by Nick Capo

I AM STILL in shock. Stunned. Discombobulated. Relieved. This year will be my ninth as an adjunct, but I had a great summer. I feel like I should feel guilty. After eight years at a large eastern research university as a lecturer on part-time, one-year, and multi-year contracts with stints as the Honors Composition and Mentor Program coordinator and as the Assistant and Associate Director of Composition, I have amassed a good teaching record. My Vita lists many, many sections of nine different courses and three different teaching practica; my student evaluations are good, and I have won a college-level teaching award. I have helped dozens of students get into graduate schools or get good jobs in their major field. What I do not yet have is a massive number of significant publications. But when my partner in academe, Beth, accepted a tenure-line job at Illinois College, I met the college’s needs for a sabbatical replacement position. And so--poof! [wave the magic wand]--I am now a visiting assistant professor of English.

It gets better. For the first time in my admittedly short career, I have now witnessed how exceptional college administrators can ethically and diligently discharge their responsibilities. I now know what it feels like to be a member of an unified (well, fairly unified), energetic, committed faculty. All of the staff members I have met, and since we are a small college I have already met many of them, have been friendly and competent. During our faculty conference, our president spoke of a shared determination to preserve this college as a place where none of us felt conflicted about committing our full energy and talents to the college’s mission, and for the first time in nine years, I actually believed in a president’s sincerity and agreed with the characterization of the environment. My experience here has been like a revelation. No other word quite captures the feeling.

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