Reading the hell out of this right now. 

FACT: A post-doc in the English department at UC Davis (for which there will likely be hundreds of applicants) with a one-class-per-quarter teaching load pays $50,000/year, with benefits. The same teaching load at UC Berkeley, performed by a “lecturer”? $7,000/semester, without benefits.

SCARIER FACT: Chances are, you won’t be the Davis hire. You’ll be the lecturer.

…

In short: We grad students need to stop seeing ourselves as special, and instead see ourselves as part of a sometimes-great institution that does amazing things, one of which (perhaps the most important of which) is challenging and enriching students’ minds through classroom instruction and discussion — but also to recognize that it is an institution that currently systematically undervalues this work. 

What’s really terrible? My first thought was, “Holy shit! they make 7Gs at UC Davis for adjunct work? Sign me up!”

I’m damaged goods, y’all.