Issue 26(1)
Adjunct
Faculty in Community Colleges: An academic administrator's guide
to recruiting, supporting and retaining great teachers.
(2005). Desna L. Wallin,
Ed. Bolton: Anker Publishing Co. Inc, 246 pp. Price $39.95. ISBN
1-8829-8281-9.
Review
by: Jeanette
Gregory
Coordinator
of Student Services
Cloud County
Community College, Geary Campus
True or
False: Roughly 2/3 of instructors at community colleges are adjuncts.
True; this probably surprises few in higher education. What is
surprising is that adjuncts continue to be looked upon - and treated
like - temporary hires: a necessary evil in the system. Adjuncts
typically receive no benefits, little or no training, no guarantees
of continued employment, and are paid far less for their efforts
and expertise than full-time faculty, who often view them at best
as usurpers, at worst as scabs.
Small
wonder, then, that a former adjunct instructor who rose through
the ranks to become a community college president chose to compile
an anthology dealing with these issues and exploring ways to narrow
the gap between adjuncts and full-timers. The thirteen essays
in this book are divided into three sections: Section One, "Understanding
Part-Time Faculty" explores the benefits and deficits of employing
adjuncts, comparing adjunct instructors to full-timers in terms
of expectations and realities. Section Two, "Recruiting and Retaining
Part-Time Faculty" delves into the details of hiring, training,
development and retention of adjuncts- the four basic subjects
that the book as a whole revolves around. Section Three, "Supporting
Part-Time Faculty Through Technology" examines the creation of
online support sites, electronic training modules, etc., for adjunct
use. The message of the book is this: Adjunct instructors are
necessary, will continue to grow in numbers and should be nurtured
and valued as vital employees of the community college system.
The
strength of this book lies in its even-handed approach to the
question of how best to serve - and be served by - our adjuncts.
The essays themselves are easy to move through; most are brief
and professionally neutral in their tone. Essay 6, The Challenge
and Effective Use of Part-Time Faculty by Alice W. Villadsen
and Thomas I. Anderson, was particularly well-executed, providing
the basics of the argument that adjuncts need and deserve training
and professional development, that colleges must foster a sense
of belonging in their adjuncts in order to improve their retention
in a field where competition for adjuncts is growing as budgets
tighten.
The
weakness of the book - and it's a pervading weakness - lies in
its sheer repetitiveness. The same facts and figures - even the
same reference (J.M. Gappa and D.W. Leslie's 1993 book, The
invisible faculty: Improving the status of part-timers in higher
education , referenced in seven of the thirteen essays) popped
up over and over. The introduction and preface summarized the
information held within the essays so well that most of the essays
are almost redundant. The saving grace is the sprinkling throughout
the book of some of the more ingenious ways colleges have found
to support and nurture their far-flung adjunct pool.
Regarding
direct value to academic advisors, this book has little or none,
as advisement itself is mentioned only once, and that only a note
that adjuncts, despite their huge numbers, typically do not advise.
An essay discussing the pros and cons of training adjuncts to
advise was sadly lacking, as was a discussion on the growing trend
of adjunct unionization. Busy advisors should recommend this book
to anyone actively involved in the hiring, training and retention
of adjuncts.
