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[mickeymantle]

I thought I'd start a new topic for adjuncts and see what the reactions were.

Once, in a galaxy far, far away, when I was still a naive adjunct, I started at a school.  We were supposed to present our syllabi as adjuncts to both the chairperson and to a "mentor."  I received approval from both "experts."

I found out two weeks later that the grading scale was totally wrong.  As one of my fellow part-time sufferers said, "They tell you nothing at this place."

Without getting the "experts" involved again (after all, they were too "busy"), I quickly amended the syllabi, being upfront with the students.  I learned never to trust full-time academics again.

What was/is your worst adjunct experience?

[walkingtree]

Every adjunct experience is the worst experience--sorry for being negative, but that's the nature of this business. We don't get basic respect, nobody bothers to talk to you over coffee (meal is too costly) and you are pretty much forgotten the moment you walk into the job.

[reener06]

Well, last year I had to fight tooth and nail to get a mailbox. At a place where I have no desk to use, so I just wanted a mailbox. There's a whole thread about it. I returned this year, after finally getting one after months of wrangling, to find my mailbox gone. I was assured it was being replaced. I haven't bothered to check. I don't need to feel demoralized on the days I go in there.

I'm annoyed of late b/c both places I adjunct scheduled me for classes for the spring w/o asking me if I was available to a) teach them or b) teach them at those times. Both places are quite aware I'm about to give birth, and at one I was very explicit about only being available to teach night courses next semester. Now I need to pull out of the day course they gave me, angering them, and decreasing my shrinking pay even more. Some respect would be nice.

Oh, and last week I had to argue into the general phone in the hallway in front of students with my OB nurse, until she left me in tears. Yeah, my own phone would be nice. I think I agree with walkingtree.

[spinnaker]

Best experience: seeing people care about teaching young people in spite of being punished for it.

[categorical]

It does make you wonder sometimes: why such systemic contempt for adjuncts?

[educator1]

Every adjunct experience is the worst experience--sorry for being negative, but that's the nature of this business. We don't get basic respect, nobody bothers to talk to you over coffee (meal is too costly) and you are pretty much forgotten the moment you walk into the job.

There are strong opinions and feelings that I have that will not allow me to let this stand! I apologize for being redundant.

This is NOT the "nature of the business". This is the individual experiences of a few posters who feel that they have to constantly complain and may be "the nature of the business" in a few disciplines (I may be being too generous here).

Many adjuncts are respected, especially in matters of pedagogy - as this is their major focus, talked to (sometimes to the point of boredom), and find the position rewarding. Please don't generalize from your or your discipline's specific conditions and provoke the "systemic contempt" for the adjunct position.

[spinnaker]

It does make you wonder sometimes: why such systemic contempt for adjuncts?

I can tell you that teaching part-time in a college that does not have tenure feels extremely different from teaching part-time in one that has tenure.

[venerable_bede]

I thought I'd start a new topic for adjuncts and see what the reactions were.

Once, in a galaxy far, far away, when I was still a naive adjunct, I started at a school.  We were supposed to present our syllabi as adjuncts to both the chairperson and to a "mentor."  I received approval from both "experts."

I found out two weeks later that the grading scale was totally wrong.  As one of my fellow part-time sufferers said, "They tell you nothing at this place."

Without getting the "experts" involved again (after all, they were too "busy"), I quickly amended the syllabi, being upfront with the students.  I learned never to trust full-time academics again.

What was/is your worst adjunct experience?

I once ordered a steak, medium, at a restaurant. When I cut into it, it was clearly medium rare. Without getting the "experts" involved again, I just set up a portable grill on the table next to me and finished grilling the steak to the correct level of doneness. I learned never to dine at a restaurant again.

[walkingtree]

Sorry to have upset you. I have just gone through an extremely exploitative system, where I was constantly praised for being a great teacher and scholar, but otherwise treated as a crap. The chair rejoiced that I was more "bang for the buck"--her language--the moment I walked in. I was constantly judged for little things and eventually got judged out for a little thing. Some full professor folks in my field refused to make eye contacts, hand shake, or call me by my name. They didn't treat t-t folks the same way.

Every adjunct experience is the worst experience--sorry for being negative, but that's the nature of this business. We don't get basic respect, nobody bothers to talk to you over coffee (meal is too costly) and you are pretty much forgotten the moment you walk into the job.

There are strong opinions and feelings that I have that will not allow me to let this stand! I apologize for being redundant.

This is NOT the "nature of the business". This is the individual experiences of a few posters who feel that they have to constantly complain and may be "the nature of the business" in a few disciplines (I may be being too generous here).

Many adjuncts are respected, especially in matters of pedagogy - as this is their major focus, talked to (sometimes to the point of boredom), and find the position rewarding. Please don't generalize from your or your discipline's specific conditions and provoke the "systemic contempt" for the adjunct position.

[spinnaker]

Every adjunct experience is the worst experience--sorry for being negative, but that's the nature of this business. We don't get basic respect, nobody bothers to talk to you over coffee (meal is too costly) and you are pretty much forgotten the moment you walk into the job.

There are strong opinions and feelings that I have that will not allow me to let this stand! I apologize for being redundant.

This is NOT the "nature of the business". This is the individual experiences of a few posters who feel that they have to constantly complain and may be "the nature of the business" in a few disciplines (I may be being too generous here).

Many adjuncts are respected, especially in matters of pedagogy - as this is their major focus, talked to (sometimes to the point of boredom), and find the position rewarding. Please don't generalize from your or your discipline's specific conditions and provoke the "systemic contempt" for the adjunct position.

As well they should be. But these same people are frequently also stigmatized and exploited by the system and the many who support it. That's the point. Walkingtree's supervisor knew that he was a fine scholar, while apparently gloating that the profit made from his competence would not be his.

[adjunctprincipessa]

Tenured faculty tended to be quite nice at most of the schools I taught at - if you are friendly and ask about their lives, they were happy to chat in the xerox room.  Once I learned that "it is important for you to maintain strong academic standards" actually meant "we fire adjuncts who waste time grading papers and racking up student complaints and hire back people who give all As" my workload dropped immensely. 

[mickeymantle]

I appreciate the comments I've received to my query, even bede's satire (pretty funny, if that's what it's intended to be.) 

I truly empathize with those adjuncts who suffer through our system.  I would say that my experiences on the whole while a part-timer were good, but these are the things I learned:

(a) Do not grade higher than the full-time faculty, because then they'll fear that their prospective students will take your classes.  (I know a previous poster mentioned giving all A's, but most of the colleges I've taught at maintain about a B/B minus standard.)
(b) Do not do anything out of the ordinary, such as publishing an article or attending a conference, because tt's tend to be sensitive about such things, and tenured people resent being exposed as slackers.  (This is a sad thing I learned at one institution.)
(c) Despite what administrators and chairpeople tell their adjuncts at orientation or any other meetings, they do not care one iota about their part-timers, even if they are the spouses of tenured people.  (I saw one adjunct, the spouse of a long-time professor, get the axe.)
(d) Do not hang around adjunct offices besides office hours, because the collective negativity of fellow part-timers can only weigh you down.
(e) If you do become full-time, try to help adjuncts.

[pixelvainia]

I could name many experiences, but here's one that won't get me outed. After many years renewed employment
there was occasion to mention me in the campus faculty newsletter. They spelled both my first and last names wrong.

[prof_cj]

Similar situation to adjunctprincipessa really...I'm sort of ashamed to admit that it was an adjunct position at a for-profit (an early teaching experience) hence the drive to keep numbers up under the guise of "strong academic standards" and "helping students reach potential."

[zipzap]

Repeated instances where I started the first day of a class not knowing if it was going to be cancelled due to underenrollment, only because of very poor communication between too-busy admins. I was at an institution that does not promise pay if courses are cancelled, so not only was I unable to predict my own financial situation, I had to deal with students freaking out about their schedules and degree completion, and sometimes never saw a penny for it.