-inch MAC monitors.

“What do you suggest?” Quinones asks how they would improve Amazon’s website user experience.

The classroom with its tube lights, gray walls, and colorful Post-it, acts as an incubator for ideas. Students exchange their opinions and write their findings. Chatter and excitement fill the space.

There is no other greater feeling than seeing a kid understand a concept that you are teaching, Quinones said.

I wish the world in general; especially the United States would really respect what teachers’ offer their kids, Quinones said.

The Struggle of Adjunct Professors

Quinones spends between 10 to 15 hours a week on lesson planning. For a new class, she spends 60 hours before the semester despite knowing her class may get cancelled due to an array of reasons.

Many adjunct professors cannot make a living wage through teaching. A full course load consists of three courses a semester, totaling an income of $30,000 a year.

Thomas Lytle, Graduate Student and Adjunct Professor, who hopes to follow in his Quinones’s footsteps, his teacher and mentor, doesn’t have a problem with the pay even though graduate students are on the bottom of the pay scale.

“To me I am still in the bright-eyed, honeymoon phase, where it is just like I’m teaching, I love it, aww you are paying me, cool,” Lytle said.

He believes teaching further develops his skills.

Mcleer sees this way of thinking problematic since the more adjunct and contingent part timers are teaching, the less possibility there are for tenured track jobs.

“The new facility majority is the contingent worker,” Mcleer said. “Adjunct Professors should get money to go to conferences, get an office, be able to pay their bills, and have job security.”