The New Adjunct

• The New Adjunct Spotlights it’s First Adjunct(s) of the Month!

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  20 Apr 2010 /  New Adjunct, adjunct faculty, professional development
  Let me begin by giving much praise to the STUDENT athletes who just participated in the greatest basketball game I’ve ever seen. To the faculty and administration at Butler University and Duke University, I salute you! The 2010 NCAA National Championship game in Men’s Basketball had more Academic All-Americans than competitive ones. AND… The Butler players utilized playing in their home town, to GO TO CLASS ON THE DAY OF THE BIGGEST EVENT IN THE SCHOOL’S HISTORY!!!

  Makes you feel good, doesn’t it?

  With that in mind, I will try my best to be coherent through this blog, as it’s rather late. But we have some exciting news at The New Adjunct. We are pleased to announce our inaugural “Adjunct of the Month” Award, and in the unconventional fashion that goes along with adjuncts, the honor goes to an entire group!

  AdjunctMatters is a national organization dedicated to providing a safe haven for adjuncts to discuss teaching strategies, classroom activities, etc. to help part-time faculty help students. It is a bit different from The New Adjunct, as they are focused more on students, and we are working to extend information on resources to help faculty. Nonetheless, their work is fascinating, and they have worked fervently to not only advance pedagogy, but contribute to the battle to give adjuncts a voice.

  Founded in 2009, by the Associate Faculty Advisory Board at Indiana University, Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI) the organization has gone to work quickly and effectively. The organization has arranged “sit-down” conversations with university administration, and have recently produced completed a compelling documentary entitled, Part-time Faculty. Full-time Impact,that can be found on their facebook page by clicking here. Their most recent effort is the April 2010 Adjunct Faculty “Teach-In” at , a four-day effort in which part-time faculty will voluntarily suspend their course curricula to engage in discourses surrounding adjuncts. The intiative comes in light of failed efforts to negotiate a  health-care plan with the university; however, the discussions planned during the teach-in will extend far beyond. Topics such as lack of sufficent pay and contracts, as well as scarcity of fee remission for those seeking to continue education will also highlight dialogues.

  As The New Adjunct continues to develop, we would like to applaude the efforts of AdjunctMatters, and I employ you to take time to view their webpage, and see some of the salient work they continue to do. In light of their efforts, I would like to extend to the organization, space on The New Adjunct to talk about their efforts, and use our page as an outlet to further their advocacy of adjunct-faculty efforts, and continue to extend their viewership. I can never stress enough how important it is for us all to work together, and this organization is certainly one you will all want to associate yourselves with.

  Congratulations to AdjunctMatters!

  If you are interested in being spotlighted next month, feel free to pass along details to paul@thenewadjunct.com. I encourage you all to contact me and let me know all the great things you’re doing, on top of working so selfishly to sculpt student minds in a manner that make us all as proud as the kids in the NCAA Basketball National Final did this evening. With a little teamwork, we can begin to create “One Shining Moment” of our own.

  Tags: AdjunctMatters, Paul Porter, The New Adjunct

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to a Web page: The Perils and Potentialities of The New Adjunct

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  24 Mar 2010 /  New Adjunct, adjunct faculty, professional development
  I have returned from the NASPA conference, and strangely, I have money in my bank account. I guess that’s what a steady diet of peanut butter and a shared hotel room will do for ya (wink).

  In all seriousness, I had a wonderful time. I made a couple of contacts, met some wonderful scholars and participated in some great discussions. I came back with great ideas to bring back to my bosses, which they always appreciate. However, when I returned to work on our little online project, I found that the list of instructions I left my webmaster were not completed. Thus, the lack of glorious blog to announce the official launch.

  It’s coming…I promise.

  I also noticed a lack of response to the homework I assigned you all in my last entry. So let me ask again,

  I’m looking to compile a list of resources that will be helpful to adjunct faculty in terms professional development opportunities- grant dollars, conference call for papers, publication opportunities, etc. It is my hope that we can begin to build a directory of options for all adjuncts to begin building their resumes. So once again, I employ you, share these resources. Let’s work together to help each other out. That’s what The New Adjunct is all about.

  Another idea that I’ve been running through my head comes from a fabulous comment from a reader of my previous entry. I hope this reader doesn’t mind me sharing their comments. In response to my essay on the plight of the adjunct at a national conference, a reader wrote,

  I have been an adjunct online teacher for over 12 years and have wanted to attend conferences yet have not been able to do so for many of the same reasons you stated. I believe a low cost self-created conference for the adjunct would be a great experience providing opportunites to share and compare, as well as a learning environment. These could be locally driven and sponsored by a small conference cost.

  What an incredible idea! To you, my faithful reader, I have started inquiring about a way to make this a reality. Here’s my idea, let me know what you think:

  A conference specific to adjunct faculty issues that would take place in the next 12-18 months. The conference would put out a call for original research and analyses, as well as developing some learning caucuses. It wouldn’t be much, but certainly worth considering. Oh, I should also mention that the conference would be relatively cost effective- a modest registration fee; thus leaving you with only the cost of travel, lodging and food.

  Here’s your additional homework assignment: tell me your thoughts on this potentiality. Is it something you would seek out? Would an adjunct faculty conference be worthwhile to you, and is it something you would pass along to your adjunct faculty colleagues? Your opinions matter exponentially.

  First Lady Michelle Obama once remarked, “Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” As our pursuit of impact and influence on minds, young and old continue, we must continue to help each other take steps to make our marks professionally. I promise you all, The New Adjunct will be here soon, and will do its part to make a mark also. Continue to follow us, and please, do whatever you can to make this great project all it can be.

  Tags: Michelle Obama, New Adjunct, Paul Porter

• New Adjunct, Same Conference Hustle: Reflections

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  11 Mar 2010 /  networking, professional development
  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)

  Tags: conference, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, New Adjunct, Paul Porter, professional development

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