Overuse and Abuse of Adjuncts Threaten Core Academic Values

[Hunt]

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Do you ever eat lunch with the full-time faculty? Have you ever been to a faculty meeting where courses and curriculum are discussed? Did the former professor give you any advice, information, curriculum ideas, lecture notes, when you first taught a new class? Do you feel well-informed about how your class’s level of difficulty, workload, grading policy compares with other classes offered by the department? If you were ill, would you be able to contact one of the other professors and ask them to fill in for you with your notes or does your class simply get cancelled?

I taught an online class as an adjunct several times, and I essentially had no contact with the department or the college at all–I never even visited the campus, which was in another state. I never got any feedback about my instruction or grading (other than student reviews on the campus website, which were mostly positive). In my opinion, I did a good job, but it wasn’t remotely like being taught by a regular professor.</p>