Dive Brief:

• A new nonprofit group, PrecariCorps, has been formed by adjunct professors and their advocates with plans to raise money to help adjuncts with temporary financial problems.
• The group has applied for tax-exempt status to be able to accept donations from outside donors to help pay heating bills for adjunct professors, including those who have paycheck delays at the beginning of a semester, Inside Higher Ed reported.
• The group also plans to develop educational material about higher education finances, create a database for news items on adjunct professors, and study adjunct issues that affect the quality of education.

Dive Insight:

If a college or university has many adjunct professors who need financial assistance, does that put pressure on the institution to improve the pay and working conditions of its adjuncts? One of the adjunct professors organizing PrecariCorps, Brianne Bolin at Columbia College in Chicago, says that one benefit of helping adjuncts with their financial stress is that students will be served better. Bolin was featured in an Elle magazine story on “hypereducated” poor.