The Adjunct Life

[Wahoo Redux]

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.

See, this is a question that has always boggled me a bit. 

Most administrators have worked their way up through the ranks----they've been part of the hoi polloi.  They know or should know the stakes.  I am sure that once one's job entails balancing a limited budget and doing the bidding of the upper echelon, perspectives and motivations change, but I am still surprised at how little fight or innovation there is in the officer corps.  I'm sure Polly will have a lot to say on this count.

On the other hand, when I see a provost who flowered from a business program I cringe and make mystic signs of protection.

This probably deserves its own thread...

[mahagonny]

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.

See, this is a question that has always boggled me a bit. 

Most administrators have worked their way up through the ranks----they've been part of the hoi polloi.  They know or should know the stakes.  I am sure that once one's job entails balancing a limited budget and doing the bidding of the upper echelon, perspectives and motivations change, but I am still surprised at how little fight or innovation there is in the officer corps.  I'm sure Polly will have a lot to say on this count.

On the other hand, when I see a provost who flowered from a business program I cringe and make mystic signs of protection.

This probably deserves its own thread...

My attitude towards administrators:

First year: I'm glad I met you
Sixth year: I wish I had met you somewhere else.
Eleventh year: Never mind.

[mahagonny]

This probably deserves its own thread...

Right...if I'm gonna talk about people they should have their turn to tell their side of things. Polly has heard the complaints and responded with a Polly-free zone here. So maybe another thread, but in a way I would dread it.

My impressions of the condition of higher education were formed before I read the CHE fora. They have not changed. My perspective is limited. But that's the point also. Part time faculty labor in isolation. There is more (success) that depends on us than meets the eye.

On the other hand, when I see a provost who flowered from a business program I cringe and make mystic signs of protection.

My impression, no matter whether the provost is from business or whether he's a poet or a sculptor, he's there because he wants the provost gig. There will always be a bottom rung of "outsider" faculty whose judgment is called into question by the mere fact that they accepted the terms offered. There is no to truthful way make this work out.

[downer]

So one school where I work has decided to switch to putting student course evaluations online. This is not unusual, but other places do it in a smart way, sending out emails directly to students and giving each a unique identifier so they know the student has done the evaluation. Each student can do the evaluation only once.

By way of contrast, this school is just providing a link to a survey site for each course. Each student can fill it out as many times as they like. And of course, I can also fill it out as many times as I like. Maybe they have some tracking of IP addresses, but that is not hard to bypass.

I won't hesitate to give myself some glowing evaluations.

Are other schools this dumb?

[Wahoo Redux]

So one school where I work has decided to switch to putting student course evaluations online. This is not unusual, but other places do it in a smart way, sending out emails directly to students and giving each a unique identifier so they know the student has done the evaluation. Each student can do the evaluation only once.

By way of contrast, this school is just providing a link to a survey site for each course. Each student can fill it out as many times as they like. And of course, I can also fill it out as many times as I like. Maybe they have some tracking of IP addresses, but that is not hard to bypass.

I won't hesitate to give myself some glowing evaluations.

Are other schools this dumb?

Maybe suggest that they just provide a link to Rate My Professor dot com?

[downer]

So one school where I work has decided to switch to putting student course evaluations online. This is not unusual, but other places do it in a smart way, sending out emails directly to students and giving each a unique identifier so they know the student has done the evaluation. Each student can do the evaluation only once.

By way of contrast, this school is just providing a link to a survey site for each course. Each student can fill it out as many times as they like. And of course, I can also fill it out as many times as I like. Maybe they have some tracking of IP addresses, but that is not hard to bypass.

I won't hesitate to give myself some glowing evaluations.

Are other schools this dumb?

Maybe suggest that they just provide a link to Rate My Professor dot com?

Tempting. In an email to the President. I am at the stage with this school, which seems to be doing OK financially, that I need to get paid more if they want my services. Which is tantamount to saying I won't work there any more.

[mahagonny]

So one school where I work has decided to switch to putting student course evaluations online. This is not unusual, but other places do it in a smart way, sending out emails directly to students and giving each a unique identifier so they know the student has done the evaluation. Each student can do the evaluation only once.

By way of contrast, this school is just providing a link to a survey site for each course. Each student can fill it out as many times as they like. And of course, I can also fill it out as many times as I like. Maybe they have some tracking of IP addresses, but that is not hard to bypass.

I won't hesitate to give myself some glowing evaluations.

Are other schools this dumb?

Dumb and unprofessional and not fair to you. You shouldn't have clean up this mess. Our student evaluations of faculty start out identifying the purpose (or used to anyhow). They're not consumer reports for students to help them with shopping. They are individual private communications to you and the department.  Of course students talk to each other about us anyway but no one can sound off multiple times pretending to be different people. This is deceptive to students also.

Maybe they have some tracking of IP addresses, but that is not hard to bypass.

Just use a different computer each time.

[downer]

Maybe they have some tracking of IP addresses, but that is not hard to bypass.

Just use a different computer each time.

That won't help if they all go through the same modem. There are extensions for Chrome that hide your IP address, and then there is hidemyass.com . All without needing to lift my ass from my couch.

[Wahoo Redux]

I am at the stage with this school, which seems to be doing OK financially, that I need to get paid more if they want my services. Which is tantamount to saying I won't work there any more.

Amen, brother or sister!

[downer]

Amen, brother or sister!

"Sibling" doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? How about "Sib!"

[Wahoo Redux]

Amen, brother or sister!

"Sibling" doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? How about "Sib!"

Dealeo, Sib!

[downer]

Maybe suggest that they just provide a link to Rate My Professor dot com?

I checked my RMP for that school, where I have taught for 3 years now. Not a single rating for me on RMP there. These are not students with a lot of initiative. I am wondering what their response rate will be for the "official" survery course evaluations.

[revert79]

This probably deserves its own thread...

Right...if I'm gonna talk about people they should have their turn to tell their side of things. Polly has heard the complaints and responded with a Polly-free zone here. So maybe another thread, but in a way I would dread it.

My impressions of the condition of higher education were formed before I read the CHE fora. They have not changed. My perspective is limited. But that's the point also. Part time faculty labor in isolation. There is more (success) that depends on us than meets the eye.

On the other hand, when I see a provost who flowered from a business program I cringe and make mystic signs of protection.

My impression, no matter whether the provost is from business or whether he's a poet or a sculptor, he's there because he wants the provost gig. There will always be a bottom rung of "outsider" faculty whose judgment is called into question by the mere fact that they accepted the terms offered. There is no to truthful way make this work out.

Hi--I am writing from the perspective of someone who recently worked as an adjunct and is now an administrator.  I am deeply concerned about fair treatment of adjuncts, having lived through that experience for years.  I have a couple of points to make:

1.  I'm at a great school, in a position I love, with wonderful colleagues.  The work is fun and challenging.  I feel respected by upper admin and I respect them.  But I don't make more money than I did as an adjunct.  In fact I make less.  This is partly because benefits are taken out, which they didn't used to be, so that's kind of a privilege.  But it's also because admin don't always really earn that much.  Disclaimer, I'm not a Provost.

2. In my one meeting with a very very high-up senior official at the school, I made a point of bringing up my concern about the treatment of adjuncts as part of our conversation.  He politely heard me out and had a sensitive and intelligent if not unexpected rejoinder.  So, not all admin are going to be chucking the issue of parity for adjuncts, and my experience was that the very very high-up person will respectfully hear us out.  I will keep chipping away at this issue somehow.  I bet there are more admin just like me who feel dedicated to making this point, and bit by bit maybe it will have some kind of impact.

3.  I now see the budget constraints that schools (even reasonably successful ones) are facing with much greater clarity.  Frightening.  The temptation to keep the status quo in place is coming from a real place of need.  There must be some way to mesh this unfortunate reality with parity and justice for all professors.

4.  At my last adjunct job, the important upper admin guy, whom I got to know pretty well and liked, asked me "I don't understand--you're really good at teaching, you do great work in your field, why do you still work here?"  For some reason this wasn't the wake-up call it should have been and I adjuncted for several more years.  I just liked the college, the location, my "colleagues", the students...oops.

Anyway, I have my fingers crossed for a day when things change...because being a contingent worker in the intellectual economy is based on a series of painful internal contradictions, and it's not fair.

[marshwiggle]

3.  I now see the budget constraints that schools (even reasonably successful ones) are facing with much greater clarity.  Frightening.  The temptation to keep the status quo in place is coming from a real place of need.  There must be some way to mesh this unfortunate reality with parity and justice for all professors.

The simple, but unpleasant, answer is that there is a great variation in the number of students taught per faculty member. Financially there is a lower limit to that number that is sustainable, and that limit is unfortunately higher than what will give full-time jobs to everyone who wants one. Whether adjuncts are paid more, or eliminated entirely in favour of more full-time positions, there will be many fewer positions than candidates.

And the less variation in the number of students taught per faculty member, the more fair things will be. But that can of worms is the size of a battleship.

[Aster]

Maybe suggest that they just provide a link to Rate My Professor dot com?

I checked my RMP for that school, where I have taught for 3 years now. Not a single rating for me on RMP there. These are not students with a lot of initiative. I am wondering what their response rate will be for the "official" survery course evaluations.

You do not want to be on RMP. Trust me on this.