Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    AI and Microcredentials
Sign In
Academic Workplace

What That Ad for the Unpaid Job at UCLA May Have Been About

By Megan Zahneis March 21, 2022
Photo illustration showing the UCLA campus and a recent faculty job ad that stated the position will have no compensation.
Illustration by The Chronicle, photo from U. of California at Los Angeles

A job posting at the University of California at Los Angeles drew harsh criticism from academics over the weekend for asking applicants to work on a “without salary basis.” Though the posting has since been taken down, speculation has persisted about whether its existence was the result of bureaucratic opacity, academe’s penchant for exploiting labor, or a little bit of both.

Posted on March 4, the listing — for an assistant adjunct professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry — sought candidates with a Ph.D. and “significant experience and strong record in teaching.” But interested candidates, the posting read, “must understand there will be no compensation for this position.”

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

A job posting at the University of California at Los Angeles drew harsh criticism from academics over the weekend for asking applicants to work on a “without salary basis.” Though the posting has since been taken down, speculation has persisted about whether its existence was the result of bureaucratic opacity, academe’s penchant for exploiting labor, or a little bit of both.

Posted on March 4, the listing — for an assistant adjunct professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry — sought candidates with a Ph.D. and “significant experience and strong record in teaching.” But interested candidates, the posting read, “must understand there will be no compensation for this position.”

After an online backlash from scholars who called the position exploitative, the department on Saturday issued an apology on Twitter, citing “unfortunate wording,” and the listing was removed from UCLA’s website. (An archived version is available here.) The chair of the department, Neil K. Garg, referred The Chronicle to a spokesman.

In an email on Monday, a UCLA spokesman said that the institution recognized the language in the advertisement “could have benefited from additional context,” and that it was committed to “doing better in the future.”

Later in the day, UCLA issued a follow-up statement that went further: “A recent job posting by UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry contained errors, and we are sorry. We always offer compensation for formal classroom teaching. We will do better in the future and have taken down the posting, which we will make sure is correctly written and reposted. Our positions are open to all applicants,” Bill Kisliuk, UCLA’s director of media relations, wrote in an email to The Chronicle.

Kisliuk also provided a statement on Saturday about how such positions typically work. “Some positions may be without salary when individuals are compensated by other sources and a formal affiliation with UCLA is necessary,” the statement read. “These positions are considered when an individual can realize other benefits from the appointment that advance their scholarship, such as the ability to apply for or maintain grants, mentor students, and participate in research that can benefit society. These arrangements are common in academia, and in cases where formal classroom teaching is a component, compensation for these services is provided commensurate to experience and with an eye to equity within the unit.”

Several academics speculated online that the listing was directed toward an internal candidate who already held a staff or administrative position at UCLA and whose contract for that post barred teaching duties. On Twitter, Mark Warschauer, a professor of education and informatics at the University of California at Irvine, suggested another possibility — that the person in the role would be paid through external grant funding the scholar brought in. Whatever the rationale, Warschauer wrote, “it is almost certainly more reflective of bureaucracy than of trying to get somebody to teach without getting paid.”

That sort of explanation is plausible, said Timothy R. Cain, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Georgia. But he thinks the listing, and the response it elicited, raises a larger question about “the way we are structuring academic labor and what we are valuing and what we’re not valuing,” he said. “Teaching in exchange for a line on a CV or an affiliation with an academic institution says something quite significant about how academic labor is compensated and how it’s thought of.”

The payless position was, at least, legal per the University of California system’s policy, which allows hiring for a series of adjunct positions, including assistant adjunct professor, to be done “with or without salary.”

ADVERTISEMENT

UCLA’s job advertisement invited comparisons to a similar situation at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 2018, in which a dean sought help in recruiting alumni with terminal degrees to sign on for three-year terms with “zero-time (adjunct) status.” (At the time, a Carbondale spokeswoman referred to participants in the program as “volunteer adjuncts.”) Tulane University’s law school also drew complaints in 2019 about an advertisement for a “volunteer” adjunct position, and quickly moved to clarify that “well-established or retired” professionals — often alumni — volunteer to mentor students and teach practice-based classes.

Such arrangements, Cain said, could be more common in informal contexts, where institutions recruit outside professionals to teach a class without sharing a listing externally.

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Labor Hiring & Retention
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
zahneis-megan.jpg
About the Author
Megan Zahneis
Megan Zahneis, a senior reporter for The Chronicle, writes about faculty and the academic workplace. Follow her on Twitter @meganzahneis, or email her at megan.zahneis@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Photo illustration showing Santa Ono seated, places small in the corner of a dark space
'Unrelentingly Sad'
Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah.
Illustration of a rushing crowd carrying HSI letters
Seeking precedent
Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Is Discriminatory and Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Argues
Photo-based illustration of scissors cutting through paper that is a photo of an idyllic liberal arts college campus on one side and money on the other
Finance
Small Colleges Are Banding Together Against a Higher Endowment Tax. This Is Why.
Pano Kanelos, founding president of the U. of Austin.
Q&A
One Year In, What Has ‘the Anti-Harvard’ University Accomplished?

From The Review

Photo- and type-based illustration depicting the acronym AAUP with the second A as the arrow of a compass and facing not north but southeast.
The Review | Essay
The Unraveling of the AAUP
By Matthew W. Finkin
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome propped on a stick attached to a string, like a trap.
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Can’t Trust the Federal Government. What Now?
By Brian Rosenberg
Illustration of an unequal sign in black on a white background
The Review | Essay
What Is Replacing DEI? Racism.
By Richard Amesbury

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: a Global Leadership Perspective
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin