Greetings viewers. This is my first, perhaps futile, attempt at "blogging." Nothing fancy...at least not until I get the hang of this stuff. A little about myself for starters. I'm a professor. Not just your average professor, but one of those people who falls into the category of being a "struggling academic," if anything. I don't have tenure. I don't live in a hidden away secret sanctum while I allow my graduate students to do all the real teaching for me. And I certainly don't subscribe to elitist ivory-tower mentality either. Social scientist and humane philosopher more fit my role. Maybe those are some reasons why I don't have tenure, not even a tenure track position, since I value my teaching and my students more than the lot of my colleagues. And I never fail to be amused by the 3-4 of us who actually show up at commencement ceremonies for students each term. Now that's out of 20+ full-time faculty members and innumerous adjuncts (oops...must be PC...Part-time faculty). And of those 3-4 people, half of us are not permanent faculty. Way to support your students folks! Hope you are having fun sleeping...oh wait, you're writing your next book or article, aren't you? And you say you only know the majors? Try being in my shoes with 4 courses per term with caps of 100-200 students each (usually different classes too, requiring separate preps) and no TAs. In a university of 14,000. Just imagine the number of students I've had in the past 4 years (yes, I even teach 2 classes every summer). Someone care to calculate this for me? Hmm..and its a Friday and they didn't come in today. Too busy. Never mind that I was grading 100 midterm exam essays.
I know you're probably thinking "Who is this guy?" Well, let's see. Four years out of graduate school, I struggle in the visiting and adjunct world. Granted I have had full-time contracts (some semesters, heck, some years, not others), but the uncertainty that is academe leads me to life on the fringes of the academic world. At this small state university in the "South," my office is apart from the "permanent faculty." After all, I'm "temporary" (you call 4 years temporary?) and don't need a sense of belonging and departmental collegiality. I don't receive departmental and college support for my research, and I am inelligible for teaching awards and improvement grants because they are limited to "tenure-track faculty" alone. We won't even touch the health-care situation. Why carry the university HMO or PPO state health-care plan when, if you have ANY TERM when you drop below full-time contracts you, will lose coverage? So what do you do at middle age? You continue to carry your own private health-care plan and pay out the rear in case you have an emergency! Oh the uncertainty that is contract-to-contract teaching!
One other thing to add to this world: I also teach in the realm of online distance learning. Boy, I thought I got a raw deal at the university, but online teaching salaries are abysmal...nearly half the pay for a comparable course offered f-2-f (face-to-face) in a lecture hall on adjunct pay. That's roughly $1500 per 12-week course. That's it. No health care. No benefits. And when you think you might get an "in" at the institution as there is a need for a full-time faculty member in your area, they hire two more online adjuncts rather than create a full-time position. I designed my own course shells, obtained an online instructor certificate after a series of course development and mentor/mentee training, and have yet to see the benefits.
So why am I still here and haven't I moved on? It's certainly had a significant impact on my research and writing. Nothing like coming home from an exhausting day on campus to read student email and manage online classes. Then you get a weekend or take a day off and the complaints roll in. Yes, I've read the "Chronicle of Higher Ed." Heck, I subscribe just so I can keep up with the job postings. Without going into specifics, I am in a relatively specific field of the social sciences and every post I find is looking for biological, physical, or medical specialists, not those interested in the native cultures of North and Latin America. Especially, not one who happens to be a "white male" (note: non-hispanic, non-native). I never get over the assumption by academic hiring committees that assume that just because someone is Hispanic or Native American they know all about Hispanic cultures and Native cultures. Ok. It fulfills the minority hiring quota for the institution, but it is interesting not even to make the first cut stage of the interviewing process because you are not "specific enough" to fit the requirements of those sifting through the 200+ applications for the one job opening in your field.
Alright. This is enough for the first night's post.
I know you're probably thinking "Who is this guy?" Well, let's see. Four years out of graduate school, I struggle in the visiting and adjunct world. Granted I have had full-time contracts (some semesters, heck, some years, not others), but the uncertainty that is academe leads me to life on the fringes of the academic world. At this small state university in the "South," my office is apart from the "permanent faculty." After all, I'm "temporary" (you call 4 years temporary?) and don't need a sense of belonging and departmental collegiality. I don't receive departmental and college support for my research, and I am inelligible for teaching awards and improvement grants because they are limited to "tenure-track faculty" alone. We won't even touch the health-care situation. Why carry the university HMO or PPO state health-care plan when, if you have ANY TERM when you drop below full-time contracts you, will lose coverage? So what do you do at middle age? You continue to carry your own private health-care plan and pay out the rear in case you have an emergency! Oh the uncertainty that is contract-to-contract teaching!
One other thing to add to this world: I also teach in the realm of online distance learning. Boy, I thought I got a raw deal at the university, but online teaching salaries are abysmal...nearly half the pay for a comparable course offered f-2-f (face-to-face) in a lecture hall on adjunct pay. That's roughly $1500 per 12-week course. That's it. No health care. No benefits. And when you think you might get an "in" at the institution as there is a need for a full-time faculty member in your area, they hire two more online adjuncts rather than create a full-time position. I designed my own course shells, obtained an online instructor certificate after a series of course development and mentor/mentee training, and have yet to see the benefits.
So why am I still here and haven't I moved on? It's certainly had a significant impact on my research and writing. Nothing like coming home from an exhausting day on campus to read student email and manage online classes. Then you get a weekend or take a day off and the complaints roll in. Yes, I've read the "Chronicle of Higher Ed." Heck, I subscribe just so I can keep up with the job postings. Without going into specifics, I am in a relatively specific field of the social sciences and every post I find is looking for biological, physical, or medical specialists, not those interested in the native cultures of North and Latin America. Especially, not one who happens to be a "white male" (note: non-hispanic, non-native). I never get over the assumption by academic hiring committees that assume that just because someone is Hispanic or Native American they know all about Hispanic cultures and Native cultures. Ok. It fulfills the minority hiring quota for the institution, but it is interesting not even to make the first cut stage of the interviewing process because you are not "specific enough" to fit the requirements of those sifting through the 200+ applications for the one job opening in your field.
Alright. This is enough for the first night's post.
posted by ProfChips | 4:38 PM
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