<p>Not enough info to blame anyone, university, system, or the woman herself. Though each person is ultimately responsible for self, when any individual part of any community is in need, there is some moral responsibility to help out. Duquesne U and people who knew this woman may well have done so. That it wasn’t enough is a very sad thing.</p>
<p>I don’t know what choices the woman had. I see many people barely getting by on what they make and what they get from others. A hole in their subsistence net could be a disaster. I worry about my kids that they don’t find themselves in that situation, as there are more people out there lin that predicament with the education and ability to be doing more, than I had ever thought. </p>
<p>A cousin in my MIL’s family died in abject poverty, and no one really knew as he kept it a secret and did not invite anyone to visit him. Killed himself when things got too much for him to handle. Turned out he was homeless for some years but didn’t tell anyone. He was a subsititute teacher when he could find work and did all sorts of other part time jobs, none of them with any commitment of future income. When the flow came to such little amounts, he could not bear life any more. </p>
<p>We took in family members down on their luck a number of times, and now I don’t think I want to do it anymore other than our own kids. My DH’s aunt and uncle refuses to even take in their own kids after a tough run with some of them. </p>
<p>Though I agree that there are more adjuncts wanting full time work than not, I don’t think that is the argument to severely curtail the adjunct situation, (and I don’t like schools with more than a handful of adjuncts other than in special circumstances). I don’t think reducing the number of positions is going to make more adjuncts happy, as that would mean more would lose that job. Many use that job as springboards and resume lifters and find other work in the future, though not usually as a full professor.I know many who have spent stints of time teaching at community or regular colleges as adjuncts–many have retained the jobs even after getting other work. </p>
<p>The reason this situation is news is because is it unusual, but it does play on the fears of many in the adjunct situation.</p>