Victoria Mack on working as an adjunct professor, dignity, and the need to unionize the gig economy

Victoria Mack was an adjunct professor of acting and directing for years before she landed a full-time teaching position at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.

Mack taught part-time at a variety of schools in the Northeast region such as the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Montclair State University, Drew University, Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York, New York Film Academy and Western Connecticut State University.

Below is Victoria’s interview with Brielle Diskin for NJ Spark:

What did your average work week as an adjunct professor look like?

It was a very tough life. I worked anywhere I could get a job.

Mondays for example, I would take a five hour bus ride to Providence to teach a five hour directing class at RISD and then take a five hour bus ride home. Wednesdays, I was in Danbury Connecticut teaching at Western Connecticut State University which is four hours each way. At the same time I’d be working two days a week in New Jersey.

I was grateful for the work but it was mind blowingly exhausting. I had no energy for any kind of life after that.

What did working part-time feel like?

It was very demoralizing because I didn’t know if I was working towards anything.

I felt like I might be spinning in the my wheel forever, never being able to just have the stability a job provides.

There’s something that keeps you feeling like a kid when you’re not given the respect of a full-time position. Somehow it’s still embarrassing even if you’re making enough money to live off of, like there’s a shame attached.

It feels like adulthood now as a full-time teacher on contract with SCAD with a 12 month salary and benefits. I’m working the same hours I used to but with a totally different feeling.

When you’re an adjunct who busses in to teach one class a week you have no communication with the department. I was completely on my own, I had no idea what anyone else was teaching or what techniques they were using. There’s no conversation about your work or how to impact your students better so your students are the ones who suffer too.

Now, being a part of a department it’s like I’m a part of a family here (SCAD). I became a part of the family the day I signed that contract.

Do you think there is a difference in the level of respect with a full-time job versus part-time?

People assume I have something to say now whereas when I was an adjunct there’s not that assumption of importance or respect.

There’s such a dignity in that old way of life, having a full-time job and benefits. You used to assume everyone would have a full-time job and their company would take care of them. We grew up thinking that is the way you make it into the middle class. Now it’s like you are just supposed to work and work all the time and then somehow figure out how you’re going to get health insurance. Everything is on you.

In this economy we’re told that there is something cool in making it on your own, you are your own little company. I work just as hard now as I did before but now I have respect and dignity — that’s how it is supposed to be.

Was your work as an adjunct enough to suffice as a sole source of income?

Yes, but it meant taking every job that came my way. It was very much the mindset of never saying no to anything, accepting every opportunity and slaving and slaving away.

What did you do for health care?

Luckily I had enough acting work under my belt to keep my actors’ insurance going on for a while; it’s very good insurance. I am really grateful that I had that luxury, if i didn’t I don’t know if I could have even pursued teaching — my second greatest passion after acting.

Because of my health issues and preexisting condition, I don’t have the luxury of not having that coverage. There’s no way to get that as an adjunct, at least where I’ve worked there’s not.

The schools don’t give you any more than two classes because then they’d have to give you benefits. They deliberately keep you from getting enough work because they cannot afford to pay your health care.

How do you think the unions play a role in the gig economy?

Being a gig worker for so long as an actor, union protection was everything to me. Not only did it provide me with benefits, but it it meant that I was treated with respect, like a human who deserves a living wage.

I think unionizing the gig economy is essential.

Having such a heavy focus on the gig economy has really taken away a quality of living. It presents itself as this great opportunity where anyone can make money but it only works if you want to make a little extra cash and it’s really a shame for people trying to make an actual living.

Overall, how do your experience as a part of the gig economy?

When you’re in it, you can never relax.