Question (from "Betsy"): I am an adjunct at about half a dozen places, including a community college. Altogether, I have over eight years of part-time teaching experience. I am applying at any and every community college I can, including a very big one where I've been teaching as an adjunct since January. It actually had a full-time opening in my field, but I haven't heard anything in over a month. My question to you is this: Is there any hope?
Question (from "Marvin"): How can I get a job teaching at a community college if I do not have experience teaching at one?
Question (from "Helen"): I want to teach at a community college. I have a dual undergraduate degree in journalism and English, an M.Ed. with a concentration in teaching writing, over 10 years of experience as a professional journalist, over five years as a public-relations professional, and five years as a fund raiser. I've also published fiction and poetry. I am teaching a public-relations writing class at a four-year institution as an adjunct—my first class. Will I have any problems getting considered by a hiring committee at a community college? What could I do in the next few years to make myself more marketable?
Comment (from "Peter," in response to "What's an Advice Columnist to Do?"): You fail to mention the primary reason that tenure-track positions are increasingly difficult to secure: Institutions of higher education have simply adopted the practice of hiring on an ad hoc basis as a cost-cutting measure. It is less costly to hire perpetually on a contractual basis than to offer permanent positions.
Comment (from "Karl," in response to "What's an Advice Columnist to Do?"): I enjoy your columns but take umbrage at helping scab adjuncts simultaneously with helping the rest of us find union teaching jobs.
The first three questions are typical of those I receive on an almost weekly basis. Unfortunately, the comments are pretty typical, too. It seems that a lot of people want advice, but when they get it, it isn't always what they want to hear.
I've dealt with that dynamic before. Several years ago, while I was serving as a department chair, one of the regular adjuncts in my department—we'll call her "Lisa"—came to see me. We had just wrapped up a search in which we had hired four people for tenure-track positions in her field. She wasn't one of them, although she had been interviewed.
At first our meeting she was cordial, even though I could tell she was upset. She wanted to know what I thought she could do to make herself more competitive the next time around. I told her I thought she was a very good teacher—but then, all of the people we interviewed were very good teachers. I noted that, of the four we hired, one was an adjunct ("Laura") who had been teaching at the college for about 10 years, compared with Lisa's three or four. I advised her that she would be more likely to be hired full time in the future if she took it upon herself to become as valuable to the department as possible—attending department meetings, participating in departmental tasks like exit-exam grading, and even serving on a committee or two.
To say Lisa didn't take my advice well would be an understatement. She sprang from her chair, leaned over my desk, and sputtered, red-faced, "So what you're saying is that I should do a lot of extra work for no more money? Well, that's not going to happen, bub. In fact, I'm done teaching at this school." And she turned and stomped out of my office.
OK, she didn't actually call me "bub," but true to her word, she never taught in our department again (her choice, not mine).
Perhaps I could have been more sensitive. I didn't intend to insult her, or to suggest that she do anything she wasn't comfortable doing. I was just trying to offer some practical advice. And it's not like I was making anything up: My suggestions were based on my observations of Laura over the years. In her decade of teaching at the college—during which she had applied for a full-time position at least four times—Laura had made herself such an integral part of the department that a couple of the search-committee members were shocked to see her application. They thought she was already a tenured professor.
I believe my advice to Lisa was sound then—even if it made her furious—and it's sound now. If you're an adjunct instructor at a community college and you want to land a full-time, tenure-track position, the best thing you can do is to treat the temporary job, as much as possible, as if you were already on the tenure track. Take it seriously. Teach as many sections as you can, or as many as the administration will allow you to teach. Attend meetings, ask to serve on committees, volunteer to help with departmental tasks—the more odious, the better. Attend conferences and workshops and otherwise engage in professional development. Get to know your colleagues, both in your department and at other institutions.
That advice probably isn't practical for everyone. Many adjuncts have neither the time nor the resources to do everything on that list. All I'm suggesting is that you do what you can. To the extent that you're able to follow my advice, I believe it will help you land a full-time job. If that makes me a shill for The Man, so be it.
Further, I would offer the following advice to anyone who wants to "break into" community-college teaching but is flummoxed by the experience requirement: Get a job teaching part time at a two-year campus—and then do what I recommend above. "Peter" is right when he says that "institutions of higher education have simply adopted the practice of hiring on an ad hoc basis as a cost-cutting measure," and that's especially true of community colleges. But that doesn't mean there aren't any full-time, tenure-track (or otherwise "permanent") jobs available. Colleges will always need a certain number of full-time faculty members, if for no other reason than to carry out those unpleasant tasks that administrators don't want to be bothered with, such as curriculum review and course assessment.
The trend that Peter identifies, coupled with the fact that full-time faculty members are still indispensable, means that teaching part time has now become the surest path, over time, to a full-time position. It may even be the primary path, particularly for those job seekers who don't have much (or any) full-time experience.
The encouraging news is that, in most areas, part-time faculty positions aren't that difficult to find. Enrollment at most community colleges continues to grow, despite cutbacks in faculty and other areas, meaning that there is an ever-increasing need for part-timers. If, like "Helen," you want to teach at a community college, and you meet at least the minimum qualifications required, then here is what I suggest:
First, identify all of the community colleges within a reasonable driving distance—that is, a distance you would be willing to drive to teach a course for a couple thousand bucks. Then look up each college online and find the contact information for the chair or dean of the department where your discipline is housed.
Next, send the chair a brief e-mail expressing your interest in teaching and attaching your resume or CV. If you don't hear back within a week, follow up with a phone call. If you can't get in touch with the chair, or you get the brush off, try going through the department secretary to make an appointment. What you want is an informal interview, at least—an opportunity to sit down in front of the chair and show that you're both interested in teaching for the department and qualified to do so.
Certainly, I've heard horror stories about chairs who don't return phone calls, who are openly rude to prospective adjuncts, who constantly blow them off. But in my experience, most department chairs are pretty receptive to overtures from potential hires, even if there is no current opening. Because administrators never know when they will have a need, and they understand that maintaining a large pool of qualified adjuncts is essential to a well-functioning department.
Just because you get a meeting with a chair doesn't mean you'll be hired right away. You will, however, stand a good chance of being added to the adjunct pool, which means that you may well get a call at some point. If you're willing to accept a teaching assignment on short notice, be sure to make that clear. A chair's worst nightmare occurs when classes that have been staffed for months suddenly become unstaffed as adjuncts bail the week before a semester begins. Taking one (or more) of those classes, though perhaps panic-inducing at first, would be an excellent way to get your foot in the door and ingratiate yourself with a particular department.
These days, it's difficult for anyone to get a full-time community-college teaching position and almost impossible without at least two or three years of full-time experience—or the equivalent, meaning that the hours taught on a part-time basis equal two or three years worth of full-time teaching. As a newcomer to the community-college market, your best bet may be to find a part-time gig and then to treat that job, as much as possible, as if it were already full time.
You might not like that advice, but it's the best I can offer. Remember, my only motivation is to help my readers land a full-time job. And yes, that includes "scab adjuncts."
