Lesko Blog

  • New Voices Debut On AdjunctNation.com Blogs—More to Come

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    16 Jan 2010 /  AdjunctNation.com, on blogging

    I’ve had this idea for a while now. I concluded some time ago that there needed to be more adjunct voices blogging. At InsideHigherEd.com, there is “The Education of Oronte Churm” blog. Oronte blogs somewhat sporadically and indirectly about adjunct faculty. Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, there are no adjunct bloggers, per se, though the newspaper is publishing essays from about about adjunct faculty with more frequency. It galls me to no end that the Chronicle’s high profile Brainstorm blog employs Marc Bousquet, a tenure-line faculty member, to blog about adjunct issues. So it has been for much too long that full-time tenure-line faculty have taken it upon themselves to serve as the spokespeople of their  non-tenured colleagues.

    With the launch of the new blogs on AdjunctNation, each of which is written by a non-tenured faculty member, the site has give voice to several individuals who will write weekly on a variety of topics that will, I believe, appeal to a wide swath of the Adjunct Nation who visit our site. 

    So take a few moments, and check out the new blogs:

    The New Adjunct, written by Paul Porter, chronicles the launch of the web site “The New Adjunct” for non-tenured faculty throughout Indiana. I thought it might be interesting to see the progress of the group working on this project. Web pages just for non-tenured faculty are few and far between and I welcome the creation of The New Adjunct. 

    Kat Kiefer-Newman pitched Juggling 101 when I sent out a call for bloggers to several thousand individuals registered as AdjunctNation.com Family Members. I thought Kat’s idea was spot on. Adjuncts juggle teaching with many other responsibilities, and Kat is going to write about her busy days, afternoons and evenings. Adjuncting for two different departments, teaching five courses, is just the beginning of her day.

    Check out all of the new blogs here. 

    You can now follow whichever blogger(s) you like via Twitter. When there is a new blog posting on AdjunctNation.com, it will be tweeted to the followers of the blog(s). The AdjunctNation.com Family email alert will let Family members when new blog postings go up, as well. That email alert contains other information, so if you simply want to be alerted when your favorite blog is updated, follow the blogger on Twitter.

    In the meantime, we are going to design and launch the Adjunct Diary Page. Unlike our regular bloggers, on the Diary Page, anyone will be able to sign up and post their own blog content. Diary readers will be able to comment on posted Diary content, and the Diary content with the most views and most comments will be be highlighted on the Adjunct Diary front page. I am very excited about this opportunity for more and more non-tenured faculty to have opportunities to tell their stories.

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  • Welcome to the new AdjunctNation.com and E-Zine

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    29 Dec 2009 /  AdjunctNation.com, on blogging, on publishing

    Times are tough for everyone, and I have spent the past 18 years writing about the issues that impact the nation’s 700,000 faculty off of the tenure-track. When I began in 1992, there were 300,000 part-time faculty. Today, the Department of Education estimates that there are between 400,000 and 500,000 college faculty who hold temporary appointments. The remaining faculty off of the tenure-track are those who hold full-time temporary appointments, such as lectureships, visiting appointments and fixed-term teaching jobs.

    Just as the nature of the individual teaching part-time has changed since the late-70s (when 25 percent of faculty were part-time and the majority of those part-time faculty were professionals hired to teach specific courses), the Adjunct Advocate magazine has changed, as well. The publication was in print from 1992-2006. It was then that I decided to make the Adjunct Advocate an electronic publication with an accompanying PDF version. As technology evolved, and it became clear that downloading a PDF no longer appealed to most subscribers, I decided that Adjunct Advocate would exist as an e-zine, online only. Many larger publications followed Adjunct Advocate online, including the Christian Science Monitor and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

    What I was left puzzling out was the relationship between Adjunct Advocate and the magazine’s web page, AdjunctNation.com. As you know, AdjunctNation is not simply a companion site the Adjunct Advocate. It was never meant to be. It was designed to be a place for non-tenured faculty to come to use a variety of resources, such as the message boards, syllabus vault, and of course read the editorial content. Over the past six months, we have been working on the most effective way to leverage the almost 1,000 articles from the archived issues of Adjunct Advocate that readers can find online at AdjunctNation.com, and the idea of blogging combined with an e-zine. Blogs are instantaneous. Andrew Sullivan, who blogs on popular culture for The Atlantic, updates his blog multiple times each day.

    It seemed to me that there should be some way to combine the immediacy of a blog and the aspect of an online magazine. What I came up with and what we launched in November 2009 was the AdjunctNation.com E-Zine. When you visit the E-Zine page you will find a new icon that announces there is current content posted to the site. Some of the content will change over the course of a given month (like a blog) and be moved into our archive, where you can find it using the same article identifiers we have been using for 18 years. You’ll be able to search through features, news, reviews, interviews, profiles, etc…just as you always have, and we’ll be able to freshen content much more frequently!

    We’ve gone from a bimonthly online publication to an E-Zine that offers current content much more frequently than ever before. We’re not modeling InsideHigherEd.com and its daily news updates, but rather still focusing completely on faculty off the tenure-track on more in-depth analysis and reporting. Another change you’ll be seeing is that we are adding more bloggers to the site. At the moment, there are four blogs, you can expect that number of double over the course of the next few weeks. Visitors should look for new content daily on AdjunctNation.com.

    The other main concern I have always had was how to price the Adjunct Advocate so that a subscription was within reach of everyone who wanted one. Over the years, we have given away many subscriptions free of charge to part-time faculty who found themselves unable to pay. In 1992, a subscription was priced at $18 per year. That eventually rose to $35 per year for the print edition. Today, almost 20 years later, the new AdjunctNation.com Site Pass is priced at $20 per year, and includes access to all of the articles in the archive, as well as access to current content for one year. I am pleased most by the ability offer so much to our non-tenured faculty readers for a relatively modest sum. As always, if you find yourself unable to pay, but want to have a Site Pass, email me directly (pdl@adjunctadvocate.com).

    We are also in the process of revamping the e-newsletters. Both will be renamed as email alerts, but content of each will stay the same. Finally, have a look at the JOB-LIST. It is the largest collection of jobs for non-tenured faculty anywhere online. I am delighted at the changes, and at the opportunity to serve the population of faculty off the tenure-track in ways that are absolutely unique and, at the same time, familiar to those who have seen the development of the web site and AdjunctNation.com E-Zine. Adjunct Advocate/AdjunctNation.com has, once again, reinvented what it means to serve up information and resources to the majority of our nation’s college faculty, the ones who teach off the tenure-track. Going forward, we will work together to make AdjunctNation.com and the E-Zine a first stop online for tens of thousands of part-time, adjunct, full-time temporary and visiting college faculty.

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  • Excuses. Excuses.

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    25 Dec 2009 /  on blogging

    On the front page of the AdjunctNation.com site, there is a feature called The Daily Excuse. AdjunctNation.com Family members can log in and leave their best student excuses. Those excuses rotate on the front page. I thought it might be fund to post a longer list of the excuses that have been submitted. The names beside the excuses are of the individual who submitted the excuse.  Enjoy the list, and to submit your own student excuses, click here to log in to your account, and then add your classic to the list. You may submit as many as you like, but only the best of the best get chosen. If yours does, it will rotate along with the rest of the daily excuses submitted.

    I didn’t turn in my paper because my flash drive went through the washing machine. Hannah Sigur

    I can’t read cursive. Carrie Finn

    I cannot take the final exam on that date 4 months from now. My grandmother’s funeral will be on that day. Jim Harnish

    I didn’t know that the final draft of my essay was supposed to be typed. Deborah Cunningham

    I had a car accident and had to wait for the insurance adjuster. Hannah Sigur

    I won’t be in class today, as they are wheeling me into the E.R. right now, and I was wondering if I could turn it in next week(Sounds of T.V., videogame, talking, laughing in the background). Mark Witsaman

    My printer ran out of ink. Melissa Estelle

    My grandmother’s uncle’s mother-in-law died and we had to go to the funeral in Calcutta last night.  Sharon Martin

    My dog ate my computer. Rebecca Lindsay

    The dog ate my jump drive. Debby Bloom

    My car got towed and my homework was in the front seat. Joan Conrad

    I know you said we were supposed to follow your directions, but I didn’t think you meant me. Joan Conrad

    The roof of my house fell in. I cannot make it to class. Kathy Brooks

    My dog ate my laptop power cord. Stephen D Kempisty

    My house burned down. Stephen D Kempisty

    Thursday is the Warriors home playoff game and I REALLY want to go. The game is at 7:30. I can come and turn in my paper and then go, but I don’t want to hurt my grade. What do you suggest? Judy Juanita

    The “Electronic Dog” (read: computer) ate my homework. I allow one per student per semester; in Week 15, students auction off their unused excuses. Kate McIntire

    My assignment was in the back seat of my car which was confiscated when my cousin used it trying to solicit a prostitute. Carmen Pascaretti

    I was up all night with our new baby. Ronald Lucas

    My cat caught fire. Allan Zwierzko

    I never seen a cow before. I just relocated from Queens. I had to pull over. Sorry I’m so late for class. Liz Burke

    I’m going to be sick tomorrow. Yolanda Williams

    I think I’m going to be sick tomorrow. Yolanda Williams

    “My grandmother/grandfather died and I had to leave town unexpectedly” - I know; it’s not so unusual - except when A THIRD of the class uses this excuse; the sheer numbers make me wonder if our country is in the throes of a pandemic! Brian Cushing

    After two weeks of absence in a four week summer course the student arrives and says: I had car trouble. Thomas Cochran

    Sorry, I’m dead right now, can I turn it in next week? Jade Winters

    I have to go, my cat is on fire. Jade Winters

    I cannot make class today, I have to go to clinic, and if so, get an abortion. (I actually received this one via email from a student who had missed MANY classes in a row.) Jade Winters

    A squirrel ate the spark plug wires on my car. Nannette Crane

    My assignments are late because I am deceased with a death in the family. Tony Leisner

    I don’t do summers. (I got this one from a student who had missed several summer semester classes.) Laura Redic

    I’m having eye problems…can’t see coming to work! Roger Hayes

    I intended to do it correctly, but I didn’t. Ollie Foulk Library-Sub 1

    Unfortunately the desired due date didn’t clearly connect with my calendar. Amanda Harrison

    The Internet wasn’t working. Kirsti Dyer

    I think I remember that I forgot something that I really needed to complete that task for you. Sorry! Amanda Harrison

    I didn’t know where the assignment was supposed to turned in. Yolanda Williams

    I didn’t read the syllabus. Virginia Wood

    I’m sorry I missed class, but my canary had a miscarriage. Nancy Holmes

    My flash drive got sick from a cyber virus and vomited my homework into randomized bytes of data onto my hard drive causing my computer to crash. Robert Berlin

    I don’t know what happened on my Exam! Deborah Thompson

    I had the house sprayed and it dissolved my homework. Donna Reatz

    I missed class because I got my feet stuck in the microwave. I was trying to get the cat out at the time. Jennifer Henschel

    I resized my screen and THAT part of the Syllabus didn’t show. Vincent Cornish

    It’s not my fault. You didn’t remind me. Kathy Brooks

    My brother was stabbed in a bar fight. Donald Duvall

    Actual conversation with student: Me: Where is your exam? Student: Oh, I didn’t take it. Me: What do you mean you didn’t take it? Student: I mean I took it, just not physically. I took it mentally! Me: Mentally? Student: Yup. Emm C

    From same student: 1. Didn’t know when classes started. 2. Got lost on way to campus. 3. Hurt knee, may need mri. 4. Child sick and need to give 4 nebulizer treatments only during classtime. 5. Car accident. 6. Grandfather passed away. Emm C

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  • Thanks For Killing Time at AdjunctNation.com

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    03 Apr 2009 /  AdjunctNation.com, on blogging, on publishing

    As I’ve written before, one of the most enjoyable aspects of my job is working on our web site. It pleases me no end to provide a much-used resource for the nation’s 700,000 faculty off the tenure-track. In March, we served up about 3 million pages. Better still, our page count per user was a very respectable 8. In fact, when compared to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s web site, and InsideHigherEd.com, our users stay on our site viewing content much longer, and view 4-6 times as many pages when they stop by. Thanks!

    In April, we’re launching a new blog by writer Greg Beatty. Greg is going to write about, well, reading, writing, publishing and research—with an adjunct slant, of course. I asked Greg to blog about research and publishing. I did this because, as we know, adjunct faculty conduct research and publish. Furthermore, those non-tenured faculty who expect to jump onto the tenure-track must conduct research and publish if they’re going to be successful. I hope you enjoy this new blog.  

    This month, cartoonist Matt Hall sent along a Super Adjunct blog entry that lampoons the “adjunct award” event at fictitious Goose Egg University, where our hero Super Adjunct teaches. Check out Matt’s new blog entry here. I recently wrote about adjunct award apartheid in my blog at Chronicle.com (“Separate and Unequal Teaching Awards”). Great minds think alike; I never mentioned my Chronicle blog piece to Matt, and he outlined his new piece to me in general terms. Ah, well, enjoy.

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  • Guest Blogging at the Chronicle of Higher Education

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    26 Feb 2009 /  on blogging

    Just a quick entry to let folks know that I am blogging about part-time faculty at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Click here to read my February 26, 2009 entry. I’m very excited to have an opportunity to blog about part-time faculty there, as some of the entries I read on the site written by tenure-line faculty about part-time faculty issues are maddeningly inaccurate. For my first entry, I talked about pay parity and part-time faculty.

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  • A New Adjunct Listserv & “Nation Talk” Podcast

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    02 Feb 2009 /  AdjunctNation.com, on blogging, on publishing

    If you don’t have a clue about Listservs, you’re in good company. This Wikipedia entry should give you an idea of what a listserv is, how it works and why you might be interested in subscribing to the brand new Adjunct Listserv (Adjunctlistserv) we just launched. AdjunctNation.com hosted a listserv many years ago, but phased it out when we redesigned our site and added Message Boards. 

    Unlike Message Boards which a user must visit, listservs deliver emails directly to your inbox. You need only have a device that allows you to get email alerts and/or check email. Posting is as easy as replying to a message that interests you. 

    I decided to revisit the Listserv idea when I went searching for listservs for part-time faculty, and came up with a scant four choices.  A part-timer had sent me an email about one of them, and described the list as populated by “some independent” adjuncts, but mostly by “staff and leaders connected to the three faculty unions.” This mix, evidently, stifles opportunities for the adjuncts to discuss issues openly. I’m not quite sure why, but can imagine that sometimes the union folks might gang up on adjuncts who are critical of their policies and programs. 

    There’s a lot for part-timers to talk about, and I believe that part-time and adjunct faculty will benefit from an independent space in which to share news, bat around ideas, opinions and (maybe even) a few revelations! Everyone with an interest in part-time issues is welcome, of course, and the AdjunctNation.com Adjunct Listserv will be open to part-time faculty from from around the world. All postings will be in English.

    To join the AdjunctNation.com’s Adjunct Listserv, please click here. If you’re worried about spam, rest easy. The Listserv will be moderated so that we can keep spammers at bay. This means a (short, I hope) delay between when a message is sent to the group and when it’s posted, but it also means spam can be deleted quickly and before it ends up in your email inbox.

    In other news, we’ll soon be offering a weekly “Nation Talk” news & opinion podcast. The podcast will bring together four nationally-recognized adjunct faculty activists to discuss a wide variety of topics of interest to contingent faculty. The group will discuss such issues as the recent studies done that have drawn conclusions about the “dedication” and “impact” of part-time faculty on student retention. The Nation Talk team includes long-time Michigan adjunct activist Marjorie Lynn, as well as Washington State activist Keith Hoeller. Together, Hoeller and Lynn have over two decades of experience within higher education as national activists and organizers. Marjorie Lynn has written for Adjunct Advocate since the early-90s, and helped organize thousands of adjunct faculty at two Michigan universities.

    Tomorrow evening, I’ll host an AdjunctNation Family gathering in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you live near Ann Arbor, and want to join us, but didn’t get the email invitation that went out last week, email me for more details. We’re keeping the gathering small, but there’s still a bit of room left!

    As always, thanks very much for visiting AdjunctNation.com.

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  • Super Adjunct Set to Debut (Among Other News)

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    26 Jan 2009 /  AdjunctNation.com, on blogging

    Today, we will welcome our newest blogger, Super Adjunct. For those who have never seen the Super Adjunct cartoons created for Adjunct Advocate by cartoonist Matthew Henry Hall, please check them out online here. Once monthly, Super Adjunct will weigh in about the “adjunct life” with his particular brand of activism. This will be an illustrated blog entry, as well. To accompany the blog debut, AdjunctNation.com Family members (registered users) can listen to a new AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview with Matt Hall. If you’re not a Family member, click here to join. 

    We are looking for more bloggers. You don’t have to be an experienced blogger, but you do have to be prepared to share your unique perspectives on some aspect of teaching part-time. We are looking, for example, for someone to write about distance education and online teaching. We’d also be interested in having a part-time faculty member from outside the United States blog for the site. If you’ve got an idea for a regular blog, email me. Before you do, read through some of the blog entries on the site. 

    I am also looking for first person essays. As always, we don’t want to publish work that preaches to the choir. So, if you have a unique story to tell about your life as a part-timer, and/or your work in the classroom or teaching online, email me a query. Opinion pieces are welcome, as well, but remember that I’m looking for pieces that are unique and don’t preach to the choir. I’ll read finished essays on speculation, and we pay $150 per essay. Generally, essays are 900-1,200 words in length. 

    You’ll notice that we’ve made some changes to the AdjunctNation.com navigation links through the clever (we hope) use of Java script. Click on the AdjunctNation e-Newsletters link on the left hand side of the main page, and the navigation link will expand. There, you’ll find descriptions of the e-Advocate Newsletter (weekly), as well as the AdjunctNation.com Family newsletter. You’ll find links to previous issues of both e-newsletters, as well as a spot to either subscribe or unsubscribe yourself to each e-newsletter. Click the Podcast Interviews navigation link, and it will expand, as well, to reveal all of the available Podcasts. If you are an AdjunctNation.com Family member (a registered user), you may login then listen to any of the Podcasts you wish. You can download them to listen later, or you may use the AdjunctNation.com Pod Player and listen on our site. We have also used the Java script trick on the Daily Excuse navigation link on the right hand side of the main page. Click on it, and an excuse will appear. You may also add an excuse.

    On the JOB-LIST search form, we have added a drop-down menu so that you can order search results by a variety of criteria, including date, institution and department/area. If you’ve found a job through our site, I’d love to hear from you! 

    In the meantime, page views on AdjunctNation topped 3.3 million last month. 

     

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  • The Lesko Blog Popularity Contest (Is It Cheating If I Win?)

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    07 Jun 2008 /  on blogging

    This month marks the eighth month I have been writing Lesko Blog entries. I thought it would be fun to list the most frequently read entries for each month. Frankly, I have no idea why some entries are so popular, while others are not. Perhaps I am not destined to know. In any case, here’s the list going back to November 2007. Thanks very much for reading my blog. Please keep in mind that, unlike other blogs, the comment tool is turned on and ready for you to use. So feel free to let me know what you think.

    1. November 2007: The Untouchables of Academe.

    2. December 2007: Auld Lang Syne. This one is the most popular blog entry overall, with 15,382 reads.

    3. January 2008: The Denial Twist.

    4. February 2008: New Podcast Interview Series.

    5. March 2008: Identity Theft & the AAUP Elections.

    6. April 2008: CCCCs in San Francisco (2009).

    7. May 2008: Who Says Crow Isn’t Tasty?

    7. June 2008: Some Confusion Over What Journalists Do.

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  • Spring Brings Change

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    16 May 2008 /  on blogging, on publishing

    This has been a very busy Springtime for me.

    Anyone who lives in a northern climate can tell you that when the weather changes from snow, sleet and ice, to warm breezes, sun and gentle rains, it’s tough to keep your nose to the grindstone. This past winter, my part of the state of Michigan got sprinkled with nine feet (yes, I said nine) feet of snow. So, when it all melted, and the ground unfroze, we tapped the five sugar maple trees we have in our backyard and made maple syrup. I know this might sound odd, but it actually works. For the past two years, we have ended up with about a pint of syrup per tree. This year, however, thanks to the snow (or so say more experienced maple syrup makers) our production was up, up, up. We boiled down enough sap to produce an entire gallon of maple syrup.

    Then, in April, I bought myself a new bicycle. When my eldest son was 10 months old, (a decade ago) I bought a Cannondale with a baby bike seat. Both of my sons and I spent many a morning biking to one park or another. This year, I gave that bike to my oldest boy. He is almost as tall as I am now, and gladly moved up to my very expensive, very well cared for, Cannondale, the “Green Machine,” as it was dubbed shortly after I bought it. My new Cannondale is made in America, and significantly lighter than the old one; it’s a good thing, too. A lighter bike is the only way I’d ever keep up with my kids when we ride together. However, since we are a one car family, having really well made bikes doesn’t seem such an extravagance. Our family bikes, walks and takes the bus whenever we can.

    In May, I decided to do something I thought I would do a very long time ago. When I began Adjunct Advocate in 1992, I imagined working on the magazine for 10 years. That seemed so far into the future, I couldn’t really envision past that. I just knew that a decade seemed like the outside limit for me to work on a project. I thrive on creation. It’s part of why I like to write. It’s an opportunity to constantly create, learn and think. I can think of no better way to spend a life than engaging in those three activities.

    When you own a business, one of the most crucial decisions you have to make (if you don’t, you can get into a lot of trouble) is whether you want to grow your business, hire staff, own an office building and work toward growth. Many years ago, when my kids were little, I decided that I wanted my business to stay small. Despite this, almost four years ago, I decided to buy a book publishing company, which I renamed the Part-Time Press. It was a gamble, but it has since proven a very sound business decision. Today, one out of every four colleges and universities in the United States uses our books for part-time faculty professional development and orientation programs. I enjoy book publishing. Immensely. More than I thought I ever would. As a result, I have decided to sell Adjunct Advocate and pursue book publishing. I can’t do both.

    However, as I was determined to keep my business small so that I could participate in parenting my sons, university administrators had other ideas: in the almost 20 years I have worked on Adjunct Advocate, the number of faculty off the tenure-track has doubled. When I launched the magazine, there were 300,000 part-time faculty, and people didn’t even know what an “adjunct” was. Today, 700,000 faculty work off the tenure-track. I believe very strongly that those faculty deserve a national publication that can serve their professional needs and look after their professional concerns. Nothing irks me as much as hearing editors of education publications say that their mags., web sites and newspapers “publish pieces about adjunct faculty.”

    The days for separate drinking fountains for part-time faculty were over a decade ago. Higher education newspapers, web sites and magazines whose editorial leaders believe it’s fine to simply “publish articles about adjuncts” are still operating under the mistaken impression that we are in 1980, and tenure-line faculty are the majority in higher education. Those days are finished. It’s time for the content of higher education publications to reflect this. To be fair, my colleagues in the higher education press realize that the demographic of the faculty population has changed dramatically. It’s just that I got a 20-year head start on them. You and I know it’s impossible to write about any subject of import to higher education without looking at how it impacts temporary faculty. Those other guys are coming around slowly.

    That they are coming around is good news for part-time faculty, and for me. I want to see Adjunct Advocate fly to the next level, and that’s going to take selling it to a larger company, not growing my company any larger.

    I want to end by sharing a note I recently got from a reader and a posting about Adjunct Advocate I recently came across on a blog. They demonstrate the wide spectrum of the population Adjunct Advocate reaches. First the blog posting. It’s from the blog Vlorbik. There, on March 14, 2008, the blogger referred to “the execrable Adjunct ‘Advocate.’” Evidently, the publication is not “advocating” as it should, or perhaps I am not. Your guess is as good as mine. Now, the message from the reader:

    Hi P.D.
    I just wanted to let you know I successfully completed my Ph.D. last November 2007 and want to credit Adjunct Advocate for getting me started and seeing me through, and, to thank you personally for the note of confidence you gave me when you forwarded a requested paper regarding the number of dissertations about part-time or adjunct faculty. My dissertation is titled: “A Case Study of the Utilization of Adjunct Faculty in a Private University.” Everything went so well mainly because I really believe in the merit of the subject and the passion behind your publication. Sincere appreciation to you and your staff and contributors. Mahalo and aloha!
    Skip Kazarian, Ph.D.
    English Faculty
    Hawai’i Pacific University

    See why I’ve kept publishing Adjunct Advocate for almost a decade longer than I expected I would? Some day I’ll tell you about the letter from an absolutely enraged reader I got that was written in orange crayon, and the thank you note for the free subscription I received from the guy in prison.

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  • Asking Questions & Getting Answers

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    13 Feb 2008 /  AdjunctNation.com, on blogging, on publishing

    Listen to my blog entry here.

    I love really well done interviews. Interviewing, I think, is an art form, and it’s a part of my job that I enjoy immensely. I am fortunate enough to be able to contact most newsmakers in higher education, and get speedy replies to my inquiries. I’m not saying the replies are always positive. However, with patience and persistence, I have been able to land interviews with most everyone I’ve set out to interview.

    Well, all this recording of blogs got me thinking. Ask my family, and they will tell you that when I think, it can be very dangerous. In this case, however, I believe I’ve come up with a great idea! There are just loads of enthusiastic, intelligent, motivated and interesting people in higher education today who are busy at work advocating on behalf of the country’s 700,000 temporary faculty. From Cary Nelson (currently running for re-election as the President of AAUP) to Kip Lornell (part-time faculty spokesman and union organizer for the past eight years at George Washington University). What publication better to interview them about their work on behalf of the nation’s 700,000 part-time faculty than Adjunct Advocate?

    So, we’re going to start offering regular Podcasts! We’re kicking it off this Thursday with an interview with John Pawlowski, president of the 1000 member part-time faculty union at Pace University, in New York. We wrote about the Pace faculty union’s struggle recently in the “Part-Time Thoughts” blog, as well as in the news section of the Adjunct Advocate March/April 2006 magazine.

    Look for a link to the Podcast of my interview with John Pawlowski in the Friday issue of the e-Advocate Newsletter. If you aren’t already signed up to receive the free weekly update, email me. I’ll make sure you get it each week. To have a look at the most recent e-Advocate Newsletter, click here.

    Enjoy the new Podcast feature! In future, we’ll be asking for your suggestions about whom to interview, and what questions you’d like to have asked. In the meantime, thank you for visiting AdjunctNation.com, and reading my blog.

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