Letters to the Editor

When Students Evaluate Faculty On-Line

Being an adjunct instructor and former student I could easily relate to both sides of the issue. First, are there safeguards which allow a student to rate her/his instructor(s) only one time per class? And can the on-line evaluation sites detect students who are not in the instructor’s class and prevent them from submitting evaluations? There is something which makes me uneasy about allowing students to randomly evaluate instructors whenever they please. As we know, there is a thin line between a constructive evaluation and an unabashed flogging. We, as instructors, are supposed to know the difference. The question is then, do our students? Students obviously know who is evaluating their progress. On the other hand, we, as instructors, have no idea which students are evaluating our work. Perhaps on-line evaluation sites should require students to register and log on with a password. At least this could, possibly, keep students from stuffing on-line sites with bogus evaluations. It might also bring some fairness to the equation.

– John R. Wiley, Yavapai Community College, Prescott, Arizona

Thanks to NAFTA Adjuncts Can Head North

Thanks for the great issue about adjunct faculty throughout the world! By the way, as far as I know, long before NAFTA, Canadian faculty were eligible to teach in the United States. It was only United States faculty who had a hard time getting the necessary documents to work in Canada.
Keep up the good work with the Adjunct Advocate, though I must say I’m of two minds because it would be ideal if all, or at least most, academic jobs were full-time and tenure-stream. And sometimes I wish that especially female academics boycotted those sessional appointments, limited contracts and other means of exploitation, as universities depend on the willingness of highly qualified female academics to take on these inferior appointments, while their male counterparts move on to jobs in the corporate world.

– Julie Adam, Ontario, Canada

Have the Humanities Sealed Their Fate?

Chris Cumo writes that it is convenient for those who teach in the humanities to refuse to accept responsibility for our own fates. We are dinosaurs, in essence, and deserve to suffer extinction. It’s difficult enough working as an adjunct without being blamed about market conditions, as well. Chris Cumo may believe that if more faculty in the humanities produced commodities as opposed to ideas the patterns of employment would change. However, what he fails to take into account is the theory of supply and demand. As long as there are more people than full-time jobs available, there will be under-employment.

– Susan D’Angelo, New York University, New York, New York