The Adjunct Life

[mahagonny]

I was usually renewed as an adjunct--it happened to me once that I wasn't. Communication just quietly stopped, and I just quietly didn't come back. It wasn't the most personal form of communication, but in its own way, I guess it accomplished what it set out to do.

Did the Chair ignore your emails or just never reach out to you for future scheduling?

I always write in the first month of a semester to inquire about scheduling for the next semester. I also often touch base at the end of a semester saying how things have gone and thoughts about future scheduling. When possible I will drop into the Chair's office once a semester to say hi.

Getting a steady, predictable number of credit hours each semester is hard to achieve even with a union. My attitude is, this means that as a working adjunct, part of your job is always looking for work. So your hourly wage should reflect the fact that although you're working now, you've never really obtained a regular job. Does anyone care? Does it actually work that way? Probably not. But that's no reason to stop telling people the truth.

[downer]

I was usually renewed as an adjunct--it happened to me once that I wasn't. Communication just quietly stopped, and I just quietly didn't come back. It wasn't the most personal form of communication, but in its own way, I guess it accomplished what it set out to do.

Did the Chair ignore your emails or just never reach out to you for future scheduling?

I always write in the first month of a semester to inquire about scheduling for the next semester. I also often touch base at the end of a semester saying how things have gone and thoughts about future scheduling. When possible I will drop into the Chair's office once a semester to say hi.

Getting a steady, predictable number of credit hours each semester is hard to achieve even with a union. My attitude is, this means that as a working adjunct, part of your job is always looking for work. So your hourly wage should reflect the fact that although you're working now, you've never really obtained a regular job. Does anyone care? Does it actually work that way? Probably not. But that's no reason to stop telling people the truth.

My post was about communication, not wages or even steady employment.

[little bongo]

It was more the "never reach out to you for future scheduling," but there were Other Circumstances that made things pretty clear as well.

I would also agree that yes, if you're an under- and marginally employed adjunct, then your full time job is indeed looking for work. In this case, I get where the representatives of the Professional-Managerial Class on the fora are coming from--looking for work entails strategies, responsibilities, and analyses of where you are, where you want to be, and where you need to be.

[mahagonny]

I was usually renewed as an adjunct--it happened to me once that I wasn't. Communication just quietly stopped, and I just quietly didn't come back. It wasn't the most personal form of communication, but in its own way, I guess it accomplished what it set out to do.

Did the Chair ignore your emails or just never reach out to you for future scheduling?

I always write in the first month of a semester to inquire about scheduling for the next semester. I also often touch base at the end of a semester saying how things have gone and thoughts about future scheduling. When possible I will drop into the Chair's office once a semester to say hi.

Getting a steady, predictable number of credit hours each semester is hard to achieve even with a union. My attitude is, this means that as a working adjunct, part of your job is always looking for work. So your hourly wage should reflect the fact that although you're working now, you've never really obtained a regular job. Does anyone care? Does it actually work that way? Probably not. But that's no reason to stop telling people the truth.

My post was about communication, not wages or even steady employment.

If I could look up the answer online in the middle of the semester, that would be better than what we have now. If they're putting in online they may consider your asking a bother. I would err in the direction of treading lightly.
Yes, chairs are busy. They certainly report that they are.

It was more the "never reach out to you for future scheduling," but there were Other Circumstances that made things pretty clear as well.

I would also agree that yes, if you're an under- and marginally employed adjunct, then your full time job is indeed looking for work. In this case, I get where the representatives of the Professional-Managerial Class on the fora are coming from--looking for work entails strategies, responsibilities, and analyses of where you are, where you want to be, and where you need to be.

I would probably get where they are coming from and accept it with good humor if they were not also letting it slip out that they insert themselves into the lives of adjunct faculty as they discuss collective bargaining options. This I consider socially aggressive and inexcusable. Evidence of this is all over the old CHE forum. And even before that information slipped out it could easily have been suspected from the verbose posting against union organizing.

[downer]

Next semester I'm teaching a class that is meant for a certain program. I taught it last year too.

Unfortunately students not in the program also register for it, apparently despite requests that the registrar check before allowing them to register.

Last year there was quite a laborious process of notifying the students who should not be in the class to leave in the months before the start of the spring semester, in coordination with the coordinator of that program. And when spaces opened up in the class, other students not meant for the program would register, making it a Sisyphean task. I'm not prepared to do that again.

I wrote to the registrar and the coordinator of the program asking them to sort out the problem. They seem to prefer to do nothing.

So my plan is to just wait until the start of the semester and then weed out the students who should not be there, during drop/add week. It will probably be about a third of the registered students. It is not good for them, and I feel a little bad for them. But I don't see it as my job to do extra work to sort out the problems caused by other people's incompetence.

I guess that's a vent.

[ciao_yall]

Next semester I'm teaching a class that is meant for a certain program. I taught it last year too.

Unfortunately students not in the program also register for it, apparently despite requests that the registrar check before allowing them to register.

Last year there was quite a laborious process of notifying the students who should not be in the class to leave in the months before the start of the spring semester, in coordination with the coordinator of that program. And when spaces opened up in the class, other students not meant for the program would register, making it a Sisyphean task. I'm not prepared to do that again.

I wrote to the registrar and the coordinator of the program asking them to sort out the problem. They seem to prefer to do nothing.

So my plan is to just wait until the start of the semester and then weed out the students who should not be there, during drop/add week. It will probably be about a third of the registered students. It is not good for them, and I feel a little bad for them. But I don't see it as my job to do extra work to sort out the problems caused by other people's incompetence.

I guess that's a vent.

Your magic registration system doesn't block for prereqs or instructor/chair approval?

[downer]

Next semester I'm teaching a class that is meant for a certain program. I taught it last year too.

Unfortunately students not in the program also register for it, apparently despite requests that the registrar check before allowing them to register.

Last year there was quite a laborious process of notifying the students who should not be in the class to leave in the months before the start of the spring semester, in coordination with the coordinator of that program. And when spaces opened up in the class, other students not meant for the program would register, making it a Sisyphean task. I'm not prepared to do that again.

I wrote to the registrar and the coordinator of the program asking them to sort out the problem. They seem to prefer to do nothing.

So my plan is to just wait until the start of the semester and then weed out the students who should not be there, during drop/add week. It will probably be about a third of the registered students. It is not good for them, and I feel a little bad for them. But I don't see it as my job to do extra work to sort out the problems caused by other people's incompetence.

I guess that's a vent.

Your magic registration system doesn't block for prereqs or instructor/chair approval?

I guess there's a distinction between what it is capable of doing in principle and what the people in charge actually get it to do. I don't know what it could do in theory. I know what it does not actually do.

[Wahoo Redux]

Those are good examples of adjunct choices, with the college or university being helpfully transparent about what a PT adjunct aspiring to a full-time position with the uni is expected to do. Then we can make the choice to make the investment in that university--perhaps cutting another gig at another university, finding something non-academic at odd hours to supplement income until we succeed in getting the FT shot.

In other cases, such a path might not be as clear--an adjunct might consider taking a gamble with additional service in order for something to happen at that university, or at least to get a good reference for another application. If, for one or more reasons, the adjunct has some back-to-back courses each day at different locations, the service option doesn't work as well.

I do object to the phrase "hide in the classroom." Hide? Our classrooms are our stage, our battleground, our students' Point of Contact with Dickens' London, Hamlet's Elsinore, the truth of beauty and the beauty of truth, including the truth of numbers that become buildings, bridges, monuments, and our pathway to space and beyond. We do not hide; we have pride.

There are faculty who pretty much come skidding up to campus, teach their classes and flee as soon as class is over. They can't be bothered to serve on a committee but then complain when decisions are made they don't like, or just ignore the new policies and hope nobody will notice.

Office hours? Return phone calls or emails? Ha.

Not exactly the type one would want to have as a FT colleague. If they are interested in going FT, engage. It doesn't take that much time.

This is perhaps a bit late to respond to...but I was an adjunct and a staff member.  I engaged far more than I was paid, actually a fair amount of work.  When a job opened up I was passed over for a candidate with a better publishing section on the CV.  Engagement got me nothing. When I became a mercenary bastard and wrote my little heart out, then I started getting phone calls.  I see the wisdom in what you are saying, but the reality is that good intentions will always be trumped by a plump CV.

[hamburger]

Hi, in my CC, the word "Adjunct" is not included in any academic titles. All teaching staff have the title "Professor" even most of them do not have a PhD nor a Master's degree. I heard that some only graduated from a two year program in the same CC. Others are from the industry. I am paid by the number of class hours per semester. I need to wait until the last minute, sometimes even the semester has started, before I could tell if I would have a job for the next 3.25 months. In this case, am I an Adjunct? Are those part-timers in universities whose teaching contract is only one semester long also Adjuncts? What are the pros and cons being an adjunct in a CC vs. in a university?

[Wahoo Redux]

Hi, in my CC, the word "Adjunct" is not included in any academic titles. All teaching staff have the title "Professor" even most of them do not have a PhD nor a Master's degree. I heard that some only graduated from a two year program in the same CC. Others are from the industry. I am paid by the number of class hours per semester. I need to wait until the last minute, sometimes even the semester has started, before I could tell if I would have a job for the next 3.25 months. In this case, am I an Adjunct?

Yes. 

[hamburger]

Hi, in my CC, the word "Adjunct" is not included in any academic titles. All teaching staff have the title "Professor" even most of them do not have a PhD nor a Master's degree. I heard that some only graduated from a two year program in the same CC. Others are from the industry. I am paid by the number of class hours per semester. I need to wait until the last minute, sometimes even the semester has started, before I could tell if I would have a job for the next 3.25 months. In this case, am I an Adjunct?

Yes.

:-(

[Wahoo Redux]

Hi, in my CC, the word "Adjunct" is not included in any academic titles. All teaching staff have the title "Professor" even most of them do not have a PhD nor a Master's degree. I heard that some only graduated from a two year program in the same CC. Others are from the industry. I am paid by the number of class hours per semester. I need to wait until the last minute, sometimes even the semester has started, before I could tell if I would have a job for the next 3.25 months. In this case, am I an Adjunct?

Yes.

:-(

But that doesn't mean you're not super cool.  That just means our educational system is teetering into degeneracy for good people like you and me and the rest of us.  Go publish some stuff!  Get a FT job and show them bastards what they lost!

[hamburger]

Thanks. So publishing is the best and perhaps the only way to get out of this adjunct trap or adjunct hell? We had postdoc trap. Now adjunct trap. Perhaps later on when more and more of those rude and entitled low quality students come out to the society, the world will become even worse? Few months ago, I had a technician coming to my home to repair the internet connection. Then both the phone and internet stopped working. Another two guys came and found that this technician connected several wires incorrectly.

I have been working in this CC for 1.5 years. Not sure if I should just quit now, after this term or continue to work here while looking for the next job.  The career is not rewarding as many people have been around for over 15 years and they are still part-timers. Here, an average joe can also be a "Professor". Even a student advisor became a Professor recently. Those who came before me got higher internal credentials regardless of their academic qualifications nor teaching experience. Promotion is based on some unwritten factors. I found it ridiculous that the school hired some people with low academic qualifications and outside STEM to work for HR to filter out applicants for FT faculty positions in the initial selection process.

[Wahoo Redux]

Sorry.  That's my only real advice.  I'm not sure it's valid any more and is discipline dependent.  The best advice is to pursue a career outside of academia----if that if that is possible for you.

What's too bad is that we are allowing this to happen to our educational system.

[mahagonny]

Next semester I'm teaching a class that is meant for a certain program. I taught it last year too.

Unfortunately students not in the program also register for it, apparently despite requests that the registrar check before allowing them to register.

Last year there was quite a laborious process of notifying the students who should not be in the class to leave in the months before the start of the spring semester, in coordination with the coordinator of that program. And when spaces opened up in the class, other students not meant for the program would register, making it a Sisyphean task. I'm not prepared to do that again.

I wrote to the registrar and the coordinator of the program asking them to sort out the problem. They seem to prefer to do nothing.

So my plan is to just wait until the start of the semester and then weed out the students who should not be there, during drop/add week. It will probably be about a third of the registered students. It is not good for them, and I feel a little bad for them. But I don't see it as my job to do extra work to sort out the problems caused by other people's incompetence.

I guess that's a vent.

Your magic registration system doesn't block for prereqs or instructor/chair approval?

I guess there's a distinction between what it is capable of doing in principle and what the people in charge actually get it to do. I don't know what it could do in theory. I know what it does not actually do.

No one wants to ask the registrar to do something that makes his job even more onerous than it is now, even though you need it, the students need it, and it's the logical solution.
If you follow what administrators say to each other about management of adjunct faculty, sooner or later one of them will say 'let the adjunct run the situation in whatever way they deem appropriate. They will want to because they have stake in the outcome." It sounds like they're being easy going and trusting and flattering you. What it is is code for 'let them fix it, somehow.' The chair, et al, are just like the registrar. They consider themselves overworked. You've been *fixing* the problem. So from their perspective, everything's working as it should.
If you had tenure you say 'this is bullshit.' We need new prodecures. They would have to accommodate you if you held your ground.
If you are a 'smart' adjunct (who also has good luck) you will use your ability to make dysfunctional situations appear fine as a way to move into a full time position. I've seen people do that, and I've heard chairs talk about them. In glowing terms. 'Steve has this thing he does with that class --- I don't know what it is exactly. He's got the students going through all the right steps. It's something he figured out.' This will be spoken with a sense of elation and amazement.

Sorry.  That's my only real advice.  I'm not sure it's valid any more and is discipline dependent.  The best advice is to pursue a career outside of academia----if that if that is possible for you.

What's too bad is that we are allowing this to happen to our educational system.

And I'd go further since I have less tact than you. What's too bad is what you said and also the type of people who are attracted to administrative positions where the the policies that have produced this result get implemented and reinforced.
See I have this subversive idea that when the proliferation of dead end jobs and the search for suckers who will fill them is seen as a solution, there may well be anti-social types in the vicinity.