Ladies and gentleman, I am reporting LIVE from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) annual conference in Chicago. I am here for meaningful dialogues, soaking up valuable information, and developing lasting relationships with my colleagues nationwide.
And maybe a little job searching (wink).
Much like the adjunct experience, I am also a veteran of the national conferences that do such a powerful service to members of the academy. As I look though my conference program, I am as tickled as always about the fact that we in the profession conjure up dynamic program names by coupling a series of big words along with a colon and brief terminology related to my field. Makes me think I should rename this blog, Contextual deconstructions of digital diatribes: An existential phenomenological analysis of adjunct faculty blogs (Yeah, I don’t know what it means either).
Another conference tradition I typically take part in is the wincing and hesitation that goes along with every cost associated. Like most adjuncts, I’m stuck paying the bill for this opportunity for me to learn from my colleagues, and try to advance myself professionally. So, while I watch senior-level administrators enjoying steak dinners and cocktails, I am checking my bank account with my fingers crossed, making tough financial choices before buying coffee, and building a strong rapport with folks at the local 7-11. I do it all in the name of professional development.
In hindsight, I must the experience has been rich. I have had sit-down conversations with an array of student affairs administrators, everything from Residence Hall Directors, to Vice-Presidents. I have met people from the smallest liberal arts colleges and the largest state public universities. Even better, I have a stack of business cards from said administrators who are willing to look at my résumé, and even pass my name along should their respective institution have no openings. Now, I’m going to go out on a limb (on that limb we’ll find my experiences as an adjunct trying to attend conferences), and assume that most of you are either devoid of the saved money or institutional support to get to these conferences. Typically, they are held in major metropolitan cities, charge an arm and a leg for registration and membership (generally no discount for adjunct faculty), and take place during the school year. What does this mean for the “new breed” of America’s adjunct faculty? In some instances, adjuncts are kept out of the loop on these opportunities. An example: in 2006, I was working as an adjunct at a large, public university in the Midwest, and my department didn’t bother to tell me, or any of our department’s adjuncts, about a conference that was taking place IN OUR OWN CITY!
Now, admitedly, all of my assumptions here are just that, assumptions. It is very much possible that there are some great organizations out there that are using at least a segment of their national meeting to reach out to adjuncts, or at least cutting them some sort of break on the costs of membership/conference registration. Herein lies the New Adjunct website, and your homework.
I would like to start putting some real work and thought into The New Adjunct web site’s Adjunct Faculty Resources page. I think it’s about time that adjunct faculty were made aware of what conferences are adjunct-friendly (i.e. have adjunct faculty caucuses, welcome research on adjunct faculty issues, etc…), as well as resources available exclusively for adjuncts to minimize the costs of travel/membership/registration. What I would like to ask of you, my wonderfully faithful readers, is help in compiling a list. If you know of grant dollars for adjuncts, specific academic organizations that offer incentives for adjuncts-financial or otherwise, please email them to me at paul@thenewadjunct.com.
The web page is taking shape steadily. The perils of relying on people to work with page design, is that you find yourself at the mercy of their interests sometimes. In the meantime, keep following The New Adjunct on Twitter and Facebook. I’ll have more to report in a couple of weeks. For now, there’s a conga-line at the hotel bar (If only I had the money to go)
