As an adjunct professor in the English Department, Brianne Bolin makes $4,700 for every course she teaches per semester. The payment barely pays her monthly bills, leaving little money to grow her savings. 

In a country where 76 percent of college professors are non-tenure track, Bolin’s story is the norm. According to the American Association of University Professors, adjunct professors in the United States make an average of $2,700 per three-credit course. 

In response to the growing number of financially struggling adjunct professors, Bolin, a single mother, saw the need for a support network. With the help of Joseph Fruscione, a former adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Bolin founded PrecariCorps, an organization dedicated to providing financial support to adjunct professors through donations, in January.

Bolin, who was featured in a December 2014 Elle article titled, “The Hypereducated Poor,” founded PrecariCorps following the support she experienced in response to the article. Soon after the story was published, she received a life-changing phone call in the college’s adjunct faculty office: an anonymous donor wanted to give her $5,000, pay off her debt and help give Bolin and her son a nice Christmas. 

“When this woman called and she got the check to my son and I, it had the effect intended and we had a really amazing winter break,” she said. 

Inspired by the kindness of this stranger—and at least 10 others who gave donations of used work clothing, checks and gift cards—Bolin said  she wanted to see what she could do to encourage donors to give what they could to help other adjuncts in need.

“There are people who want to give when they can, especially if certain stories resonate with them personally,” Bolin said. “I just wanted to provide that same reprieve from stress for other adjuncts.”

Though the organization was founded three months ago, it has already helped three adjunct professors through donations, Bolin said.

Miranda Merklein, a former adjunct professor at Northern New Mexico College and Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico, was one of the individuals who received aid from PrecariCorps. At one point, Merklein was teaching up to seven classes each semester and struggling to buy groceries despite having a Ph.D. in English. 

“[Receiving the money] meant that I could eat,” Merklein said. “I had literally been living on airplane peanuts for two days.”

While students view breaks as a reprieve from stress, Bolin said that it is often the most burdensome time for adjunct faculty who do not earn a paycheck during those weeks. Often adjuncts will not see their next paycheck until weeks after the next semester has begun, she said. 

“Summer months tend to be the worst for adjuncts because they’re often not teaching,” Fruscione said. “Or if they do, maybe they have one class, so they have to make $3,000–4,000 last an entire summer.”

With rent to pay, pending student loan payments and other expenses, Fruscione said when he was an adjunct, summers were his least favorite time of the year.

“It was just constant worry and constant anxiety, which I know is shared by a lot of people who are currently adjuncts,” Fruscione said. 

In response to this issue, PrecariCorps is launching a major push in donations for the coming summer months. Fruscione said the organization is in the process of planning different fundraising strategies and outlets. 

Fruscione said PrecariCorps plans to write letters to as many major scholarly organizations as possible to remind them of the amount of adjuncts teaching in higher education. 

PrecariCorps was granted tax-exempt status from the IRS on March 9, something that Fruscione and Bolin said they hope will encourage more  organizations to donate money.

The main goal of PrecariCorps is to provide financial help to as many adjuncts as possible, but the organization also serves as a way to spread awareness of some of the issues that affect faculty in contingent positions. 

“We’re hoping to help people along the way, but we’re also here to send a message,” Bolin said. “We’re in a crisis here. We are in need of charitable assistance because our schools simply aren’t designing working conditions that are conducive to having a stable career.”