Adjunct Wins National Excellence Award

Mt. Hood Community College adjunct Marilyn Pitts was recently given an Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD). Read about Pitts and the award here. Winners are given the opportunity to present a seminar at the group’s annual conference, in May. Wouldn’t it be fantastic for a part-timer to show up, get her award in a public ceremony, and then put on a rockin’ seminar and show the full-timers and administrators just why she won?

Quit dreamin’. It ain’t gonna happen.

Pitts won’t be going because, as she explained, “There is no funding for that. Although it would be an honor, I doubt I would do that.” No money for travel for the part-timers at Mt. Hood Community College.

Feeling outraged on her behalf? Well, since Ms. Pitt has been the President of the Mt. Hood Part-Time Faculty and Tutor Association since the mid-90s, that there is “no funding” is a direct result of her own representation of the college’s part-timers. Another reason she’s staying home is that, in May 2009, the union will be bargaining its next contract with Mt. Hood officials. 

Here’s the hoping, for the love of, well, you know who, that this time around Marilyn Pitts negotiates some damn funding for professional development opportunities and conference travel for the school’s part-timers.