Although Professor Bolin has worked at Columbia College in Chicago for the last five years and teaches composition in four different classes, she does not even have a phone extension to her name; never mind an office. When reporter for AlterNet, Alissa Quart, had gone to interview her, the receptionist at the front desk could not even identify her.
Bolin is a mother to a disabled eight year old boy. She cannot afford to replace her broken glasses and instead uses red electrical tape to fasten the contraption together. She shops at the thrift store for all of her clothes, and relies on her father and his fiancé to care for her son when she is busy at work. 
The University’s ability to afford lavish modern furnishings for its student lounge contrasts sharply with Bolin’s meager paycheck: at $4350 a class, but never more than $24000 a year, she earns $2000 a month. She has $55 in the bank and $3,000 in credit card debt. She is a month behind on the $975 rent she pays for a two-bedroom house next to railroad tracks in a western Chicago suburb, where every 20 minutes a train screeches by. She must rely on food stamps to feed herself and her son, and because her job doesn’t offer health insurance, they’re both enrolled in Medicaid. While she had never expected to be a top academic, she certainly did not expect to have clothes that had holes in them at the age of 35.
Bolin’s plight highlights the problem with a political system that is focused solely on broadening access to college, while neglecting the inconvenient fact that a good education no longer guarantees that the over-educated poor will stay above the poverty line; particularly in this post-financial crisis world. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of people with graduate degrees on federal aid has tripled according to the US Census. 28% of food stamp households are headed by a person with at least a college education in 2013, up from 8% in 1980.
The over-educated poor are more prevalent than even society at large might presume; “Nobody knows or cares that I have a PhD, living in the trailer park,” says a former linguistics adjunct and mother of one, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, and was on welfare and food stamps. A St. Paul, Minnesota, librarian, who admits that few of her friends have any clue how broke she is, puts it this way: “Every American thinks they’re a temporarily embarrassed millionaire: I am no exception.”
Bolin’s friend from college, Justin Thomas, has a Master’s degree in history. An adjunct at Lake Land College, he teaches between 4 and 6 classes a semester and earns between $1500 and $3087 a class. His paychecks arrive a month after each semester begins, he says, and during those four weeks he can only afford macaroni and cheese with baked potatoes for his two daughters. (Because he doesn’t have full custody of them, he isn’t eligible for food stamps.) “I say, ‘Sorry I can’t afford to buy you anything, even an ice cream,'” he says, getting choked up as he adds, “for me to help my daughters with their dreams, I have to give up my dreams.” Though he has been moonlighting for his father in construction, money remains tight. “I’d love to get my daughter music lessons—she’s talented. But right now I don’t have the resources to take advantage of her ability.”
Law graduates are also becoming downwardly mobile; employment fell from 92% in 2007 to 84.5 in 2012 according to the National Association for Law Placement. The average law student’s debt was also $100,000. Architecture, market research, data processing, book publishing, human resources and finance are a few other professions that have not gained since the financial crisis.
Bolin had been encouraged by her favorite professor, Michael Loudon, to embrace her interest in becoming an academic. He has now retired. However, things have changed since his time as an academic. Back then, 75% of professors were tenured or tenure-track. Now the situation is reversed, and 75% are adjuncts or part-timers like Bolin.
Karen Kelsky, a former anthropology professor who founded a counselling service called, “The Professor Is In,” has some advice for adjuncts like Bolin: Find a “real job.” Her clients pay $300 an hour for e-mail counsel about how to reinvent themselves, and sometimes, to express “rage, despair, and disappointment” about their disappearing profession, Kelsky says. “Adjuncts can accrue massive debt to support their children, destroy their health, teach at five campuses, in a professional death spiral. Once you’ve given it your best shot, it’s time to move on.” She helps people with postgraduate degrees to identify other marketable skills, such as analysis, data gathering, writing, and public speaking.
Although Bolin follows Kelsky’s blog closely, and believes that her advice is sound, she is already stretched too thin working and caring for her son on her own. She struggles to find the time needed to send out a resume or get additional training. Training that would cost her even more than she is able to afford. She has been looking to supplement her income with other work, and had been looking into becoming a speech language pathologist and a campus union organizer. Neither of these ideas had worked out, however.
Social psychologists seem to believe that her problems do not simply stem from her lack of time, they also come from what they call “decision fatigue”. This syndrome plagues the poor, causing them to use extra energy because of the need to make prudent choices on everyday purchases that most people would take for granted (fewer and fewer of us can purchase blindly these days).
In order to stay within her $349 food stamp budget, she has to balance the expensive foods needed by her developing, lactose intolerant son by being exceedingly thrifty with her own food. “I read blogs about people wasting $20 on frivolous things like a photo booth or fancy cheese,” she says. “I’ll never do that.” When so much mental activity is devoted to basic survival, little is left to engage in long-term thinking or to muster willpower—which Bolin well knows. “I need to smoke to relieve the pressure,” she says, as she rolls her own cigarettes. She claims that she is self-medicating; other times, she uses Xanax for anxiety and takes a daily antidepressant. As Linda Tirado, whose blog post on her own minimum-wage existence had shot her to fame last year, writes in her new book, Hand to Mouth: “Being poor while working hard is f***ing crushing.”
The desperation of Bolin’s life comes through particularly acutely when she gazes longingly into antique shops, Austrian bakeries and expensive restaurants. She is unable to afford even a book on feminism at a bookstore.
This was certainly my experience for the first years out of school. I worked as an academic researcher and as a part time university lecturer in the UK. The wages were, to be frank, pitiable. Even when working as a full time course leader, the wages were pitiable and the environment immensely political, in addition to having to author courses, teach courses and oversee their compliance…well after 5 years I quit. Leaving etching is one of the great sadnesses in my life. However the experience has proven immensely valuable…best way to keep something is to give it away!
Not to take anything away from Ms. Bolin, but where is her son’s father? Does she get any money from him, and if not, why?
Maybe the child’s father is just not a part of their life, perhaps he had his parental rights terminated..? Possibly a complete deadbeat who does not support his child at all. Those types exist.
While i feel for this whole story, I hope she starts self-meditating rather than self-medicating. It will cut down her expenses and help her out dramatically.
Hello! I am a music teacher near Lakeland, FL and would like to offer some free music lessons to Justin for his daughter (or daughters!) Please get him my email! If I am not proficient in the instrument of her choosing I have plenty of music educators who are who might be wiling to help!
This was a very nice gesture.
They stated ms Bolin was a teacher at Columbia in Chicago.
Lake Land college is in Southern Illinois. A community college just south of U of I.
you might be able to find him on facebook, or get his email from the lakeland college website?
It’s sad that we have a world full of people with degrees that live in poverty while corporations and political officials pull in as much as they do. The medical system here in America is corrupt. When I fell off a cliff in 2013 and nearly died, I didn’t have health insurance, now? My credit is ruined and i’m 30k in the hole. This happened when I was 19. I’m am now 21 and can’t get a car, apartment, or credit card because my credit is that bad. This is the legacy my future kids will know of their once great country.
Be thankful you don’t have a credit card. You would need to use it and it would get you into much worse debt. Seek out your vocational rehabilitation office, usually a part of the state dept. of education. They pay for psychological and physical evaluations and then set you up with a vocational counselor who will identify a good fit for you specifically, and then if you push, VR will help you get a job. However, they get paid on placing you, not necessarily placing you in a good or fitting job. Be persistent and only take what works for you. If VR refuses, file a complaint. Like all government workers, they keep their jobs by not making waves for their bosses. Good luck.
Her story is all too familiar. What makes it even more maddening are the ever increasing costs of attending college that are passed on to students. If the money is not going to pay the instructors then it must be getting squandered somewhere else. As a college student, I would rather have my instructors paid more so there is a better chance I will be able to find them when I need assistance outside of regular classroom hours. But, if my instructors do not even have an office on campus then where i am to meet with them? If my instructors are paid less than I make working part time then what is their incentive to invest themselves in the classes that they teach? I have seen the growing apathy in the classroom during my very long college career. When I first started attending college over 25 years ago most of my instructors were full-time staff, now the majority on campus are adjunct.
She should get paid a living wage, but she also shouldn’t be surprised by her situation. One thing to take away from the problems with education is that not all degrees are created equal. A bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering is more inclined to get you a job than a PhD in History. A high school physics teacher gets a job easier than an English teacher. And a Comp. Sci. degree will make you money wherever you go. This woman chose a degree that holds little marketability outside of academia, and full time jobs are simply too hard to find with a Master’s alone in any humanities program in any school, anywhere (even a PhD isn’t an assurance at more than an adjunct position). It’s not right that anyone should have a job and not get paid a living wage, but in today’s world you need to have networks and you need to market yourself. If you really want to teach English or do other jobs that millions of other people want to do, you better be great at it, and you better know people. It’s no longer about being good enough in these fields, it’s about being great enough. If you’re not great enough, too bad, because there’s too many other people getting humanities degrees or what-have-you.
People have become dis-empowered. Its time to bring back unions. Everyone seems so apathetic these days. Why don’t people strike anymore?
Forget sending out resumes. She could get a job at Home Depot and make more than $24000 a year. She can also move out of Chicago to a place with a lower cost of living. It costs money to move? Yeah, and it costs money to live in a place you can’t afford to live, too.
Why should we feel sympathy for someone who thinks that their degree entitles them to a certain income and lifestyle? That’s towering arrogance. There are people who dropped out of high school making more money: is that some sort of tragedy? Are those people less worthy of their occupation and income because they don’t have a post-graduate college degree?
I think you are being a bit rough on her. When you live in poverty, it is difficult to pull yourself out. I think she should see if her dad can help her while she retrains for another field or makes her field more marketeable such as teaching high school.
Used to be, work like a nigga to live like a white guy, nowadays, you work like a white guy to live like a nigga…… lol
She should consider teaching high school. It pays better and she will have secure benefits and summers off. The districts usually divide your pay up into 12 months so you aren’t without a check. There is now a shortage of teachers. She should come to California. Pro union and teachers make good money.
She should move in with her father and get her teaching credential. It is a good investment.
Columbia is a scam school. I graduated from there and wish I hadn’t. Why is it a scam? for one they charge a lot, yet the equipment is often outdated. In 1995 when I was there the radio department was mostly still using turntables! they claimed it was because radio stations still used them but it’s a lie. They also charge for additional things like paper the classes use and any supplies. I’ve seen things like a “class charge” for $100 (or more)even though the class may not even pass out much paper or any supplies. When I was there they didn’t even have a fitness center. Where is the money going? well the school years later bought a mansion for the college president and the top administrations were way overpaid. On top of it they had open admissions so there were students they knew would never amount to much yet the teachers had to pass them and these students ended up in low paying jobs that didn’t require degrees. It trickled to all the students so now there are students there who are top of their class and will find themselves heavily in debt working at low paying jobs.
Speech pathologist is the way to go as there is a shortage. School districts, hospitals, home health care, state preschool programs are all looking for them. Do your research; go full time year round if possible even with loan it will pay off in the long run. Also depending on state requirements her son could get additional benefits for disability.
As a speech-language pathologist myself, becoming an SLP is easier said than done. She would need to get a year of prerequisites even before she could apply to graduate school. Graduate programs are very competitive through the country. Even if she got into a graduate speech program it would take 2-3 years to complete with full time study. She would increase her debt even more. It could be done but it would be a long and difficult road.