Otherwise known as why I don’t teach university PT right now. Would I consider doing it again? I honestly don’t think so, but who knows! If the right opportunity came up… I might.
Having worked as part-time faculty in several universities here. I will spare their names but you’ve probably heard of them. The amount of preparation and grading for the pittance of a salary wasn’t worth it, esp. when the expected finals came around.
There are some things to watch out for:
We didn’t get paid for the summer vacation; we didn’t get health/labor/pension paid; we didn’t get professional development or research funding; we mostly had a shared office/desk space (if you could call it that); we even had to pay fax fees for attending a conference on our own dime. They wouldn’t allow us to use the photocopier for more than 10 copies per semester.
In one of the most prestigious universities, one of their FT faculty approached me asking why no one stayed. Well… it wasn’t even a career step for most people as there was no real way to get a reference. The chair couldn’t even be bothered to meet faculty. In a year, I think I only spoke to the department office once or twice by phone.
The worst was that payment from some schools was even less regular. They never processed salaries on time. Ever. We were rarely invited to attend faculty meetings, had little or no choice over core-curriculum, never got invites to faculty events, … they didn’t even process library cards for us to use their library. For working PT, I swore never to do it again. The ‘prestige’ was not worth it. I quit after two semesters. It was the academic equivalent of ‘social influencer’ status.
Another well-known place I worked at promised to choose one of 3 staff they hired as PT adjunct teachers after a year. When the chair of the department ended their tenure, the next chair conveniently forgot about the deal and reneged on that promise. The irony was the downtown campus had been a much more pleasant place to work. I don’t teach PT now. I really hope that things are better for PT faculty now, but somehow I doubt it is.
Photo by Changbok Ko on Unsplash