Most of the discussion of adjuncts has addressed the issue as it relates
to research institutions and to adjuncts who are either recent Ph.D.s or
currently part of Ph.D. programs). From the perspective of an adjunct
faculty member at a Community College (where research and departmental
majors are not an issue, and few adjuncts have even Masters degrees), the
problem is somewhat different.
As an adjunct, I have full responsibility for designing my own courses
(including textbook selection, test preparation, curriculum planning,
syllabus preparation, etc.) yet have no authority within the department at
all. Unlike full time faculty, I may not recommend a student for an
academic award or scholarship (yet I must evaluate and grade my students
in the same manner as any other instructor). I have no office space
whatever (yet I'm required to schedule "office" hours with my
students--without pay, by the way, as my income is based _only_ on
classroom contact hours) nor do I have support personnel (I must do all my
own test prep, typing, mailings--if any--etc., again without additional
pay or even compensation for cost of materials). I don't have access to a
faculty computer account, cannot place materials on hold in the library,
and have no access to such resources as videos (although A/V equipment is
available if not already reserved by full time faculty) or demostration
equipment (TAT cards, etc.) owned by the school. I am not even eligible to
win teaching awards (i.e., Instructor of the year, etc.) which are
nominated by students. Despite being a union member, I have no health
insurance, life insurance, or other benefits (apart from participation in
the pension fund), yet I'm required to pay dues to the union--which makes
no attempt at all to represent part-time faculty in their negotiations.
All of this, by the way, is generously rewarded with a gross pay of
$25.50/hr. for classroom time--the TOP of the scale at my institution.
This would be worth it if it would lead to a full time position. But the
fact of the matter is, it won't. My institution (as is common with most)
has no desire to hire adjuncts as full time faculty members--it eliminates
a valuable adjunct from the pool! Despite multidisciplinary graduate
degrees, over 100 hours of graduate credit, my current enrollment in a
doctoral program with a dual major in Sociology and Psychology (which
exceeds the qualifications of 90% of the current core faculty) and seven
years teaching psychology, sociology, political science, minority studies,
economics and criminal justice courses with the exceptionally high student
evaluations (full time faculty members are not evaluated by students--only
part time), I would have a better chance of full time employment if I had
never taught at my institution before!
Of course, these are personal gripes, but there are far more important
ones that are not personal in nature. At my institution (and at most
Community Colleges that I'm familiar with), only a BA is required of an
adjunct to teach (those of us with grad degrees are rare). Someone
commented in this thread that adjuncts are often better teachers than full
time faculty because we are closely watched and hired for our ability.
Sorry, but while that may apply at some schools, it doesn't do so in my
area. While there are some excellent teachers in this area, overall the
level of adjunct capability (and interest) is far lower than that of full
time faculty. It isn't at all unusual for adjuncts to let three hour
classes out after 1.5 hours, to skim over vital information, to neglect
sizable segments of the material, to spend more time talking about their
personal (or professional) lives to students than about the subject matter
or even to know virtually nothing about the subject they are teaching!
I've seen classes evaluated (for the entire term) on one or two written
submissions (of no substantial length) and attendance alone and others in
which the instructor would change the grading criteria four or five times
during the term, leaving students with no idea of the requirements. While
instructors _are_ evaluated by the students, little if any notice is made
of the evaluations. Only under exceptional conditions does an adjunct fail
to qualify to return if s/he is available for flexible assignments (we
have multiple campuses and most full time faculty aren't willing to teach
at the extension centers which are a bit remote).
Currently, at the institution where I teach, the problem is even more
severe than normal. Last year, in common with many colleges, the school
offered a very attractive early retirement package to the full time
faculty, a fairly sizable number of whom accepted the offer. Since that
time the administration has decided not to hire new full time faculty, but
to use more adjuncts instead (with each adjunct limited to three courses
per term that means even more inexperienced part-timers). Right now, the
majority of our courses are being taught by part timers (a very sizable
majority in some departments) and the school is attempting to replace
traditional courses with more telecourses (three sections of which count
as _one_ course for contract and pay purposes with adjuncts) in order to
further cut costs. We've added many more administrators (the school now
operates on a group-think, team approach that requires administrators for
virtually everything), but full time faculty are dwindling.
From the perspective of an adjunct who _does_ want to teach full time at
some point, and who has a serious commitment to eduction, the situation in
American colleges is appalling! To cut costs, schools are cutting
educational resources, alienating potentially excellent teachers, and
taking advantage of the desire of many adjuncts to work in the field
regardless of pay in order to fund highly paid and useless administrators
who don't have any idea at all what kind of problems face the classroom
instructor. The end result is delivery of an inferior education to our
students and a further erosion in academic excellence.
It would be nice if the unions, faculty organizations, and professional
associations would recognize that _all_ faculty members deserve
representation, and that it _is_ their job to see to it that the
institutions maintain a reasonably high ratio of full time to part time
instructors in all departments. There are many instances in which it seems
that the unions and faculty associations have an almost adversarial
attitude toward adjuncts--yet, at least in the case of the unions, they
are definitely happy to accept our (compulsory) dues each month anyway!
Just a few thoughts from the other perspective.
Rick
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Rick Adams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Social Sciences
Jackson Community College
2111 Emmons Road
Jackson, MI 49201
