#adjunct adjunctstories

[precaritytales]

via @SeattleMag | @SeattleU #adjunct struggled to balance dreams of #teaching w/ #lowwages

In the waning hours of last December, David Heller had dinner with friends at a neighborhood Thai restaurant. Over shared plates of pad kee mao and panang curry, they drank red wine and talked of plans for the coming year. Spirits were good. Yet Heller’s friends were worried about him. He looked pale, walked with a limp, complained of sores on his legs and general fatigue. And his normally acute mind seemed distracted. When he missed their annual New Year’s Eve gathering, his friends urged him to check himself into a hospital. He hesitated, but agreed to be taken to Virginia Mason Medical Center the next day. He died early in the morning on January 2 of complications from an untreated thyroid condition.