Oops number three. All institutions of higher learning except the very toniest liberal arts colleges–and even some of them–basically run on the cheap labor provided by part-time wage slaves such as EWU claimed Miss Dolezal was. Call these poor exploited souls “adjuncts,” or “quarterly faculty,” or “part-time appointments,” just don’t call them “real faculty.” It’s despicable that EWU bailed on Miss Dolezal by hiding behind the cloak of her ephemeral status, but this is hardly a new stunt in the annals of higher ed.

However–oops number four–Miss Dolezal’s temporary, quarter-to-quarter status was belied by a smiling glamour shot of her showing plenty of cleavage on the Africana Studies webpage. Most “adjuncts” don’t stick around long enough to have their picture taken on a campus, let alone posted on the campus’s website. Which of course leads me to speculate as to just how “temporary” Miss Dolezal’s appointment had been.

One dirty little secret about adjunct appointments is that they can and often do go on ad infinitum. In exchange for a pittance in salary, the instructor gets to teach without ever having to go through the rigorous review that a tenure evaluation once, at least, represented. Under such a system, a person such as Miss Dolezal, who lacks the terminal degree usually expected of faculty members, can remain, quarter after quarter, accepting the perks, such as they are, that accrue to folks who call themselves “professor.” Make no mistake: her academic title was one thing we know that Miss Dolezal did not make up. It said she was a “professor” right on the EWU website. Which is why, in the end, EWU and Miss Dolezal deserved each other: they are both consummate liars. Oops.