Coming Out of the Closet

by P.D. Lesko

It’s time for part-timers to come out of the closet.

If it’s December, I must be at the annual extravaganza the Modern Language Association diabolically schedules from the 27th to the 30th of that month. January? I’m at the American Historical Association’s gathering. March Madness in my calendar has nothing to do with basketball, but rather includes a trip to the National Council of Teachers of English CCCC’s conference. April in Paris? Not on your life. Instead, I’ll be in Long Beach, California, at the conference of the American Association of Community Colleges.

I am writing this piece while in Philadelphia at the meeting of the American Historical Association. Perhaps some of you may feel as though I’m a heartless braggart. Travel as a part of the job? As my young sons would say, “Dude!!” However, I’m not writing this to torment those of you who last took a trip in 1982, shortly after finishing graduate school. However, over the past 12 months, I have attended the meetings of the Sociological, Psychological, English (two) and Historical associations.

At those events, I’ve met large numbers of part-time faculty. What is interesting, though, is that I often feel like a CIA operative. Many of the part-timers I meet at disciplinary conferences are under deep cover and totally closeted. At the American Historical Association conference, I interviewed numerous part-timers. Many of them, when asked, admitted their employment status was something they kept “under wraps,” as one woman put it. I’m not so naïve as to ask why these people feel the need to be closeted.

Now, let me tell you about the National Council of Teachers of English conference, the CCCCs (four Cs). At that conference, awards are given to part-time faculty that cover the cost of the conference fees. The award recipients wear distinctive name tags festooned with a ribbon emblazoned with the name of the award. These, I can tell you, are worn proudly. To be sure, there are part-timers who attend CCCCs, and who come over to our exhibit like spies coming in from the cold. However, at NCTE, it’s clear Executive Director Kent Williamson and his staff are on to something. That something is the simple fact that part-time faculty have very profound professional needs (such as travel funds and conference-fee scholarships). If I could urge the hard-working people at all of the associations whose conferences I have visited to do one thing during 2006, this would be it: help the part-time faculty in your disciplines come out of the closet. Find mentors to help them answer your calls for papers. Set aside small sums each year from your budgets for conference-fee scholarships and travel grants.

In 2006, along with some of my colleagues in higher education publishing and marketing, I’m going to establish a $25,000 fund to help part-time faculty attend their disciplinary conferences. These grants will help defray the cost of travel and conference entrance fees for part-time and non-tenure-track faculty throughout the United States. All people should feel as if they can come out of the closet, particularly when attending yearly family gatherings.