Overuse and Abuse of Adjuncts Threaten Core Academic Values

[whenhen]

<p>

No animosity at all. I have no doubt that there are professors who interact with undergrads. I did not see that, and the ones I know who are tenured, at large universities and have grad students do not focus on the teaching. They don’t badmouth the teaching experience, and some do enjoy getting to do so, but their main focus is on their research and publicaitons and the grad students are the students that tend to get their focus. I’m seeing a whole other part of that “elephant”. My son who is currently at a large research institutuion, now in his third year has had experiences more as I have described than you. I wish he’d had some professors like your kids did. Didn’t happen, hasn’t happened, and knowing the university over a period of time not likely to happen. </p>

<p>Now my other son who went to a small LAC, that was a whole other story. No grad students there, small classes, lots of face time with the profs, lots of research experience, and that is something that is characteristic of his specific school.

And I could give you completely different anecdotes about my experience at a LAC and a research university where I’ve had professors go on weekend hiking trips with mostly UGs and do impromptu lectures on various rock formations as well as discuss how fracturing patterns were important to the oil industry, of which many are very well connected to. Or I can talk about one of my professors at my public research university who always invited us to lunch after class, and is one of the most important social workers in the state of Oklahoma. He also connected me with relevant industry professionals when I had a concern about a potential job, brought in state representatives to speak to the class on how sexuality debates occurred in the state legislature, and invited us to some of the talks he was giving. </p>

<p>Anyways, one of my concerns with the over-reliance of adjuncts, which btw happens at many LACs as well, has to do with their lack of acclimation to the general teaching philosophy of a particular department or school. I saw that first hand with a sociology adjunct who my school hired when a full time professor went on sabbatical. His expectations were far below that of almost any other professor at the school, and the methodology he used was inconsistent with the general departmental goal of having even intro level students be able to think like people in the field.</p>

[Momzie]

<p>In my opinion, the people who often lose out when a university overrelies on adjuncts are the kids who are in danger of falling through the cracks. Maybe not your kids or mine, but someone’s kids nonetheless.</p>

<p>I’m a professor and an administrator and I spent several hours on the phone this week tracking down resources for a student of mine when I immediately noticed that his written work was not up to par on the first assignment. It turned out that he was an ESL student who needed some extra help and support and because I’m a full-time professor, it was relatively simple for me to figure out who I needed to talk to and get them to return my phone calls and get the student where he needed to be. If, on the other hand, I were an adjunct with no office or computer access and few colleagues whom I knew, it would be much more difficult to figure out who I needed to talk to. Besides that, I’d probably have a lot more students perhaps spread over a variety of campuses and I might have less investment in the university as a whole and in making sure that no student falls through the cracks and that everyone gets a fair shot at success. It’s possible that I might simply have failed the student, or alternately that I might simply have passed the student – but in neither case would I have had the time or incentive to make sure that he succeeded not just in my class but in the university as a whole. </p>

<p>Students who need accomodations because of mental or physical disabilities, undocumented students, students who are homeless, single parents, etc. these are the students who are the most likely to be taught by adjuncts at commuter schools and these are the people who can probably least afford to be. This is a crisis and one that will impact our society as a whole.</p>

[sylvan8798]

<p>

@Momzie

Besides that, I’d probably have a lot more students perhaps spread over a variety of campuses and I might have less investment in the university as a whole and in making sure that no student falls through the cracks

I’m not sure I would lay the difference here on Adjunct vs. Professor. I don’t play momzie and make it a practice to make sure students don’t fall through the cracks, but I don’t think I would do so if I were a tenured faculty either.</p>

[mathyone]

<p>" Why? Apparently I’m a bad teacher because I share an office space and teach at multiple schools. Who knew? " </p>

<p>@sylvan, Of course it doesn’t mean you are bad. But you probably don’t have access to the same level of support and mentoring from the department as well. 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? Do you feel the school has any interest whatsoever in helping you become a better teacher–for instance, are you encouraged to have your lectures videotaped and your performance critiqued by education professionals or anything like that?</p>

[cptofthehouse]

<p>Ah, but Sylvan, in point 9, the same post makes clear that this is not always the case. The teaching that takes place in the classroom might be absolutely stellar by any given professor, but it’s the support services that can be lacking for an adjuncta as described in points 7 and 8 who have multiple teaching gigs at a number of places to try to get enough hours and jobs to make ends meet. The university may not offer any accommodation in the way of office space either, and if the pay is so low and the hours so precious to some of these teachers, getting face time with them after class may be difficult or not doable.</p>

<p>My kids’ experiences, I’ve said right out, have been nothing but positive with adjuncts, but I don’t know of them having any who were doing it except because they wanted to teach part time. They might have had the “hit and run” sort, but if they did, it was unremarkable enough of an experience that it never came up.</p>

<p>Many, if not most of our friends are professors, adjunct and full time, as well as a sizeable number of our classmates from college. The ones who are full research, writing type profs, are NOT interested in teaching underclassmen, for the most part. Though, yes, that is a generality, it is one well known. Many contracts and offers for these established profs include light or no teaching “burden” at all to entice. Their main purpose is not to teach. Not to say they are al that way, and not say that when they do teach, they are not outstanding and don’t put in extra effort. Many of them have so light of a teaching load that they can shower attention on the few clases and students that they may have if it is not a lecture hall situation. </p>

<p>Nothing personal is intended in these posts. It’s remarking about a situation that has been gaining attention, that of the overuse and abuse of adjuncts. How do they hurt the unversity community, what are the issues, what can be done, if anything, is there a growing problem here? IMO, the number of permanent teachers and professors in university commities is a problem. Even more problematic is the ratio now between the adminstrator and the teachers. This has shifted drasticall away from the university being run by the teachers. The old student/teacher primary focus of school is being changed by administration taking the lion’s share of the role in a unversity, and in some schools. I’ve commented on that, as I’ve seen it in my kids’ schools and school districts. With fewer permanent, tenured professor, the power shift has been toward making the universities business centers rather than primary places of learning of academia. With a lot of adjuncts in place, it shifts the balance so much the more. Rather see some adjunct types and temp or contract employees working in administration instead. I have friends in these jobs making 6 figure salaries and the infrastructure is frightening. </p>

<p>So I am not picking on any specific turf here. I truly don’t know the solution to the issues that the article Xiggi shared with us are.</p>

[Hunt]

<p>

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>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>

@Hunt

I taught an online class as an adjunct several times,[…] In my opinion, I did a good job, but it wasn’t remotely like being taught by a regular professor.

</p>

<p>Isn’t an online class basically teaching the class remotely?</p>

[xiggi]

<p>There is a high chance that Hunt intended the pun you picked up, UCB. </p>

<p>Or he might have been MOOCking us. ;)</p>

[cptofthehouse]

<p>No way for any of us to know who is a bad teacher. I know some bad teachers and they would be ready to kill me if I told them so. They don’t think they are bad teachers. Their fumes smell like roses to them. And then again, it might be my opinion and others’ that are off and they are indeed good teachers. People tend to protect their own turf and opinions.</p>

[Hunt]

<p>I noticed the pun just after I posted–it wasn’t intended.</p>

<p>Teaching remotely is weird. You never see the students, and generally never even speak to them on the phone. With some of them, you interact a reasonable amount in the class online forum–others, much less. I made my students do a lot of weekly homework so I could gauge whether they were learning anything.</p>

<p>But I mention it because it’s kind of the most extreme form of adjunct teaching. I think that even in-person adjuncts may be outside the college structure to a large extent, as somebody said above.</p>

[WasatchWriter]

<p>Heavens. I meant for my list of points to clarify, not polarize.</p>

<p>Of course there are excellent instructors who manage to rise above the conditions created when schools rely so heavily on adjuncts. Most of the adjuncts I personally work with are like that.</p>

<p>But it seems equally obvious that we have created an environment in which it is more likely for students of adjuncts to be poorly served than it is for students of tenure-track faculty.</p>

[alh]

<h1>62 - NJSue always explains it very well imho</h1>

<h1>63 - agree</h1>

<p>xiggi: I don’t think your tenured faculty relatives are representative examples. Basically what I see is tenured faculty becoming mentors-for-life to generations of students. I don’t think any of us could afford to pay hourly wages for that service. Adjuncts usually don’t have the luxury to provide that level of interaction. They don’t have the time and they don’t have the status to be particularly useful to students with job hunts, grad and prof school applications, research proposals, getting books published and so on and so on. (USUALLY - obviously there will be exceptions)</p>

<p>Let’s not even talk about the whole issue of academic freedom and whether it has any value whatsoever for society. </p>

<p>I agree with Sue that you’ll be getting your wish pretty soon. </p>

<p>After reading your posts for a very long time, and realizing your probable age, it just makes me so very sad you feel this way. I feel bad for you that you can’t see the value.</p>

[mathyone]

<p>Writing letters of recommendation can be quite timeconsuming if you teach a class with lots of premeds or something. Just another one of those things which can’t be tallied up as classroom facetime, but a required part of the job nonetheless.</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>

@mathyone

Writing letters of recommendation can be quite timeconsuming if you teach a class with lots of premeds or something.

</p>

<p>Isn’t that pretty much any frosh/soph level course intended for biology majors? Of course, that may be an incentive to do aggressive weeding to bring the number of pre-meds down to a manageable number by the time they start applying to medical school and asking for recommendations.</p>

[alh]

<p>Are there any graduating seniors who don’t need letters of recommendation from professors, regardless what they intend to do? Professors who write excellent letters will be asked to write many many many - not only for current students, but also for former students who may be changing jobs. What about when the former students, seeking advice on career changes, end up as house guests? What kind of hourly wage for that? On the one hand I could see only paying for hours spent directly discussing career, but if the professor wouldn’t have entertained the former student socially otherwise, is the hourly wage for the whole visit 24/7 - or maybe just waking hours? What about associated housekeeping costs? and groceries?</p>

[sylvan8798]

<p>

@mathyone

@sylvan, Of course it doesn’t mean you are bad. But you probably don’t have access to the same level of support and mentoring from the department as well. Do you ever eat lunch with the full-time faculty?

Over the years I’ve taught at 4 institutions, so I’ll try to answer these with regard to all of them. At schools C and N I frequently lunched with other faculty. At schools B and S no one seems to eat lunch. Including me. Also, I’ve often taught night sections and am not on campus at lunchtime.</p>

<p>

Have you ever been to a faculty meeting where courses and curriculum are discussed?

At school C, yes. Not expected to attend faculty meetings at B, N, or S.

*Did the former professor give you any advice, information, curriculum ideas, lecture notes, when you first taught a new class? *

Definitely true everywhere to the extent that former instructors were still available.

*Do you feel well-informed about how your class’s level of difficulty, workload, grading policy compares with other classes offered by the department? *

Not sure how to respond to this since this is an area where I have to use my own judgment and discretion.<br>

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?

No one does that at any of the schools. Class is canceled if the instructor is sick. Unless, of course, it’s going to be a long term thing, in which case I’m sure they would find a replacement for me.

• Do you feel the school has any interest whatsoever in helping you become a better teacher–for instance, are you encouraged to have your lectures videotaped and your performance critiqued by education professionals or anything like that? *

I’ve been critiqued at all schools, as is generally their procedure. The students also do faculty evaluations at the end of the semester. School S has pre and post tests for all students in certain courses, which measure progress across all the sections, including mine.</p>

<p>In only one school do I not have an office space, but I teach labs there and can use the lab itself if I need to so it’s not an issue.</p>

[sylvan8798]

<p>

@cptofthehouse

but it’s the support services that can be lacking for an adjunct as described in points 7 and 8 who have multiple teaching gigs at a number of places to try to get enough hours and jobs to make ends meet.

But why is your answer to that:

When the situation degenerates to that in the adjunct picture, it’s time to cut the cord there and find a fresh teacher.

Shouldn’t the answer be more support, or more money, or more tenure and non-tenure full time positions? Just getting a fresh teacher somehow fixes things?</p>

[LucieTheLakie]

<p>One man’s response to what’s become an exploitative system.</p>

<p>

Daniel Fincke’s story about being an adjunct professor isn’t unique – at least not the first part. He spent 11 years teaching at and countless hours commuting to and from various institutions in and around New York City, for low pay and no job security. Years on the tenure-track market yielded no offers. And, like so many others in the same position, he wanted out. </p>

<p>But here’s where Fincke’s story diverges from the common narrative: Saying he can’t stay in a labor system he doesn’t believe in, and that he’s eager for new challenges, he’s publicly announced that he’s leaving academe – but not for a steady gig in another sector. Instead, he plans to expand his online, interactive philosophy course offerings and philosophical advising business. It’s a leap of faith of sorts for the ethicist and Nietzsche specialist, but he said it was simply time to move on.

</p>

<p>Read more: [Why</a> one adjunct gave up on college teaching and created his own business | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/16/why-one-adjunct-gave-college-teaching-and-created-his-own-business#ixzz2qZHugBb7]Why”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/16/why-one-adjunct-gave-college-teaching-and-created-his-own-business#ixzz2qZHugBb7)
Inside Higher Ed</p>

[LucieTheLakie]

<p>This essay is worth a read, too, as it touches on a lot of the issues hashed out in this thread.</p>

<p>

Earlier this month I stepped into a classroom to begin the last semester of a 24-year teaching career.</p>

<p>Don’t get me wrong. I am not retiring. I am not “burned out.” The truth is rather more banal. Ohio State University will not be renewing my three-year contract when it expires in the spring.</p>

<p>The problem is tenure: with another three-year contract, I become eligible for tenure. In an era of tight budgets, there is neither money nor place for a 61-year-old white male professor who has never really fit in nor tried very hard to. (Leave aside my heterodox conservative politics and hard-to-credit publication record.)

</p>

<p>Read more: [English</a> professor scans the landscape upon forced retirement (essay) | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/01/14/english-professor-scans-landscape-upon-forced-retirement-essay#ixzz2qZJkxmuA]English”>http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/01/14/english-professor-scans-landscape-upon-forced-retirement-essay#ixzz2qZJkxmuA)
Inside Higher Ed</p>