developing part time instructors

I am now three weeks into my tenure as “Part Time Lead,” a very strange title that probably means nothing to anyone outside of Red Rocks Community College. The title refers to the fact that I am the official coordinator (“Lead”) of the part-time instructors in my department. The title makes it sound like I am part-time, but I am very full time (although, to complicate matters a bit, the Part Team Lead gets a 5 unit release each semester, meaning it accounts for about one third of my work load, so I suppose that technically, I do serve in the capacity of Part Time Lead part time).

I handle hiring, evaluating, scheduling, and mentoring our part-time instructors. This semester we have 27 part-time instructors, including 8 new hires. Several of the new hires need extensive mentoring. Being Part Time Lead means doing a random mix of things that can’t really be predicted (which is pretty much exactly what I was told by Amy, our department chair, about the position). For example, here are some of the things I’ve done in the past few weeks:

• Given tours of where all the copy machines are located on campus
• Helped a part time instructor brainstorm how to show a YouTube video in class (our computer security program has blocked some YouTube videos from classroom computers)
• Conducted a last minute interview and hired someone to teach a class based on pretty much nothing but a good gut feeling—so far I do not regret the decision
• Had a last minute panic over whether a part time instructor who had not been heard from since May was actually going to show up to teach assigned classes (the instructor did)
• Produced the department’s first monthly newsletter (and had two major snafus in producing it, one of which I didn’t resolve and so far, it doesn’t seem to matter anyway)
• Fielded several phone calls from part time instructors about random issues such as where is my classroom? When is my class? Is there a bathroom near my classroom?
• Scheduled observations of some of the new hires (the Part Time Lead is supposed to visit all new hires’ classes during the first five weeks of the semester to do a non-evaluative observation)
• Called Amy about 50 times to ask, “How do we do this?”

I’ve also done a lot of record keeping type stuff, such as updating contact information, collecting syllabi, and distributing a spring course request form. Unbelievably, I need to start assigning spring classes in the next week or so.

I’ve enjoyed working closely with the part time instructors. I was part time for five years before being hired for a full time position and I remember well how alienated I often felt from the departments I supposedly worked in. I don’t want our part timers to feel that way. They teach more classes than the full time faculty do and so in a very real way, their professional development and satisfaction are crucial to the department’s ability to teach successful classes. The one thing I can’t change is the pathetically low pay rate for part time instructors (about $1700/class). For a part time instructor to keep teaching for us when some other colleges in the area pay significantly more than we do, he or she needs to feel some sort of connection to Red Rocks or a sense of being appreciated. I think the most important thing I can do in this position is to help our part time instructors feel connected.

tags: academia  community_college  composition  

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