1 some reporters and activists compare adjuncts to

Despite this, little serious work has been done on the ‘‘business ethics’’ of universities.1 Some
reporters and activists compare adjuncts to sweatshop workers or ‘‘indentured servants’’
(Kendzior 2013). Such comparisons, we charitably presume, are not intended to trivialize the
plight of actual sweatshop workers or indentured servants, whose situation is obviously far
worse. Rather, their point is that many of the economic and moral ethical issues pertaining to
sweatshops also pertain to adjuncts. They claim that there is an oversupply of advanced degree
holders relative to the number of available tenure-track jobs. As a result, they claim, universities

strong evidence that working as an adjunct is, for whatever reason, what the adjuncts themselves
consider their best (i.e., least bad)
option. This means simply eliminating adjunct jobs will harm rather than help the typical
adjunct, unless that adjunct in turn receives an even better option. Note well, in claiming that
adjuncts choose adjuncting over their other (possibly bad) options, we do not thereby argue that
adjuncts deserve low pay, or that they are not exploited. Third, because universities face budget
constraints, and because adjuncts are significantly less expensive than tenure-track faculty, any