At the university I work at, we have an employment classification called “Instructor”. In our department, English, there are five of us. We teach full-time, we get benefits, and I actually have an office (with a closet,too.) Our university’s emphasis on teaching excellence is the reason why we have these positions, but they year-to-year contracts with no tenure track.
Our department head asked for the ‘instructors’ to develop a mission for the coming year. We decided that since we are adjuncts that we wanted to connect with all the other adjuncts in the department–the part-time, the semester-to-semester, those unlucky enough to be paid by the piece.
We have devised a face-to-face element to this connection. We will meet at least once a month to begin a conversation about all the local needs and problems of adjuncts in our department. Here’s my issue. I wanted a blended approach to our mission. I want the F2F chunk of the solution. I think that is where the problems and solutions bubble up from. No sense devising a solution beforehand. We need to get together in the simplest possible conversation and then go from there.
We need an online component for those of who cannot meet F2F. An online clubhouse for those who want to ask questions and share after the pub has closed. For those for whom time is money or time is family or time is a recharge of batteries. I understand how time crushed adjuncts are. That is a bit of a horror story that has been related all too well elsewhere by folks more active than I am in the adjunct activist community.
Here is my problem: I have created a professional development Google+ community for this blended purpose, but I cannot get any uptake among my fellow instructors. None. I know how useful these communities are. I know how handy they can be for solving problems. I know how they help folks to connect. I didn’t get together with my fellow instructors and say, “Hey, let’s make an online space for ourselves and the adjuncts.” I just did it.
Is that the problem? I just imposed this ‘community’ upon them? This is such a thorny issue and I tend to get pissed off about the little I am asking of my colleagues. I have actually tried this with the English faculty as a whole and gotten no response. I suspect this kind of bootstrap needs a pump priming of sorts to get people to give it a try.
I am asking for help here. Put yourself in noobie shoes and ask yourself, “What would make me want to be a part of this community? How could this community be useful to me?
Thanks. Comments below, comments on the side, comments anywhere would be a huge help. The comment you make might end up being my solution or boomerang back to you as your solution. You never know.
