At the beginning of the year, committee members studied the adjunct survey completed in 2003 to become familiar with adjunct concerns. It was agreed that how much adjuncts were paid was a very important brought up in the survey, but the committee should first follow up on a Faculty Fellow for adjuncts.

In 2004, a recommendation from the committee was passed for a Faculty Fellow for adjuncts. Dr. Marc Workman attended a committee meeting and questioned the effectiveness of a Faculty Fellow and suggested looking at other ways to resolve adjunct issues before deciding to assign a Faculty Fellow.

Adjuncts had raised the issue of feedback on teaching. At Dr. Workman’s suggestion, two members of the committee attended a meeting with college deans to request that colleges provide this feedback. At this same meeting, the committee members also requested that colleges and departments with adjunct handbooks send information to Jace Hargis with the Office of Faculty Enhancement to post the handbooks on the adjunct resources Web page.

Dr. Workman promised to investigate an award program for adjuncts and later proposed a program consistent with the award program for full-time faculty. This development occurred too late in the semester for the committee to make much progress, but this should be the focus of the next committee.

The committee was also involved with other activities such as scheduling library orientations for adjuncts, updating the OFE adjunct resources Web page, and gathering information. For example, the committee learned that there is no orientation on campus that includes adjuncts and OFE offers a classroom observation service available to all faculty including adjuncts.

I expect the committee to continue with the important work of developing an award program for adjuncts. I hope the committee will reevaluate if a Faculty Fellow should be assigned to adjuncts, continue developing a plan to keep faculty, deans, and administration informed of adjunct issues, discuss an orientation for adjuncts, and continue discussions about raising adjunct pay.

 

Lee M. Richardson