Both the Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Education are reporting on two new studies examinig the correlation between the high use of undersupported contingent faculty and student and institutional performance. Not having seen the studies yet, they seem to take a perspective that we here at FACE and many higher ed activists take--the problem is not contingent faculty, the problem is how they are treated and what that means for education. As IHE points out:

Some studies looking at the impact of part-time faculty members in the past have frustrated many adjuncts because of the implication that these impacts suggest poor performance by the adjuncts themselves. These studies don't make such a suggestion and are in fact consistent with the views of adjunct activists that mistreating part timers creates conditions that hurt students.

As soon as we here at FACE Talk get a chance to look more closely at these studies, we will report more on them and include summaries in our Research & Data section.

The start of the fall classes approaches and I am trying desperately to motivate myself to begin structuring my courses. I remember as a student that my professors walked in and sorted out the course week-by-week, announcing dates of exams and deadlines of papers as they went. No more. Now we are required to have the entire term mapped out in advance, not only the exam dates but each class day's reading coverage. This can be daunting. As a general education instructor at a 4-year school, I do not teach anything near my research area, but I have taught the gen. ed. classes for over 20 years and have a good sense of where students should be at the end of the term. At the same time, I have a sense of how far I can move them in 10 weeks while still keeping my student evaluations good, but not too good, and simultaneously avoiding grade inflation. This balancing act is necessary for rehiring.

The upcoming issue of the Chronicle has a front-page story (subscription) on a new deal at Kent State University to improve student retention and increase the amount of money generated by attracting research. According to CHE:

Kent State University is trying a new and unusual tactic to improve its status, retention rate, and fund raising - paying cash bonuses to faculty members if the university exceeds its goals in those areas.

The bonuses are built into a contract, approved last month, that covers 864 full-time, tenure-track faculty members who teach and do research on the university's eight campuses. Proposed by Lester A. Lefton, Kent State's president, the "success bonus pool" will be divided among faculty members if the Ohio institution improves retention rates for first-year students and increases the research dollars it generates and the private money raised through its foundation.

Setting aside the question of whether or not this type of incentive scheme is a good idea or not, I suppose one might argue that involving faculty and rewarding them for improving the institution could be a good thing, but perhaps KSU might want to consider including all of the faculty and instructional staff, since presumably they will all be asked to support these institutional goals.

To publish or not to publish? Or to put it more broadly, should an overworked off-the- tenure-track faculty member bother to do anything other than the basic teaching one is suppose to be paid for? After all, administration often makes the argument that contingent faculty are paid less because we are not required to do research or service. And going ahead and insisting on performing all aspects of our profession as a professional sort of undermines the rationale for why we are paid so much less. On one hand, basic union guidelines say don't do work you are not paid for since the school will happily take advantage of you and expect free labor. On the other hand, I've seen faculty dismissed after 35 years of teaching because a program wants to "upgrade" and increase publication records.

Okay, I admit it, this is a lazy post this morning, but never fear - I am working on something much more sophisticated involving enrollment trends and academic staffing.  Until then, take a break and check out Terminal Degree (here, here and here) where the good Doctor is in the midst of a long and trying round of grading.  These posts remind me that there is one (and really only one) thing I don't miss about being a faculty member--the 100 plus end-of-the term papers.

The question has been raised over whether accrediting bodies should consider the use of contingent faculty in the assessment process. I believe that, yes, they should question how adjunct faculty are treated and how they are used. Here in the Northwest, I have been grateful for accreditors who have gone out of their way to talk to adjunct faculty and incorporate those concerns in reports. The heavy use of non-tenure track faculty is more than a labor issue.

The use of faculty on temporary contracts is closely related to assessment, especially in general education classes, which are taught in large numbers by faculty whose employment is often based almost entirely on student surveys conducted in the classroom. As the numbers of temporary (often a legal fiction) faculty increase, tenured faculty are hard pressed to make classroom visits or examine the classroom teaching as carefully as is really needed. There is just not enough time and faculty on personnel committees are often not given enough release time to do more than a cursory check. Since a tenure decision is not at stake, the non-tenure track’s evaluation also tends to be placed on the backburner.

This quarter, I’m teaching on three campuses for two different colleges. Somehow, both colleges managed to plan their finals for the same week, so the usual juggling of schedules is a lot less complicated than it has been in the past.

After being a part-timer for almost twenty years, I’m still surprised by how popular I get at this time of the quarter. Students I haven’t heard from in weeks are sending e-mail and leaving phone messages. Most are asking the same types of questions: What can I do to get a good grade (or pass) the class? Many of the conversations include the accusations that begin with, “You never said . . . ,” and I sometimes can’t stop myself from suggesting that perhaps I did deliver some useful information during one of the numerous classes they missed.

In recent years, more students are assertive enough to complain to my supervisors about their grades, which inevitably lead to more “conversations” about pedagogy and student responsibility. Fortunately, I have taught long enough at both colleges, and have made an extra effort to get to know my supervisors as both colleagues and friends, to no longer feel threatened when they call to let me know that we need to talk. At Green River Community College, I actually have some security because of a seniority system, placement in the “Adjunct In-File,” that is set up there. Because the system includes peer observations and “post-file reviews,” my division chair is familiar with the work I do in the classroom and I don’t feel as threatened when she calls.

There have been a couple of strange things happening in the state that are contributing to the pressure to “work with the students and be more understanding.”

Last Friday, only 6 students of my students made it to my composition class out of an enrollment of 23. (We started with 25.) Sure, it was a Friday afternoon, but at least 4 students were emailing me saying they were ill, plus those who escaped the virus and got into class gave eyewitness testimony. So I believe them. We also had a rough start the first two weeks of class with at least 6 students out for a variety of reasons. In a 10-week quarter, I have some students who have only made class for 5 weeks of material. Our campus has increased its student population some 20 percent and we seem to have reached some tipping point now; viruses spread quickly among freshmen in dorms and adjuncts teach about 70 percent of the general education classes. So we get exposed. Sometimes I think we should get combat pay.

In contrast, my even later afternoon technical writing students were all there, hale and hardy, and rambunctious as ever—much to my relief. The difference? The tech. writing crew were juniors and seniors and did not have roommates in the dorms. Plus, our classroom is in another building than that inhabited by the ill general education class.

I have made a mental note to open the classroom windows in the beginning of class and to handle the composition essay with gloves on, but there is not much I can do for myself. One colleague has taken to wearing a surgical mask to class, but I am not brave enough to risk the impact on my SEOIs (Student Evaluation of Instruction). Like all teachers, I have been exposed to a wide range of common student illnesses over the years, but this year, I caught a cold twice, which is unusual for me.

And, yes, I kept teaching, only canceling one office hour to save my voice. There really isn’t any other choice. There are no substitutes. We cover each other, but we are all overloaded as it is and I am reluctant to ask a colleague unless I am flat on my back. Fortunately, we do have health coverage after the second quarter of half time or more of teaching. And once we were able to reduce the size of the adjunct pool so we all got full loads through the year, most got medical. No sick days of course. And forget family leave. We are not permanent employees. The university assumes I will be there and be healthy. Heaven help me if that ever changes.

New Kid has an interesting post up on the realities of struggling with teaching certain courses repeatedly--in her case it is The Crusades that are getting her down.  I certainly can remember this dilemma myself.  Looking at a new semester and thinking that I just couldn't bring myself to using the same readings, and then remembering how well the students responded the previous semester and wondering if it was pedagogically better to reuse the same texts (assuming this batch of students would act like the last batch), or switching texts since it would probably mean my engagement with the readings was better.  I don't think I ever answered that question and as a result changed sometimes and didn't others.

But Kid's post raised another issue for me precisely because I do think that teaching the same material over and over is not what higher education should be about.  That said, it seems to me that the current system we are veering toward (have?) is not about diversity of material and approach, but about standardization and rote teaching.  Remember a while back when the Chronicle of Higher Ed reported on the University of Phoenix's method of ensuring consistency in their courses?

In Phoenix's regimented curriculum, the teaching of every course is guided by a "course module." These are highly detailed syllabic produced at the flagship campus that lay out the objectives of a course, prescribe assignments, and delineate how the instructor should spend class time -- in some cases down to 15 minutes. 

Oh sure, that is the University of Phoenix you say.  Right. Just the largest "university" in the country that captures more financial aid dollars than any other institution.  And what are the hallmarks of Phoenix?  Standardized curriculum, driven by market-needs, and hiring, almost exclusively, contingent faculty.  And is that so different from where the majority of instituions of higher education are headed?  They just use different terms:  better accountability, improved student success, and more flexibility.

Okay you folks at Swarthmore can put your hands down, and yes, I am being slightly hyperbolic (slightly), but it does seem as if the conundrum that Kid poses is one that will soon be one that a small minority of faculty face while the rest will be given the course curriculum, the text and assignments and sent into the classroom to teach "the" class, over and over and over and . . .

Craig asked us to answer the same question that, quite frankly, I struggle with on an annual basis. Every fall, when I am teaching nearly double a full-time load, I ask, “Why do you keep doing this to yourself?” Every spring and summer, when I am either scrambling for classes or fighting to get unemployment, I ask myself, “How much longer can you keep this up?”

There are others who are asking me the question. A couple of years ago, I testified in a senate hearing about how abusive the system is and what my life is like, and after the session one of the legislators asked, “If it’s so terrible to be a part-time instructor, why don’t you do something else?”

A good friend of mine says, “I will never understand why anyone would want to teach, and I especially don’t understand why you would do it for half of a crappy wage!”

Personally, I blame my teachers and my students.