I've been asked to teach yet another new class this fall. Adjuncts are thrown any class that no one else wants (in this case, a class that starts at 7:45 am
). I am starting my third semester at this particular school, and this is the sixth new course I have been given. I've been asking the course coordinator for a book list and sample syllabus since April. I was able to get the book list, and put in requests for desk copies, which arrived in June. Laid off after maternity leave, I came in to pick up the books, schmooze with the new baby, get in, get out. I've been slowly familiarizing myself with the three texts, collecting unemployment, and have been waiting on the syllabus. Since there are about a dozen different instructors for this course, it's important I get an idea of what everyone else is doing.A few days ago, I received a detailed course description. Still no calendar. But revealed to me: there is a fourth book. A novel I've never read.
I emailed the course coordinator. Of course, I get an "Out of Office Reply" from her. And the secretary. And the chair. In the meantime, I order the fourth book myself on Amazon. A popular book, at least it only cost me a penny. I finally get a response from the course coordinator: "Yes, you'll need that book, too. It doesn't start until the fifth or sixth week, so you'll have plenty of time to read it before then." No apologies for the slip-up. No offer to get me a copy, or contact the bookstore. Of course, the bookstore deadline was back in April, so who knows how successful I will be in begging for modifications at this point. The bookstore manager is also "Out of Office." I took a look at the textbook requests the other adjuncts had put in, and it looks like even the ubiquitous "Dr. Staff" is missing this novel. So I am not the only one left out.
I am fuming. For twelve years, I prepped for four different levels every day of the week, plus one random elective totally out of my content area. Her only instructional duty is to teach this one course, and make sure all of us slaves are in lock-step with her. How is it possible that she could forget one of the required texts? How is it possible that she can get herself dressed in the morning? How is it possible that she is my boss?
-Frankity
Aaaw Frankity, I know the pain of having to do all the shitty teaching in all the shitty time slots, with more than your proper share of the new preps, all for shitty pay and to top it all off, someone's throwing obstacles in the way of getting your course(s) off the ground. Wish there was something helpful I could offer other than commiseration.
ReplyDelete@Frankity: that really sucks. I'm sorry. I'd be mad, too. While I don't envy anyone the job of coordinating a course taught by 12 different instructors, some of them adjuncts, it is a job, she's presumably being compensated for it in some way, and she should d*mn well do her job.
ReplyDeleteBesides, if they're all out of the office in August, I wonder who is hunting down Dr. Staff, who, despite his/her ubiquity, can be elusive at this time of year?
Do you ever see her on Tuesdays? If so, "See you next Tuesday!" might be an aptly cathartic response.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just the adjuncts that get ass-fucked by the bookstore. But I have benefits and a full-time salary. Very shitty full-time benefits, as well as a shitty full-time salary, but I'm pretty secure and at this point they'd have to dynamite the school to get me out of here.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what do they pay you to put up with all that happy horseshit? Can you do something else? At a certain point, adjuncting becomes an exercise in masochism. Unless you're getting at least five grand a course, minimum, it sounds like you've reached it.
It seems so impossible that the process for getting a job is so tough, so long, and so fraught with obstacles... and yet 90% of professors are incompetent idiots. How does this happen? At every university??
ReplyDelete@Monkey: in my experience, the percentage of incompetents is only about 10% -- but that 10% can do a lot of damage if they take over a crucial function such as coordinating the kind of service class that adjuncts often teach. The people who land in such positions are either hard workers with genuine good will and community spirit, or layabouts looking for an easy route to a course reduction. I suspect Frankity has encountered someone in the latter category (or at least someone who really doesn't have the temperament, time, etc. for the job -- which unfortunately can amount to the same thing for the person being "coordinated"). When the other people teaching services classes were mostly TT faculty, the incompetents didn't last long in such jobs; now that the coordinator is often the *only* TT person teaching the course, there's much less built-in quality control.
ReplyDeleteAaagh! This happened to me at Lead Poisoning CC.
ReplyDeleteThe person in charge of the text books went on vacation and they were locked in his room. Asshole.