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[mulerooster]

Registration for the course that I'm teaching this fall just finished and the course is completely full.  There is even a waitlist.  The department wants me to consider teaching another section of the course.  This would require me being on the campus (which is over an hour drive from where I live right now) 2 days per week instead of 1 day per week. 

I wouldn't mind teaching another section because I would already have all the course materials ready for it (since I had to plan everything for the first section).  It would only be extra time spent in class and grading, not extra time planning.  It would be extra time commuting, but it would also pay more (I'm guessing my salary would almost double since this is double the workload?).  Overall, I think this would be a great opportunity for me.  This is what I want to do.  So the more experience I can get now the better.

But, the problem is I'm still finishing grad school.  I'll probably be right in the middle of writing up my publications and trying to write my dissertation while teaching at this school.  I'm not sure I could swing being away from my grad school 2 days per week.  Personally, I think I could be fine as long as I worked on grad school projects at night.  I'm just not sure if I could get the grad school to agree with it.  And I'm not sure my boss/PI/mentor would like it.  He already seemed disappointed that I was teaching 1 section.  But my dept chair at my grad school seemed to be fine with it so I went for it anyway.  I'm just scared to bring this up with my mentor again.

There is a possibility I could just leave it at 1 section and they'll try to squeeze some of the waitlisted students into my classroom.  But that makes for a very full class, and they'd still have to turn a couple students away.

Has anyone else ever encountered this type of situation?  Is it ok to say "no, I can't teach another section right now".  This is my first time as a VAP, so I'm not sure what's acceptable.

[quietly]

Hi Mule,

Are you really a VAP? Sounds like you're an adjunct.  VAPs are usually full-time positions standing in for a missing AP.  But I could be wrong.  Anyway, I taught quite a lot during my PhD and my advisor was very supportive, though my committee was quite anxious about it.  If you're still productive (I was), it shouldn't be a problem, especially if you point out that this teaching experience will likely help you get a job down the line.  But I think it's your advisor's call in the end; you don't want to fray that connection.  Perhaps you can make a promise with him/her concerning your progress on the papers. 

Why does a 1-hour commute each way = being gone all day? Is it a 3-hour class? Can you ask the school to schedule the other section so that it's only in the evenings and you won't be missed?

Q.

[mulerooster]

It's a 4 hour lab class.  I will need time before and after the class for set up too.  My title is VAP if I get my PhD by September or Visiting Assistant Instructor if I don't have my PhD by then. 

I wouldn't really feel comfortable having the class at night since it's a lab.  I highly doubt the school would go for that too, for safety reasons.  I did ask if it would be possible to have it in the morning from 8-noon.  We'll see what they say I guess.  I'm sure that wouldn't work though.  Morning labs generally don't work with the schedules of science students because that is when they are in lectures.

[catalyzer]

I would also suggest you clarify the pay situation before you agree to anything. There are actually many scenarios where teaching another section of a course would not constitute getting paid double. There may be budgetary issues that you are unaware of. Just to cite one example, last semester I taught a class with two (full) sections that was considered as only one course in terms of compensation and workload.

[anon99]

+2 on clarifying the salary for two labs.  Also talk to your advisor (especially as they are not happy with you teaching 1 section of this class*) and see if you can't get the labs back to back.  Even if the lectures are in the morning, are they normally every morning (ie MWF and TTh)?  Ideally you'd teach them back to back.  If your thesis isn't finished by Sept, don't underestimate the amount of time to prep the labs.

*If you are that close to finishing your PhD (you mention you'd have a VAP title if you get your PhD by Sept), then finish before Sept and then your advisor shouldn't be worried about it.

[seniorscholar]

Ummm . . . in the current academic funding climate, this is happening even to tenured faculty.

[spyzowin]

Ummm . . . in the current academic funding climate, this is happening even to tenured faculty.

clarification is an important matter. I've worked under three different sets of rules. 1) Massive R1 gave a 25% of yearly pay for every overload; 2) Ivy which gave nothing at all for supervising extra graduate students; 3) another massive university which pays adjunct rate for overload.

I think what no one else has mentioned is that if the department is in a serious bind, saying no to them might hurt the OP's recommendation letter.