I dreamed that one of my beloved colleagues announced that he would be leaving to take a better job elsewhere.
"Where in the world did you find a job?" I asked. "Nobody's hiring!"
"Vulcan," he said.
"Vulcan College?"
"No," he said. "The planet Vulcan."
Which, I suppose, demonstrates the lengths to which job candidates will go to find meaningful employment in the current academic market. Nobody's hiring! The regional state university about 40 miles from here cut nine adjunct slots in December, so I've been hearing from a lot of disgruntled ex-adjuncts and I hired two of them this semester. Thanks to some changes in our first-year program, I have a larger than normal number of adjunct slots available in the fall, but I've been receiving unsolicited queries from newly minted PhD's as well as seasoned professors whose jobs have been downsized, all eager to work for peanuts teaching the classes no one else really wants. At some level I feel a little guilty about exploiting the misfortunes of others, but on the other hand, at least I have something to offer.
I just hope I can offer more than they do on the planet Vulcan.
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