tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post4670510068805548237..comments2024-01-28T03:35:51.182-05:00Comments on Reassigned Time: Summer TeachingDr. Crazyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-39910811794192587242009-04-06T08:45:00.000-04:002009-04-06T08:45:00.000-04:00Actually, rwellor, I'm arguing that we should set ...Actually, rwellor, I'm arguing that we should set the standard for how many students should be in a course based on our judgments about what is the best for student learning. I don't think that we should be paid based on bodies in seats at all, because I don't think that education is about number of customers served. <BR/><BR/># of students just shouldn't be linked to pay for a course - period. Educators (administrators in conjunction with faculty) should decide what number of students makes sense for a particular course, and then either that course should run or it shouldn't. (Note: I'm not saying a course with 3 students enrolled should run. I'm saying that the university should take responsibility for canceling courses that are under-enrolled.)Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-87773149722833769002009-04-06T06:55:00.000-04:002009-04-06T06:55:00.000-04:00hmm..Heh, I teach a class with 52 students, so I s...hmm..<BR/><BR/>Heh, I teach a class with 52 students, so I shouldn't ask this, but isn't pro-rating what you should expect if you insist on course caps? <BR/><BR/>Once you begin this kind of bean counting, should you really be confused when someone else starts the same game?<BR/><BR/>OTOH we could argue that the students in the smaller class are getting even better instruction and thus should pay more tuition?<BR/><BR/>I dunno, I'm not sure that if you argue teaching more students requires more pay, that you can then argue that teaching fewer doesn't require less pay.Charles Montgomeryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17489538189139910055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-69736960141186345902009-04-05T20:54:00.000-04:002009-04-05T20:54:00.000-04:00How teaching is the only profession in which the p...How teaching is the only profession in which the professionals are also expected to be total martyrs? Even Kohl's doesn't cut your pay if enough customers don't approach your register in the hours you are assigned to work. Gah!Snarky Profhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01836934171207588376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-31275284019594085732009-04-03T22:40:00.000-04:002009-04-03T22:40:00.000-04:00Hmmm, I have been enjoying your blog... and keep w...Hmmm, I have been enjoying your blog... and keep wondering if you are at my institution, though I am STEM so not in your field.<BR/><BR/>Crazy Universities. The business model simply should not be used for education. If the goals are to keep the "customers" happy and make money, the education part gets lost.Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05533985032143314901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-85363518382375387822009-04-03T22:38:00.000-04:002009-04-03T22:38:00.000-04:00Well, here at MY deluxe and faculty-friendly insti...Well, here at MY deluxe and faculty-friendly institution, we make $300 per student for summer courses (or so I last heard)--up to the full-pay cut-off, which is a whopping $2100. And until a few years ago, you <I>didn't get paid for scholarship students</I> on the grounds that the college wasn't getting any money from them. So you could teach a fully enrolled course with 6 scholarship students and make $300. For a full-semester course condensed into a four-week period.<BR/><BR/>Luckily, that second clause has been overturned. But there is so much outrageosity to the system--because here, too, a number of students do need summer courses to graduate. At least we mostly just offer gen eds in the summer, though, so it looks like they do tend to fill up and people can swap them around at the last minute if they need to.heu mihihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08529298049179816825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-55608666939237929892009-04-03T15:58:00.000-04:002009-04-03T15:58:00.000-04:00My institution has a policy like dr. four eyes', w...My institution has a policy like dr. four eyes', with the additional whammy that if you didn't make the cutoff, your pay was calculated on a per-student basis. So (and I don't see any reason to hide the numbers here) if you had 9 students you'd get paid around $4900 for a 6-week class, but less than 9, you'd get paid $500 per student. So teaching 8 students would actually lose you a whopping $900, or almost 20% of your total pay!!<BR/><BR/>This was almost my scenario this past summer, until my awesome departmental assistant discovered a clause that if a student *had* to take the course to finish up their credits for graduation, the instructor would get full pay no matter what. Of course, the program wouldn't have volunteered that info on their own, but after the assistant pursued it, I got full pay. <BR/><BR/>Yup. Universities love to screw the adjuncts.kermitthefroghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15742856153167362749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-65835033688170666492009-04-03T15:29:00.000-04:002009-04-03T15:29:00.000-04:00Janice -I COULD embark on an advertising campaign,...Janice -<BR/>I COULD embark on an advertising campaign, but I'm not going to do so. My back-up is that I had them put another gen ed course in the same time slot, and basically I think that if the grad course doesn't go, that one will. If by some quirk of fate both make their enrollments, I'll teach the grad course and an adjunct will get the other gen ed. In a worst case scenario, neither the grad course or the back-up will make, it will take me a few months longer to erase the credit card debt, and I'll just teach one course this summer, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Particularly with the grad class situation, I really think that faculty need to step up and just let the courses be canceled and then students can bitch to the administration, which will result in a policy change, if past situations are any guide in this. Our administration is very about responding positively to student outcry - not so much about listening to faculty outcry. But getting this in motion will require faculty to bite the bullet and to refuse to teach pro-rated classes. We'll see if that happens.Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-2737886292736846912009-04-03T15:21:00.000-04:002009-04-03T15:21:00.000-04:00For our summer courses that aren't part of a regul...For our summer courses that aren't part of a regular load redistributed, there's a set $ amount which is prorated if the enrollment falls into the nebulous middle ground between "it's scrubbed" and "it can go on." I believe the administration's been reducing that gap just because it's hard to track and deal with -- now they want the course to make a hard number to go or to be scrubbed.<BR/><BR/>In order to not have courses called off, many of the faculty resort to postering the campus with advertisements. I don't suppose you can do something along these lines for the grad course?Janicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14093558563358431804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-43382273200327621002009-04-03T15:13:00.000-04:002009-04-03T15:13:00.000-04:00I wish our summer teaching pay were a percentage o...I wish our summer teaching pay were a percentage of our salary! I'd make much more for summer teaching that I do if it were 9 % of my salary.<BR/><BR/>Our university (I believe) has a similar pro-rating policy. All our summer classes are on the continuing ed side (and our evening undergrad classes during the year? I think). They are more flexible about canceling classes, but if it is below the minimum, they may pro-rate it. Luckily, this hasn't happened to me, and the minimum has been low (I think my first summer class had 7 (undergrad) students; that just made it, but it did, and I was paid the full amount).<BR/><BR/>From your perspective, I think the worst part is that they changed the policy after getting people to agree to teach, so you were making your initial decisions based on faulty info. From your perspective, the solution (in the future) is to only offer to teach classes you are confident will meet the minimum, but if the university/department is explicitly looking for people to teach certain required specialty classes that are likely to have lower enrollments, yeah, someone needs to come up with a better solution.<BR/><BR/>My university also has a fair number of students who register very late. So, low enrollments may well jump up right as the semester starts. Since they've become much more stringent about canceling low enrollment sections, I know of some people who recruit students to enroll, to protect the class from cancelation, and then withdraw before they're penalized. That wouldn't work under dr. four eyes' alma mater's system, but if there isn't a timeline limit, it may help you this summer.life_of_a_foolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05427532203981697246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-22591938304277690252009-04-03T15:08:00.001-04:002009-04-03T15:08:00.001-04:00SEK - Thanks for your comment, because it gives me...SEK - Thanks for your comment, because it gives me the opportunity to clarify what came across a bit muddled. Short answer: I agree with you.<BR/><BR/>Longer answer: One thing that would prohibit us in my dept. from using an adjunct for such a course is departmental policy, influenced by the preferences of our accrediting agency, that courses that count toward major degree requirements should be taught by full-time faculty. The other issue as I see it is that while in a market like Boston or NYC or San Francisco it might be possible to find contingent labor to teach specialized advanced courses, the reality on the ground at my institution would be that we wouldn't have the restoration drama specialist on call if the full-timer decided to bail on the course. So it's not that a person would by virtue of their employment status not be qualified, but department policy and logistics would get in the way of staffing such a course at the last minute, even if the department wanted to do so. <BR/><BR/>For lower-level courses (like a comp class or an intro to lit or survey) there's a much bigger pool of potentially qualified instructors, the courses are typically ones that instructors already have a syllabus ready to go if they get a late assignment, and there aren't policies in place to prohibit another person being brought in to staff the course. <BR/><BR/>I hope that clarifies where I'm coming from on this.Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-15870311135272935722009-04-03T15:08:00.000-04:002009-04-03T15:08:00.000-04:00The prorating thing sucks. Jut blah.The prorating thing sucks. Jut blah.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-58770516023969191882009-04-03T14:36:00.000-04:002009-04-03T14:36:00.000-04:00Second, the whole point of these courses is that t...<EM>Second, the whole point of these courses is that they are taught by "experts" in the field with specialized training and a specialized point of view. If a colleague of mine was slated to teach a grad level course in restoration drama, really only that colleague would be qualified to teach it. Not only couldn't an adjunct reasonably step in at the last minute, but I or another f-t person couldn't either. We wouldn't be qualified to do so.</EM><BR/><BR/>On a basic level, I see your point, <EM>i.e.</EM> if I designed a course that reflects my very specific interests, it's unlikely that anyone else would be as qualified as I am to teach it. (The whole "you're an expert in your dissertation/book scenario.") But I'm not sure I buy into the idea that being an adjunct generally makes someone unqualified to teach an undergrad course in Restoration drama. I might not be able to, but an adjunct who specialized in Restoration drama certainly would be. I suppose a different way of saying that is this: shouldn't the degree matter when it comes to qualification instead of the employment status? (If the market reflected the distribution of expertise, I could see that being the case.)SEKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13762500797381296097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-13651073461686733922009-04-03T12:57:00.000-04:002009-04-03T12:57:00.000-04:00If I'm remembering correctly, I think my alma mate...If I'm remembering correctly, I think my alma mater took this logic one step further for it's continuing education program (targeting "adult"/returning students). Summer classes not only prorated faculty pay by student enrollment, but tied those enrollments to a time line. If X students = full pay, you couldn't just start the class with X students; you had to keep X students enrolled until a certain date (say, week 3 of a 6 week program). If students dropped in week 2 (and were thus entitled to a certain % of refund), then faculty pay was cut as well. <BR/><BR/>I don't remember all the details--this policy was developed after I left and was recounted to me by a former professor--but you get the gist. My former prof also told me about how another prof had learned to work the system: offer "sexy" classes in the summer and keep the load relatively easy to keep students enrolled. That prof was making lots of money that way (money that served largely to support his kids' college funds). <BR/><BR/>The faculty pay policy was developed by a business management faculty member who was in charge of the CE program. He did a lot to grow that program and bring a lot of money into the college...but I also heard criticisms that he was so focused on $$$ that students weren't necessarily being well-served.dr four eyeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11178140600448106706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-34693444571587604912009-04-03T12:37:00.000-04:002009-04-03T12:37:00.000-04:00Maybe I'm out of touch and naive, but I haven't he...Maybe I'm out of touch and naive, but I haven't heard of this way of paying faculty--adjunct and non-adjunct--for teaching. It puts the whole burden on the faculty member, and very little on the institution. It's disgusting. The institution should put a firm limit on the number of students required for the course to make (maybe raise it, in some cases), and pay the faculty member a standard salary not dependent on enrollment.Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06274763224273586922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-22956047619219755792009-04-03T11:57:00.000-04:002009-04-03T11:57:00.000-04:00Ultimately, I think it's a bad policy all the way ...Ultimately, I think it's a bad policy all the way around to do this prorating business, whomever the instructor is. It's all very "students as customers" in its approach to education, and I think that it sets a really bad precedent in terms of how we evaluate the value of a class or classes.<BR/><BR/>That said, I'm less put out by the policy for lower-level required courses, in part because multiple sections of those courses do run throughout the summer terms, and the likelihood of a student being totally screwed is much lower, if the faculty member chooses not to teach a scheduled course. (We can debate about the fact that the policy is a disincentive for permanent faculty to teach in the summer, and the role that this might play in retention/recruitment of students, keeping gen. ed. uniform in terms of what students get out of those courses, etc., but in terms of a student's time to graduation, this policy wouldn't seem to be ridiculously bad in that context.) My problem with the upper-level undergrad and grad courses falling under the same policy is that typically these courses are unique - one section is offered, serving a limited student population, but a student population that *needs* that one particular course. If the instructor cancels, that student could potentially need to pay tuition for a full semester longer than he/she would have had to do if they could have gotten that course in over the summer, or would have to pay to take a credit hour overload in a future semester, which could also hurt the student's ability to excel in courses in that overloaded semester. So the bottom line of the university may win (or come out even) with this policy, but otherwise, well, the whole thing strikes me as diabolical.<BR/><BR/>I am disgusted that people would prorate adjunct's crappy pay. Disgusted. At least that hasn't been instituted here yet.Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-48217992990021890632009-04-03T11:35:00.000-04:002009-04-03T11:35:00.000-04:00this is exactly how they pay adjuncts at my instit...this is exactly how they pay adjuncts at my institution. If you have less than ten students, you generally have a choice about whether to go ahead. If you do, your pay is prorated according to the number of students. so if I had nine, I would get 9/10 of my full (crap-ass) pay. <BR/><BR/>I teach gen ed courses in the regular undergrad program, so this is never a problem. the evening program is another story. There are some classes that never make enrollment but always go forward because the instructor just loves teaching them. Said instructor usually has a full-time job doing something else and does this adjuncting thing because it's nifty. <BR/><BR/>Yeah. Well. When my course the first half of this semester didn't make, no way was I teaching it as a pro-rated course. I am doing this for money, not love. <BR/><BR/>This is a problem, though, because my course competes with another taught by a well-liked instructor. I am an unknown, the program is small, and students won't sign up for someone they've never heard of if they can help it. That means my chances of ever making enrollment are not great.<BR/><BR/>For the second half of the semester, I agreed with the dean that if I had at least 5 in my evening course, I would do it. His view was that my best hope of making a go of it as a teacher in the evening program was to take the financial hit this time, get good evals, and then watch my courses fill up after my students tell their friends and classmates that I am a good teacher.<BR/><BR/>That's the only reason I agreed to it. Like I said, I am not doing this for fun. I enjoy it, sure. But this is about money. <BR/><BR/>In the end, I have 11 students in my class, which is perfect. My class is capped at 25, with a 10 minimum, so 11 is ideal--full pay, not full class.<BR/><BR/>It does suck that you're in the position of making the call, though, instead of the university, especially if students are looking to these courses to help them graduate. That's a really awkward position.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com