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[walkingtree]

So this is my second contingent position. At my previous institution, they used me to the last drop and made me teach more courses than anyone in the department. Pay was miserable and I was dragged around the chair's funding venues to give talks and recruit students. The chair paid me far less than the allowed grant she received for the position, according to a former colleague--she told me to run, in fact, everyone in the department told me to run. At my new job this year, no such thing takes place. I am treated more humanely and given enough time to work on my own stuff. The thing is...senior faculty wants to see my research, mostly unpublished stuff and raw data, for no particular reason. I am not sure if I have an obligation to share my research materials for a contingent position, where I am paid less than regular faculty. Am I obligated?

[totoro]

So this is my second contingent position. At my previous institution, they used me to the last drop and made me teach more courses than anyone in the department. Pay was miserable and I was dragged around the chair's funding venues to give talks and recruit students. The chair paid me far less than the allowed grant she received for the position, according to a former colleague--she told me to run, in fact, everyone in the department told me to run. At my new job this year, no such thing takes place. I am treated more humanely and given enough time to work on my own stuff. The thing is...senior faculty wants to see my research, mostly unpublished stuff and raw data, for no particular reason. I am not sure if I have an obligation to share my research materials for a contingent position, where I am paid less than regular faculty. Am I obligated?

I don't really understand what you mean here by "see your research... for no particular reason". Are you afraid they want to steal your ideas or data? If someone asked me whether they could see a paper I had written or ask me to give a seminar I would see it as a compliment.

[seniorscholar]

When I ask if I can see the research of a non-TT faculty member in my subfield, my intent is to offer support, suggestions for publication, advice on additional materials, or other kinds of mentoring. A department that is "treating you more humanely" and giving you "time to work on my own stuff" should also be helping you to accumulate the credentials you need to be competitive for a tenure-track position. Why on earth would any senior faculty member offer to do the extra work of reading your material if not for that purpose?

[walkingtree]

I didn't want to be overly suspicious. It's just that, at my previous institution, the chair used our research materials in her grant application. I wasn't the only one, she also used other people's works for other grants and sometimes went on to present some of those works on campus. And all that to adjuncts. I was just being careful with new people, because I was disappointed with old ones.

[watermarkup]

WT, I have no advice to offer, only my sympathy. My current colleagues are the most decent human beings I've ever worked with, but I'm still walking around with instincts learned at Snakepit State U. Experiences like that really screw up your judgment for a good long time.

[geonerd]

So this is my second contingent position. At my previous institution, they used me to the last drop and made me teach more courses than anyone in the department. Pay was miserable and I was dragged around the chair's funding venues to give talks and recruit students. The chair paid me far less than the allowed grant she received for the position, according to a former colleague--she told me to run, in fact, everyone in the department told me to run. At my new job this year, no such thing takes place. I am treated more humanely and given enough time to work on my own stuff. The thing is...senior faculty wants to see my research, mostly unpublished stuff and raw data, for no particular reason. I am not sure if I have an obligation to share my research materials for a contingent position, where I am paid less than regular faculty. Am I obligated?

I don't really understand what you mean here by "see your research... for no particular reason". Are you afraid they want to steal your ideas or data? If someone asked me whether they could see a paper I had written or ask me to give a seminar I would see it as a compliment.

Ditto. I'm confused by what the faculty member requested of you.

[larryc]

It is called mentoring.

[polly_mer]

It is called mentoring.

Yep.  Unless you have a reason to believe someone is trying to steal your work, why wouldn't you want to discuss it with an interested person?

[pixelvainia]

I thought Larry was referring to both chairs. Maybe not.

[walkingtree]

I concede, it is mentoring.

[olddrone]

". . . I wasn't the only one, she also used other people's works for other grants and sometimes went on to present some of those works on campus. And all that to adjuncts. I was just being careful with new people, because I was disappointed with old ones."

If the presenter did not acknowledge her indebtedness to the original writer or thinker, it ain't "mentoring" ; rather, it is called "intellectual shoplifting."  Bet she gets all the credit. 

Such clever theft often occurs during a job interview where the interviewee (an expert in, say, retention, assessment, or fund-raising, for instance) is asked to "share" his/her expertise so that the interviewing institution can benefit from hu's ideas, but hu is not the one hired.  Later, hu can see how the institution has implemented its practice according to hu's original ideas and suggestions.  (Let's assume other candidates, lacking real-life experience and expertise did not suggest any of them).

Even knowing this possibility, hu must spill his original ideas and experiences to get the job, a default mode the institution is taking advantage of.  Imagine another scenario dealing with original ideas in scholarship; to paraphrase, small artists plagiarize but great artists steal as they can seize up the essence and the merit of the original ideas.

"So Mr. Candidate, please share with us your research interests, won't you?"

Picking another's brains occurs in many clever forms, but using Adjunct's original ideas and then brandish them as if they had been one's own all along, while teaching our students not to plagiarize, is worse than plagiarism, for such parasitism helps maintain the slavery of the adjuncts while the parasite luxuriates deep in praise of originality while having an empty husk of a brain.

Nowadays pretenders look more original than the original thinkers, I am afraid.

[alleyoxenfree]

Trust your instincts.  Just say it's not ready to be looked at yet but you'll let her know when it is.

[helpful]

olddrone, if you came to a job interview with that attitude, we would find it very hard to hire you. In my opinion, you can't hide your (even if they are legitimate) feelings in interview situations.

On the other hand, if you were a member of a Search Committee, I would wonder what questions you would ask about an applicant's research to avoid what you suggest happens?

In other words, what purpose does your pessimism serve for both applicants and Search Committees?

[oldfullprof]

It is called mentoring.

I'm not sure.  My last chair tried to set up a "quid pro quo" system where I always had to benefit him personally for anything favorable to happen. 

I think it's common for the TT and T faculty to keep their distance from an adjunct's research, and the possibility of exploitation may be a key reason.  I've argued elsewhere here that adjunct research (if they were hired to teach) is literally none of the department's business.  The adjunct is typically trying to get a TT job, and this makes it cleaner.  I don't get it when colleges want to hire teaching adjuncts with a research expectation as part of the job description.  For a fellowship, maybe.  Then there's the expectation of mentoring.  Or if the adjunct establishes a real mentoring relationship with a faculty, as his or her choice.

BTW, I think attitude/shmattatude. 
 

[oldfullprof]

Such clever theft often occurs during a job interview where the interviewee (an expert in, say, retention, assessment, or fund-raising, for instance) is asked to "share" his/her expertise so that the interviewing institution can benefit from hu's ideas, but hu is not the one hired.  Later, hu can see how the institution has implemented its practice according to hu's original ideas and suggestions.  (Let's assume other candidates, lacking real-life experience and expertise did not suggest any of them).

Yes, pre-academia I was "looted" in a similar way when I applied for a hospital program directorship.  They had already decided whom to hire, and were trying to get me to disclose a marketing plan for the area.  I saw a guy making notes at the table, so at that point I got vague.  (He turned out to be the successful candidate.) 

When they sent me the rejection letter, I sent them an invoice for consulting.  They didn't pay it, of course.