I taught for Ball State for six years, then after the Indiana DOC phased out college prison education, I moved down to Fayetteville State University, starting there as an Assistant Professor as well. When I left after three years - moving up to New York, where my then-fiancee resided - I would have been ready to apply early for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.
Instead, from that point on, I taught as an adjunct, first for Marist College (pretty continuously from 2011 to last Fall), then for several academic startups (Oplerno, the GCAS), and now more recently here in Milwaukee for Marquette University, the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and Milwaukee Area Technical Institute.
Working as an adjunct is quite different in many respects from the much more secure, full-time, part-of-the-faculty status that comes with being a professor. With the exceptions of a few academic institutions and systems (and this largely results from strong unions), adjuncts generally aren't paid particularly well and enjoy few (if not no) benefits. They also can't count on continued employment. Occasionally, classes assigned to them - sometimes even classes they developed - are poached by tenure-track professors who decide they would like to take them.
One place I've been teaching over the last year where adjuncts are particularly appreciated and thoughtfully taken care of, is the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Then again, from what I can see, it's quite a well-run institution in general. Highly student centered. Administrators who clearly understand the mission of the school and who draw upon the talents of their faculty. Good lines of communication. All those aspects would already make it a good place to teach and work in my view.
But they also do things right when it comes to adjuncts. In quite a few other places, if you are an adjunct, you're treated by tenure track faculty and administrators - though not by students (who often don't know who is an adjunct and who isn't) - as if you don't belong and are fortunate to be there at all. At MIAD, you are invited in to nearly everything. As far as I can tell, there's no divide existing between the full-time and part-time people. MIAD provides us an adjunct office, stocked with tea and coffee, and we are encouraged to spend as much time as we'd like on campus. The pay is good, and MIAD schedules upcoming classes well over a month before any of the other places I teach.
I got an email recently reminding all of us that, as adjuncts, we could and should apply for increase in rank. The ranks at MIAD are Lecturer, then Adjunct Assistant Professor, Adjunct Associate Professor, and then finally Adjunct Professor. Each of them represents a step up in status or title, but also an increase in payment per class. I looked over the requirements for each rank, and then had to email my chair, because I wasn't sure whether the number of credit hours taught referred to hours taught at MIAD or elsewhere. If just MIAD, I'd be at the lowest rank, but with 20 years of teaching, if the credit hours could be from elsewhere, I'd qualify for a much higher rank.
She wrote me back and informed me of something I'd been ignorant of the entire time I've been teaching for MIAD. I came in at the highest rank. I've been listed as an Adjunct Professor this entire time. That was a welcome surprise to me!
It may seem like something rather trivial, but I've refrained from calling myself a philosophy professor for years, since officially, I didn't have that title, and I'm a rather literal person who's a bit of a stickler about truthfulness. People would call me "professor", and sometimes I'd point out that technically speaking, I no longer could claim that title. Now, however, I can call myself and be called "professor" entirely in good faith. And it's a small thing, but that feels quite good to me.
One place I've been teaching over the last year where adjuncts are particularly appreciated and thoughtfully taken care of, is the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Then again, from what I can see, it's quite a well-run institution in general. Highly student centered. Administrators who clearly understand the mission of the school and who draw upon the talents of their faculty. Good lines of communication. All those aspects would already make it a good place to teach and work in my view.
But they also do things right when it comes to adjuncts. In quite a few other places, if you are an adjunct, you're treated by tenure track faculty and administrators - though not by students (who often don't know who is an adjunct and who isn't) - as if you don't belong and are fortunate to be there at all. At MIAD, you are invited in to nearly everything. As far as I can tell, there's no divide existing between the full-time and part-time people. MIAD provides us an adjunct office, stocked with tea and coffee, and we are encouraged to spend as much time as we'd like on campus. The pay is good, and MIAD schedules upcoming classes well over a month before any of the other places I teach.
I got an email recently reminding all of us that, as adjuncts, we could and should apply for increase in rank. The ranks at MIAD are Lecturer, then Adjunct Assistant Professor, Adjunct Associate Professor, and then finally Adjunct Professor. Each of them represents a step up in status or title, but also an increase in payment per class. I looked over the requirements for each rank, and then had to email my chair, because I wasn't sure whether the number of credit hours taught referred to hours taught at MIAD or elsewhere. If just MIAD, I'd be at the lowest rank, but with 20 years of teaching, if the credit hours could be from elsewhere, I'd qualify for a much higher rank.
She wrote me back and informed me of something I'd been ignorant of the entire time I've been teaching for MIAD. I came in at the highest rank. I've been listed as an Adjunct Professor this entire time. That was a welcome surprise to me!
It may seem like something rather trivial, but I've refrained from calling myself a philosophy professor for years, since officially, I didn't have that title, and I'm a rather literal person who's a bit of a stickler about truthfulness. People would call me "professor", and sometimes I'd point out that technically speaking, I no longer could claim that title. Now, however, I can call myself and be called "professor" entirely in good faith. And it's a small thing, but that feels quite good to me.
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