Topics of Q40 Long Answers

Topics of Q40 Long Answers

These are the long answers of item 40 on the nationwide Adjunct Writing faculty survey conducted by Gloria Mcmillan as part of a longitudinal study of labor conditions for adjunct writing faculty at the college level. To be presented at the (CCCC ) Conference on College Composition & Communications at San Antonio in March 2004. There were 307 replies to this survey nationwide. Not all completed the long answer, however.

Replies below are introduced by the symbol '#'. USE VBPro or other content analysis software to search these '#' delimited cases as separate records.

Use "by section" search to move easily between the five topics: working conditions, attitudes towards adjuncts, computers pro & con, computer support, and evaluating survey items.

Conducted by Gloria McMillan, Ph.D. (glomc@dakotacom.net)

Pima Community College

URL of the 2003 survey: http:dakotacom.net~glomcformsAdj03.html

SURVEY ITEMS:

1) Your geographical location:

NE United States

MW United States

NW United States

SW United States

SE United States

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2) Your academic rank:

If more than one category applies, please pick the one that

best describes your rank.

Administrator

Full-time faculty (Tenure track)

Full-time faculty or Lecturer (Contingent, Non-tenure track)

Adjunct faculty (Part-time)

Grad Teaching Assistant

Visiting Assistant Professor

Academic Professional (TA Supervisor, etc.)

Other

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3) Your age:

-35

35-45

45-55

55-

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4) My department is in a:

large research university

college granting the Master's degree

four year college

small liberal arts college

community college

--------------

5) My program may be characterized as primarily dealing with:

Literature

Rhetoric and/or Composition

English as a Second Language (ESL/SLAT)

Other

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6) I have worked as an adjunct ---:

over 10 years

10 years or less

prior to working full-time

at no period

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7) Our department recognizes full-time faculty's achievements in

computer-mediated instruction:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

8) When our department gives out travel funds, adjuncts are never

included:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

9) When our department gives technological training, adjuncts are

always included:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

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10) Our department considers adjuncts outside workers:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

11) In our department, full-time faculty frequently develop computer

skills and are rewarded for them:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

12) I regard adjunct faculty as outside labor:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

13) Full-time faculty who innovate methods or curricula are ignored:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

14) In our department, the needs of adjuncts are routinely discussed:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

15) Adjuncts who innovate methods or curricula are ignored:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

16) If our department installs a new distance learning system,

adjuncts will be graders for full-time faculty:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

17) Adjuncts are often as skilled as full-time faculty:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

18) If adjuncts feel the need to organize collectively to better their

conditions (health benefits, possibility to become full-time, etc.), I think

they definitely should:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

19) I rate increasing adjunct salaries lower than other

departmental needs:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

20) People primarily become adjuncts because they have no ability:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

21) I think talking about conditions for adjunct faculty is useful in

aiding their advancement:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

22) Full time faculty members should be encouraged to share

their computer skills with others:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

23) I estimate that more than 60% of new faculty hires on our

department are for adjunct faculty:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

24) Adjunct faculty members should be encouraged to share

their computer skills with others:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

25) Adjuncts use computers ineffectively in our department:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

26) Adjuncts should be encouraged to share their teaching

skills with others:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

27) Adjuncts teach effectively overall in the computer classroom:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

28) Full-time faculty teach effectively overall in the computer

classroom:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

29) Adjuncts teach writing less effectively than full-time faulty:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

30) Our department recognizes adjuncts' achievements in overall

teaching:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

31) Our department recognizes adjuncts' achievements in

computer-mediated instruction:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

32) In the last year, our department has noted or recognized no

idea(s) coming from adjunct faculty:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

33) In terms of conditions for adjuncts, I think our department

needs improvement:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

34) In terms of adjunct faculty, my department needs improvement:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

35) I find technology to be relatively important to my overall

teaching effectivesness. USE ITEM 40. If your answer is "no,"

then please tell what other aspect of teaching you find crucial.

If "yes," then please specify how technology helps you.

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

36) In our department, adjuncts frequently develop computer

skills and are rewarded for them:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

37) Full-time faculty who innovate methods or curricula

are often rewarded:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

38) I feel that adjunct faculty add significantly to our

department's intellectual community:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

39) On the whole, I think our department's chair understands

adjunct conditions and attempts to improve them:

strongly disagree

disagree

agree

strongly agree

--------------

40) Explain answers below giving the item number and what you felt was not

made clear by a multiple choice:

1 Adjunct Working Conditions:

--Pos

# In general, adjuncts here are fairing well. We have many full time lectureships with a yearly salary of over 30k and the same benefits as TT faculty. this salary is higher than any of our local competition, so raising the base is increasingly difficulty, though individuals do earn merit increases each year. travel for professional conferences is supported for lecturers at the same rate as for TT faculty. But, adjuncts are not represented on faculty senate, do not regularly attend departmental faculty meetings (they are "invited" once per term), and are not consulted by the department except within the composition program where they more or less run the program (largely because there are no TT faculty teaching composition).

# (Not sure where which (pos, mixed, neg) when they "wish something were." GM)

'I believe that adjuncts deserve training, benefits, and to be fairly compensated for the work they do. Equal pay for equal work.

# '31 and 32. Several adjuncts have greater educational and teaching experience than many of the full-time faculty and for various reasons, e.g. for having taught at four year colleges and universities. The department is reluctant to utilize this experience and other skills in the development of programs. Of course, every instructor can volunteer to serve on a departmental committee, but that requires additional time commitment without recognition.

In our particular institution, adjuncts are valued very highly in the Integration of Knowledge program and in some situations by the college administration.

# At my university, a small research university that offers doctorates in some departments, including English, we don't have situations such as your questionnaire describes. We hire adjuncts at the last minute when enrollments go up--always with the understanding that they are hired to teach only. They do not have advisees or committees or expectations of publishing. However, the social climate in the department is positive and inclusive. There may be anywhere from 0-4 adjuncts each semester.

--Mixed

# Adjuncts may receive informal recognition (usually verbal praise) for their innovations, computer-related or otherwise, but what they do NOT receive is any kind of merit, promotion, salary increase, or official award (such as the Distinguished Professor of the Year awards). These are the exclusive prerogative of tenure-track faculty.

# 'I use Blackboard in my face-to-face classrooms. All faculty were invited to be trained; I don't know how many full-time vs adjunct were trained. We received no stipend. Few actually use it - esp. since it's difficult to get a computer classroom to use on a regular basis to get students used to it. Now, though, students have had it in other classes and it's getting easier to require it.

I am being paid a $2,000 stipend to develop an online course; I'm an adjunct and had to fight like crazy to get to be trained for teaching online. But I'm teaching a course nobody likes to teach (business writing), so the dept reluctantly said okay to my repeated request. They had no real reason to justify blocking me. (A person who develops a course has it locked in for 4 semesters) And online teaching is time-consuming to develop and run, apparently. Whether I'll be okayed to teach composition or short story remains to be seen.

You didn't ask about adjuncts getting opportunities to do things that full-time faculty do. And whether we're encouraged to serve on committees (we ARE) without extra pay or release time. Actually, I've been invited to serve on school-wide committees with no stipend or release time, and I saw how much work it would be and said no after I went to the first meeting for a particularly interesting committee. I would've loved to serve on the committee, but I teach 5 classes and it would've been a killer. If I could teach few classes and do it - fine.

You don't ask how many courses adjuncts teach per term. I'm one of several who teaches 5 a term - and full-timers' load is 4 per term. Many get a course release time, though, for serving on committees.

# 'An instructor's use of computer technology is an interesting sideline but definitely not the main show. The real issues here are our credentials and teaching effectiveness. Our credentials being sufficient and our effectiveness established, adjuncts have earned the right to job security and benefits. Anything less is continued exploitation.

# 'There are several items that ask about recognition of teaching methods or innovative thinking in teaching -- it seems as though in my department that there is not enough time given to point out the good anyone -- either full-time faculty or adjuncts -- does in the classroom. However, I must say that this department DOES discuss the difficulties that adjuncts can have and always includes them in workshop days and global informational e-mailings (where appropriate). I don't feel that adjuncts are treated poorly in our department -- although, of course, they are paid less and choose their class schedules after everyone else, but I guess that comes with the territory.

# As adjuncts, we may not be as informed about the department's attitudes and or tendencies/biases. Because I have recently been a temporary full-time faculty and have now seen the department from both sides, I feel I can provide more insight into the departmental politics and faculty qualifications. But few adjuncts in our school attend faculty meetings, and they're NOT included on the department chair's email distribution list as far as I can tell, so they're very much "out of the loop" when it comes to the department.

# 'Item 35: computers help me create a dynamic, learner-centered environment that promotes a collaborative classroom setting, but I mainly use my home computer to do so; I don't usually get assigned to a classroom with computer/Internet technology. I maintain a website on college equipment, but I do not get paid for any of the time I spend on non-classroom activities.

# 'Technology is not particularly important to me, in terms of teaching writing. It's the intellectual development that counts, in writing, not control over the relatively mechanical aspects. Now, where it's essential to know something about technology these days, unfortunately, is in preventing plagiarism. My students have lately developed an entirely new idea of what constitutes "writing,"--they think of it as any reproduction of text, even when that's just cut and paste from websites. So the emphasis on technology, particularly digital sources, in their K-12 education has had mixed blessings!'

# 'Being "rewarded" for any sort of innovation is unclear: adjuncts are indirectly awarded with continuing adjunct status and raises. Full timers are indirectly awarded with promotion and tenure. But there is not financial incentive for innovation. When we had distance ed, however, there was a financial incentive to participate.

# '17 There is no difference between skills of adjuncts and full-timers. However, statistically, full-timers probably have more years of experience.

18 Our adjuncts are included in the Union. I think adjuncts should be included; it is detrimental to unity and counterproductive time-wise for there to be separate unions for adjuncts and full-timers.

# 'In virtually all the questions about adjunct faculty, I had difficulty choosing because our department has so few adjuncts; in fact, we are mostly full-time non-tenure track. All adjunct faculty are part of our overall departmental program, which emphasizes teacher training and encourages the use of computer technology. Were we to have sufficient adjunct faculty to, for example, recognize their innovations in technology, we would do so. Sometimes I answered questions "disagree" (as in question 38) because, in fact, I couldn't say that we have enough adjuncts to say that they strongly influence, are significantly adding to our community, or what have you. However, in terms of basic attitudes toward adjuncts, I can say across the board that I don't think adjuncts, considered as a class, are any more or less competent than full-time composition teachers, whether tenure or non-tenure track. Your survey will glean good data, I think, for schools where adjuncts do the bulk of the comp. teaching; but in our case, it doesn't quite fit the situation.

--Neg

# 23 Statistically this could be confusing or misleading. You have, say, 3 positions: 2 full-time, 1 part-time. Over 10 years, that one part-time position may be filled several times and the full-time not at all. What have you proved by saying that 100% of the new-hires were part-time?

35 Unclear question. What do you mean by technology? OHPs? If you mean computers, do you mean in the classroom? As reference sources? ..."If no, what other aspect of teaching do you find crucial?" You mean, like student-to-student interaction? Or do you mean "tools"?

36 Unclear Two part question. Yes, adjuncts frequently develop computer skills. No, I have never noticed anyone get rewarded for developing computer skills. (as you have already covered in other questions.)

41. You forgot a question: Fill in the blank with a number. Adjunct salaries should be _____ per cent of full-time salaries. Justify your answer.'

'Technology in the classroom is great. We all know that. I've been applying multimedia approaches in my classes since grad school. I've also been designing and teaching my department's online curricula for the past five years. What effect has this had on my pay rate or other conditions related to adjunct faculty? None. Why should it? That's not the core question, here.

(note: Technology in the classroom has more to do with privatization of our education system, creating a "for profit" rather than "for public good" business opportunity...along the same insidiously perverted business-driven push to develop a globally "embracing" multi-cultural curricula to pave the way for further American global dominance. Business isn't inclined to embrace sentiments of tiny Christians taught the Sunday School tune, "Jesus loves the little children--All the children of the world--Red and yellow, black and white--They are precious in His sight...." like our good-hearted, well-meaning gullible and desparate "freeway flying," ever-increasing, adjunct faculty. But, I digress...Uh oh, I hope this doesn't sound unpatriotic.)

With all due respect, you're poll is offensive.

I don't agree with the implied assumption that adjunct faculty, in lieu of full-time, tenured faculty replacements is acceptable in the first place. (I mean, we all know that this hiring situation has reached the levels of total exploitation, right? I mean, it's not like all adjunct only want a part-time job because they're mostly female and have children to tend to and a husband to bring in the serious money, right? We know this hiring practice is way beyond that now, right?)

THAT to me is the issue, not whether adjunct faculty can effectively incorporate technology in the classroom.

That our higher educational system has been thoroughly corrupted by the injustices of a two-tiered faculty class system is THE question you need to address. That your concern is whether academia is embracing word-processing, hard-drives, PowerPoint, distance learning courseware, etc. is beyond what truly matters, and as such, is very offensive.

(Btw, you needn't punctuation the "submit answer" button below; it's not a sentence.)

# a rural area such as ours, adjuncts are harder to find, yet at the same time, they have no other choices for positions. The difference between being an adjunct in an urban area and one in a rural area is immense: as an adjunct in NYC in the 1980s I made more because of the number of positions I could pull together than adjuncts here do today.

I was an adjunct for 8 years---knowing I would get a full time position after my PhD OR look for another career. I think many adjuncts who continue in that position for 10 or more years are choosing to do so, preferring the lifestylejob over financial security. Of course there are the exceptions...

Adjuncts should be paid more, however. I will always argue that. If they were paid as much as tenure track professors, they would soon become extinct...

# Others: My department chair and the entire state's higher education system have their hands tied by reduced funding.

# I realize that your survey has a special interest in the role of computers. That's not foremost in my concern over the devaluation of adjuncts in English departments.

39. My response to this question is based on frustration over my own position as a 20-year part-time instructor. I'm not sure I should even classify myself as an adjunct because I have relative job security, but I identify with adjuncts because I've been told I have virtually no chance of ever being hired as a tenure-track faculty member although my teaching evaluations and research program compare favorably with those of several tenured members of our department. I'm concerned about the general lack of local research support for publishing adjuncts/instructors, and I can see your survey is more concerned with teaching conditions. Even there, I think our department could improve. Fulltime instructors teach four courses, often with heavy essay- grading, while tenure-track faculty members are "full-time" with two courses (often with lower numbers of students and with considerably less grading).

Good luck, and thank you.

# 'Adjuncts are basically treated as cheap, expendable labor-- about 80% of the courses here are taught by adjuncts. Most administrators believe that adjuncts are financially stable due to having full-time jobs elsewhere and that they already have benefits at these other jobs. They don't realize or want to acknowledge that many adjuncts have a love of teaching and most don't work full-time elsewhere and already have benefits. Many of the adjunct faculty I know try to piece together enough part-time adjunct positions at several colleges to try and make a full-time job. They do not have any benefits or job security at all and are run ragged trying to commute between schools all the time. They are also under greater scrutiny than full-time tenured faculty and administrators have no problem terminating an adjunct employee (often without just cause) because they feel that adjuncts are expendable and can easily be replaced. It's a wicked situation and especially cruel to those of us who really give a damn about higher education and actual learning in the classroom. There are some good full-time faculty who also care but the majority of them don't-- on a regular basis I see full-time faculty be consistently late for their classes, skip office hours, take the easy way out with giving and grading assignments and basically just go through the motions. Most adjunct instructors I really see busting their butts to do a good job and make the classroom experience meaningful. We need to pay adjuncts a much higher salary for all their hard work and efforts AND make tenured faculty a little less protected so that they will be more motivated to do better and really care about their teaching and their students. Also a benefits package needs to be developed and available for adjuncts-- maybe a group health plan and retirement fund options. Instead of just talk, some real action needs to occur! Most adjuncts feel that they cannot express their views or collectively form a group to negotiate these issues because they fear for their jobs and future employment opportunities.

# 'Until salaries are more equitable, there is not much point in discussing other issues.

# 'Just a comment. I'm an adjunct because there are no full time positions open for me right now at this university. I'm a Ph.D candidate completing my dissertation out of state. I am as fully qualified as full time faculty and I work just as hard while being paid poorly. My income this year qualified me for welfare. I'm a single divorced mom. I have no option but to hang on and hope a position opens for me or else take my over qualified self and teach in the public schools.

# 'Any item that talked about "rewards" was not clear. What does that mean? Unless a teacher says something about what they are doing, how would anyone know? Not everyone feels like talking about themselves in that way. I think we would get encouragement for anything positive that we do, but (and I know this sounds bad) the only "reward" I would really be interested in is a raise! I also think there need to be questions about the whole school's attitude toward adjuncts. Our department does very well in this area, but I feel the administration for the entire campus could use some work.

# 19. Increasing adjunct salaries is a very important priority, of course.

Our department has many other needs, however, including increasing fulltime salaries to the point that we need not fear losing new hires within the

first three to five years they're with us. Departmental support staff, physical plant space, and travel funds are also areas of extraordinary shortfall.

There are no "fat" categories. Still, I don't think adjunct salaries is the number one problem in our department.

# 'While adjuncts and lecturers are at the bottom of the hierarchy at my school, the humanities in general are not held in very high esteem, so while we are told innovations around computer-mediated teaching (and teaching generally) are valued, neither adjuncts, lecturers, nor full-time tenured faculty are alllowed many resources to develop these.

However, full faculty at least have the option of participating in the faculty senate and various committees, so they have more control over the situation. Further , though adjuncts and lecturers have very few resources with which to develop their teaching in any way, this is the only area on which our renewals are based.

It would also be worth investigating gender differences, by the way; in my dept, the majority of non-tenure track faculty are women while most of the tenured or tenure-track faculty are men.

# 'I am not responding to a particular question, but I did want to say that several of these questions ask if adjuncts are making a contribution that is important AND if those efforts are recognized. The former, in all of my teaching experience, has always been true. The latter, unfortunately, has never been the case.

# '19. Question: "I rate increasing adjuncts' salaries lower than other departmental needs. Agree or disagree."

Increasing adjuncts salaries and benefits (particularly access to health insurance and retirement plans) is the number one issue facing colleges and universities today, especially in English departments where adjuncts do the bulk of teaching. It is no longer a matter of convenience for schools to use adjuncts to fill gaps in scheduling--they have crossed into abusing adjuncts and it is up to full-timers and tenured faculty to fight for the respect that adjuncts can't get for themselves. This is a moral crisis; how can colleges teach respect for everyone when they use adjuncts so carelessly?

20.) Question: People primarily become adjuncts because they have no ability. Agree or disgree."

People primarily become adjuncts because colleges refuse to hire more full-time and tenured instructors because they want to save money. It has little to do with talent (most of the adjuncts I know are better teachers than the full-timers). But no matter how much someone may love teaching , no matter how many students may benefit from the adjuncts work, one can't be an adjunct for long. It prohibits too many things--family, owning a home, health care. There are many deans and department heads and administrators in higher education who should be ashamed at ignoring or even exacerbating this problem

# 35. In my opinion, the computer and other technology are greatly over-rated for teaching effectiveness and should be regarded as useful tools, not the be-all and end-all that is being pushed on us. '

# 'In our department virtually the only web sites by individual faculty have been developed by adjunct faculty. I have an extensive web site which is essential not only for my writing classes but also for my literature classes, yet I have had little or no recognition from the department.

Once I got a small amount of money for travel to a conference where I gave a paper. But my scholarly and creative accomplishments, as well as my long service to the university, did me absolutely no good as far as a tenure-track position went. In fact, I was told explicitly my service would not count. When a position in literature for which I was completely qualified (and this includes a Ph.D. in the field and many publications, including a book) opened, I was interviewed but did not get the job. It was given to a person who had no publications and had not yet received her Ph.D. She quit the position after a year. I filed a discrimination complaint with the university, and though I lost the claim, our chair told me what I did helped three lecturers get hired this year for tenure-track positions. While I'm pleased with that, it still leaves me in the same tenuous position I've been in for over 25 years. Lecturers need to get credit for their accomplishments when tenure-track positions open. Such positions ought to be filled whenever possible from the in-house ranks of hard-working lecturers. We already know the system and, more importantly, the students and their needs.

# 'Every item!! There is too much to explain, but let's start with the idea that not ensuring that every adjunct has health insurance endangers the community as a whole. Get it together!! At least, at least ensure that faculty members have access to adequate health care--if you are making your students and fellow teachers ill, it doesn't make a fucking difference that you're able to sit in front of a goddamn fancy computer!!!'

# 'This survey is like a Catch-22. If you're not a full time faculty member, then you're not privy to the perks that full timers are.

The onus is on adjuncts to "organize" in addition to teaching and grading papers for 4 classes per semester, while full timers have 2 classes

per semester.

All questions about technology are beside the point.

Adjuncts are the second class citizens of the academic world, and this trend is increasing as universities move to save money.

There is no chance for tenure or promotion.

I came onboard as an adjunct with my Ph.D. (due to the two body problem which many women like me face...) the same time a tenure track assistant professor with only an MFA came onboard as a full timer. Five years later, he now has tenure, and I have nothing but the same crappy low wages, the same crappy course load of core classes, etc. etc.

And I've been a publishing machine, with a new book coming out next year!

Until basic structural changes in how adjuncts exist are addressed, things will never change, no matter how much technology is or is not thrown into the fray.

I once asked our college dean about this at our annual 'women and leadership conference', whereupon she suddenly turned ice cold, and answered in a deathly voice: "You knew about this game when you came into it, so don't pretend there's anything that can be done." Ouch!

I quit!

# 'The assumption in this survey is that a department has both full-time and adjunct instructors. In our unit, the only full-time person is the director. All the instructors are adjuncts.

# '39. Until we receive equal pay for equal work, we will not be fully respected members of the academic community. A pat on the back and lip service about the value of our services mean nothing when it's time to pay our bills.

2 Attitudes & Behavior of Admin / Full Timers to Adjuncts:

--Pos

#'I teach in a Writing Program, not a department. Faculty is a mix of full-time lecturers (no one is tenure-track) and graduate students. Technically, no one is an adjunct. Therefore, no question relating to an adjunct relates to my program. If anything, the graduate students who teach part-time have higher status in the university than full-time lecturers! They are not viewed as having "failed" in some respect.

So, to make things easier, I have answered questions about adjuncts as applying to all full-time (non tenure-track) lecturers in my program, who make up 80% of the teaching base. Although we are full-time, we are on year-by-year appointments and are not accorded the same benefits as tenure-track faculty in other (more prestigious) departments. No one in the Writing Program can stay permanently in these positions, nor are we eligible for the same benefits as tenure-track faculty in other departments.

Please keep this in mind when reading these responses. Because there is no division in this program between the "haves" and the "have nots," my answers will differ from an adjunct in such an arrangement. Our conditions, in our program, are very good. If the questions asked about the university as a whole, however, my answers would be different.

# 'I think that we have a number of adjunct instructors who are innovative and effective in the classroom (esp. in terms of technology). I do think we have a proportion of part-time instructors who see our program's goals as either "not their style" or just don't understand or care about it. These instructors are frustrating to work with, and we certainly aren't interested in hiring them as full-time (we do not usually re-hire part-time instructors if there is a demonstrated lack of interest or success in teaching our approach, which is inquiry-based, rhetorical and concerned with social-cultural factors).

However, a large portion of our adjunct instructors (we do not have "full-time lecturers") are good teachers, and work hard to learn our approach, "professionalize" themselves by working with and teaching with technology, keeping up with theory and pedagogy, and the like. We have hired (in the last 5 years) SIX instuctors who worked as adjuncts for us. However, the perception remains that we do not hire adjuncts, because we do have several people who have taught for us for a number of years and have interviewed for the job but not been hired (they weren't a good "fit," for a number of reasons, usually pedagogical ones). We know this is a frustrating position to be in - to try and "professionalize" while teaching part-time at more than one school is difficult, for sure - perhaps there is not the time or energy for them to go the extra mile to learn more or try new things. I think we need to give our adjunct instructors the time and incentive (read: $$$) to do this.

# 'I teach in a computer classroom and my effectiveness there helps students to see more clearly and more immediately how to be more successful writers/editors.

# 'Our system is about 95% adjunct in all departments. They are extremely valuable to me as a dept chair. I wish our college would do more to recognize their skills and teaching abilities. I'm advocating for that recognition, including a raise in pay. We'll see what happens. I'll just keep fighting the battle for them. We have access to Blackboard for classes and each classroom is equipped with multi-media. I find few adjuncts actually use either because of the time element involved outside of the classroom. I just want them to help our students in an open admissions institution to improve in their communication writing skills. I have a great bunch of adjuncts here!

# 8 Adjuncts who have been given full-time teaching positions with benefits are awarded travel funds.

9 We invite but do not require adjuncts to attend. When you're paying $2,575 a course, it's hard to require professional development

10 Our university considers adjuncts as a way to balance the budget. As the Boyer report becomes more persuasive on our campus, there's more discussion about the heavy use of adjuncts (our adjunct pool is much larger than our faculty).

11 Very few faculty or adjuncts develop computer skills, but those who do are recognized & receive small perks

12 It's clear the university is hiring adjunct labor with low salary & few benefits rather than tenure-track lines. It's also clear that the feeling is that "anyone can teach writing." As long as there's a willing labor pool, this trend will continue. My preference is for tenure-line colleagues (with A FEW attractive full-time teaching positions created for local talent). Right now, we employ 40 adjuncts, 14 full-time teaching positions (who receive about $31,000 + benefits), & under 30 tenure-line faculty. In 1987 when I joined the faculty, those numbers were 20 adjuncts (still too many), 0 full-time teaching positions, & 45 tenure-line faculty.

13 Good teaching is desired and rewarded. But as our provost recently said, "Good teachers are a dime a dozen; good researchers are very difficult to find." Adjunct labor creates a vicious cycle: Anyone can teach; you can hire anyone to teach. Because anyone can teach, there's no need for professional compensation. Credentials are meaningless.

18 Of course, at that point, it becomes easier for the university to make initiatives to hire tenure-track, which is not a bad thing, but once again, adjuncts become sacrificial.

19 We have become so radically downsized--and so heavy in adjuncts--that my main concern is with increasing tenure-line faculty.

21 In my opinion, such "advancement" is window dressing. Our part-time instructors will now receive health benefits, rather than just the option of buying into the health plan. While this is clearly an "advancement," it masks the fact that they're making $2,575 per course & that the university uses the salary savings (from not hiring tenure-track) to fund other programs or pay administrative and "star" salaries. In short, advancement? I think not. It's simply conciliatory action.

27-28: We have limited access to computer classrooms

29 Full-time faculty rarely teach writing (once every two years, maybe), though they are generally more effective than adjuncts when they do (as with everything, there are exceptions). Adjuncts DO, for the most part, teach LESS effectively than our average to best teaching assistants because they don't have access to professional development and tend to get "stuck in their ways."

30 We offer awards and recognition with teeny-tiny cash stipends. All glory, no cash.

31 There hasn't been much achievement.

33-34 We need to use fewer adjuncts & create better packages for the adjuncts we employ. We need to get away from the mass use of adjuncts (187 sections per year taught by adjuncts).

36 I can only think of one instance in which an adjunct developed computer skills. She created a distance-learning course which we all highly disapproved of (a cash & carry course).

39 We have tried to improve conditions for adjuncts & have had some successes: the full-time instructor lines (benefits $31,000) are clearly an improvement over $2,575 per course. However, now we realize that these decisions have come at the expense of our faculty. These decisions have also tended to convince the administration that anyone can teach. The decisions have devalued teaching.'

Overall comments about our community: many of our adjuncts were our Ph.D. or master's students, so they are like family to us. We encourage them to

participate in the life of our English community, and they often do. Since many of them are our friends, we do what we can to improve their conditions.

For instance, we insisted on their being issued faculty IDs so they could use the library. We see that they receive the same parking privileges as we do.

This is an area of great concern to many people on our campus.

# We have a small community college. Our writing department is made up entirely of adjuncts. Our only recognition of faculty acheivement is our faculty excellence award, which can go to either a full or adjunct instructor (these are really our only two categories of faculty), and it awards effective teaching, as perceived by students and other faculty.

--Mixed

# 'There is a difference between ability and training, and between training and experience. Whether or not an adjunct is as able as a full time faculty member depends upon what curricular mentoring, training, and experience that person has had. I don't want to express my support for the work and commitment of adjuncts at the expense of the work and commitment of full time faculty. The survey seems to me to reinforce the destructive idea that the two groups are at odds with each other rather than with the way institutions value instructional contributions.

# 22 and all related skill-sharing questions. I think all faculty, full and part-time, should be encouraged to share all their skills. The question sounds strange to me, implying that a) people don't want to share (what kind of a world is this? and b) that there is a difference between what full-timers and part-timers have to share.

# 39. In my department, adjuncts are recognized in newsletters, meetings, and other gatherings for their innovations and efforts. However, in order to receive a job with benefits or a full-time position, you must wait for a very long time while continuing to put forth the same or even greater amounts of effort.

# '17. Adjunct professors are generally less experienced than full-time professors.

29. As an individual teacher, I have little means of evaluating the overall effectiveness of adjunct versus full time teaching.

# 17 The issue isn't exactly that the item was unclear, but i thought I'd add a note:

My department has almost as many adjunct faculty as full-time faculty. Over the years, I have seen adjunct faculty with skills as strong as full-time faculty--in fact, some were stronger than some full-time faculty. However, since all of our adjuncts now are from a very small pool--graduates from the university across town--it would not at this moment be accurate to say that the skills of our current adjuncts tend to be as strong as those of our full-time faculty because we have been able to hire full-time people every year for the past several years, most of whom were working as adjuncts. At this point, the best of our former adjuncts have become full-time faculty.

# As far as adjunct talent is concerned, it seemed to me that many of the adjuncts were just as talented, if not more so than the tenured and full-time faculty. As we all know, the hiring process is a highly politicized beast in any field; however, landing a job teaching composition literally depends on your politics. Virtually everyone I've met who's got a full-time gig teaching comp, also leans heavily to the left, politically. Personally, I try to think independently and not take the gospel of the either the left or right on faith. I'm comfortable pointing out the logical lapses in any political argument. In theory, this is exactly what a teacher of composition should do when addressing political issues. Being genuinely open minded, however, doesn't play so well to the status quo of knee -jerk leftivism that dominates rhetoric programs. This makes it difficult for an independent voice to be heard above the din self-righteous consensus, let only get hired to speak out.

# Some questions require a yes and no response: eg., my department does (of necessity) consider adjuncts "outside workers," but tries to ameliorate this in certain ways.

# 'We are an institution that uses Temporary as a title for adjunct--and our temporary hires can work three years as temps. If, after three years, they aren't hired into another line, they have to drop down to part time for one semester, and then they can be hired again as temporaries for another three year stint. It's a strange system...but the temporary position lines are full-time and include benefits--health care and pension. The concept of adjunct as i experienced in grad school doesn't exist in the ways I found evil here though the pay is still not comparable--about 23 what i make--and the opportunities for furthering one's career or taking on new learning situations are few--given the burden of a four four teaching load. It used to be that the department would hire faculty from temp positions into full-time tenure track lines (most people were hired with Masters degrees and could gain tenure--as assistant professors); however, with a new administration and new goals for the university, this practice has stopped, making the temporary line position a troubling one for everyone involved. I think people felt okay with hiring someone knowing full well that they would probably move into a tenure track line, but now, only Ph.Ds in the relevant specializations within rhetoric and composition are hired, and so far, all hires have been external, the result of nation wide searches. Two of our temporary people have returned to graduate school--at IUPUI so that they can be competitive for any future job openings, but these decisions are at great financial cost, as their primary reason for being in our town is because of family, so their summers at IUPUI are an extraordinary cost. Then again...so was my ph.d. training...expensive and time consuming.

We also have many people in permanent stable lines that are not tenure lines. These people teach a 43 load and have committee responsibilities.

6: I worked the equivalent of ten years as an adjunct (they counted by semester and i always worked summers); i also worked as a ta and was part of the move to unionize tas at my institution.

7: recognize is a vague word: recognition in our department often requires additional work--holding workshops, helping out fellow faculty members, etc. Time consuming without any compensation.

8: I say I agree on this one, but I honestly should say I don't know. I believe temporary faculty have access to travel funds. Our school is pretty generous on this front--or has been until now.

11: rewarded for computer skills--again, a vague statement. Higher salaries? better yearly evaluations? In teaching? Research? service? We've done a pretty good job of arguing that a publication in Kairos is equivalent to other kinds of publications, but none of our assistant professors has yet gone up for tenure, so we don't know what will happen at the college level. I don't have a sense that we're rewarded, per se. Any rewards are from our own work at educating so that we can count our work.

17: THis depends on the year! A few years ago, we had two amazingly competent ph.d. people in rhetoric and composition--and then i would say that we were all at about the same level; however, in subsequent years, we have hired masters level with little or no training in composition and rhetoric. hard to generalize as the population shifts.

25: temps vary as do full-time tenure track faculty on the degree to which they have sophistication in computer knowledge--and we work at a collective agenda of improving our knowledge. My overall sense is that neither tenure track nor temps are adequately using the computers...and we have the resources. It's just a matter of time/inclination/desire/reward that makes it less than likely people will do more with computers...

# '35. Adjuncts at my university teach Composition I & II in computer classrooms. We also use WebCT. With the help of WebCT, I teach a paperless class (at least on my end). The course description, assignments, the schedule, etc., are all on my WebCT.

Multiple Questions: Adjuncts are valued by the department I teach in (English), but the University itself does treat us like second-class citizens in that: (1)we must pay cobra insurance premiums over the summer when we are not working; (2) during the upcoming school year, we will be forced to pay half of our insurance premiums; and (3) there are no full-time positions for adjuncts--meaning our positions are up for grabs every semester.

# I have taught part-time for over 25 years--mostly composition. Currently I'm working with writing across the curriculum, so I don't have my finger on the pulse of the English department. Just last year our university inaugurated a university wide award for excellence in part-time teaching, which was awarded with great fanfare at the annual university faculty conference, along with other faculty awards. I think this is a big step toward recognition. The English department has given a part-time excellence award annually for over ten years. The English deparmtne also provides training seminars for part-timers every summer, sometimes in technology. But more support for research and travel should be available. Within the last several years, par-timers who have taught over a certain number of years have qualified for medical and retirement benefits. Salary is pretty good, though it could be better.

# '33 and 34. My department does a good job in recognizing and meeting the needs of adjuncts, and that is why I disagree that the department itself needs improvement. The college administration as a whole is where improvement needs to come from. Higher pay for adjuncts is deserved, long overdue, and necessary. "Part-timers" should make at least 12 of what an entry-level full-timer makes.

--Neg

# Item 21: the overall attitude among my adjunct colleagues in this matter is one of futility. Here are some of the reasons why: 45% of our state's overall budget cuts went to community colleges. To accomodate budget cuts this year, our school cut courses, most of which were taught by adjuncts, preserving classes taught by tull-time faculty. In addition, the dispursement of adjunct equity/overload pay, was delayed by our college's administration until these cuts took place, so many of my colleagues will never see money they worked for and deserve. While adjuncts are in the majority, our needs are of little importance. Our contracts give us only a bare minimum of protection against joblessness, while full-time faculty are heavily protected; and we pay the same dues to the same union--what's the point of talking about it? Talk will just result in non-renewal of our contracts.

# '31, 36--Although we are a tier II research institution that prides itself on our "technology" because part-time and Non tenure track faculty has had little voice in the department, we are at least a decade behind using technology for the teaching of writing. At present, there are no computer classrooms dedicated to teaching composition. At the campus where I teach, some of us have used computer classrooms that are also available for other classes, which can cause a scheduling crunch. I find teaching composition without computers difficult, and although we have tried to provide computer classrooms for adjuncts that wish to use them, this has not always been possible. In addition, because our part-time and NTT faculty are overworked and underpaid, there is little time for those who do not already have computer skills and experience teaching writing in a computer classroom to develop technology or computer skills.

# 'I have only general comments to offer:

Colleges and universities will never consider adjunct professors as anything more than cheap labor to be exploited. Obviously, skilled adjuncts should be compensated far better than current standards allow, but anything short of a complete systemic revolution will do little to improve the adjunct's lot.

It is the rare tenured faculty member who does not admit that adjuncts are exploited for their benefit, but I've yet to meet a tenured faculty member willing to give up anything to change the situation.

As in all such arrangements, the issues are power and privilege, and those with power do not hand it over willingly.

Observation based upon 25 years of experience as both a full- and part-time faculty member has confirmed that adjuncts often are superior instructors compared to a distracted tenured faculty.

One of the questions above (#21) asks if talking about conditions for adjunct faculty is "useful in aiding their advancement." Talk is always a good place to start, but thus far talk has never been linked to action. I admire your efforts to continue the discussion about adjunct exploitation, but nothing is ever accomplished by talkers.

# '32. I teach at a branch campus, and I doubt that the main campus department members/other branch English faculty have any idea how and what I teach; nor do I know anything about them except what I read in the main campus newsletter. 35. I use technology to a limited degree: videos, ELMO, and sometimes library research on-line.

# 'There are a lot of clear-cut questions here, and though this is a survey, there ought to be a way to answer these questions with more than an i agree or disagree etc. answer. In general, the Writing Program in which i slave and toil, pretty much treats adjuncts, especially those who question the authority of the program's rhetoric and practice theory, like shit. Cogs in the machine. People are stripped of their benefits, fired incorrectly, and our scholarship, our area of interests are virutally ignored. We are only recognized when the department is ready to recognize us, and then they pick and choose who to laud and who to treat like crap. We barely make any money and we work like dogs, but that's nothing new.

# 'Although the administrative support is good in our department, support from the head of the Composition program is minimal. We are all given a semester training course, which does well in familiarizing us with assignments, grading rubrics, handbooks readers, departmental and university policy. During our first semester teaching, we also have roundtable sessions to share experiences, assignments, technology hints, ets. However, after this first semester, I have found a gaping disconnect with my colleagues and the department's director.

We are encouraged to attend workshops and seminars on campus (none are closed to adjuncts, however, those which include stipends are usually reserved for faculty). Technology is not an issue on our campus, largely due to our nationally-rated engineering department and our text and technology program within the English department. Technology is shared equally and support is readily available to all. All instructors are encouraged to use technology enhanced classrooms; although faculty are the ones who receive credit for their accomplishments. However, I do acknowledge the experience on my CV and am very content with the access and support to electronic portfolios.

The area that brings the most tension is monetary compensation. Adjuncts in our department make less that GTA's. In general, our paychecks make it difficult to meet the cost of living in our area. [I made more money working at a local theme park without a high school diploma than I do as an adjuct with my Master's Degree--although I love my current position, the pay is meager.]

# 'I am taking "adjunct" to mean people who work less than half-time, teaching one to six, or possibly seven classes per year (summers included). My department excludes adjuncts from departmental meetings. There is such a disconnect in my department between adjuncts and "regular" faculty that I could only guess at questions asking about regular faculty attitudes and practices. Our campus has established a Center for Academic Excellence which makes computer training and other services available to all faculty. Adjuncts, however, because of their outsider status, are often unaware of the workshops, programs, and services available to them through this center, or they simply don't have time for them due to being forced to spread their employment to several institutions. Job insecurity is another factor that limits participation in campus affairs. Intellectual property issues are particularly important to adjunct faculty who might develop web based classes and find themselves replaced by a graduate student.

My own involvment with technology is with DVD and Video projection systems, since I teach film studies. Students in my classes write extensively about film.

# 'Pay is almost ignored here. It takes 1 and a half students' tuition to pay my salary for a semester.

# In terms of your overall survey, I felt that a lot of your questions ask for black and white answers when there are too many gray areas with adjunct faculty. Do I feel ignored and unappreciated as adjunct faculty? Absolutely, especially since, in my experience, we represent more than 60% of our department, teach all of the remedial, freshman and junior comp courses, and are often more innovative in our teaching methods than full-timers, yet are often overlooked. I have created collaborative assignments with my fellow instructors, innovated teaching methods, and acted as volunteer editor for a journal of student essays, and received absolutely no acknowledgment for any of it. A colleague of mine recently retired after 20 years of service, and when the department chair was asked why she did not receive a retirement party (as do all full-timers), his response was that "full-timers are recognized for their service to the community--there is no need to recognize part-timers."

We receive the scorn of the full-timers and often do more work for half the pay, but the adjunct faculty care for students and we love teaching.

# 'On items addressing rewards and/or recognition for innovation, my answers might seem more clear if you know that we have only a department representative with no real power who answers to a micromanaging dean with little understanding of how computer-mediated instruction works or matters. Fortunately, under previous administrators, we've built substantial tech resources that are well used and maintained, but there is no recognition for full or part-time faculty who use them. Adjuncts all receive the same (miserable) pay regardless of qualifications, and f-t faculty have no real input into who is hired or retained.

# 'i'd like to be clear that my FT colleagues, in the main, just don't have much contact with the PT staff. The folks involved with the comp. program and the chair deal with PT issues all the time, but that has had the effect of insulating the PT from the FT staff. While i've heard enough remarks to know that some of my FT colleagues assume that PTers simply didn't have what it takes to get Ph.D.s and FTTT jobs, many of them are actually quite humane & would do more to help the PTers if that were possible. There is, as it were, some academic snobbery about credentials; but, on balance, there's probably more concern for their plight and a frustrated recognition that we can't do much to help them.

Here are the big reasons why we're not going to be able to do much to improve the conditions of adjuncts here. Since the mid-1980s, we've paid our adjuncts $800/credit hr. (i.e. $2400 a section) which puts their pay well above the national average. So, every time our WPA says, "we need to raise salaries," the fact that we're the best in a rotten situation stops the conversation cold. To make matters worse, nearby schools pay adjunct faculty considerably less than we do--so we can't argue that we're losing good staff to more generous institutions either.

But the worst of it is that OH, where i'm based, is a state that forbids by law adjuncts to organize or FT faculty unions to represent their interests. This fact doesn't help the perception among FT faculty that adjuncts are relatively undertrained and unskilled outsiders. Nor does it help that the state has effectively engineered a class system that pits the interests of PT against FT folks. My own department had 38 FT faculty and 18 or so PTers when i came here in 1992. We now have 23 FT and 60+ PT faculty. The FTers are MAXED and yet are expected to maintain the number of programs, research, grant-writing, etc. that we achieved when we were so much larger. Most PTers do what they're paid for and no more. Unlike FTers whose career advancement and professional status require them to stay professionally active by developing programs, curricula, research projects, etc., PTers get no tangible reward for volunteering their time. As a result, we don't work together for the department's common good or for shared intellectual interests very often. So, from the FTers' point of view, the adjunct staff covers the comp. classes so we can do "our" work and, in so doing, encumbers about $200K a year that might be spent on a couple more FT lines. The PTers, on the other hand, while teaching what for some amounts to an FT load, don't get the respect and security that the FT faculty. They get to have all the responsibilities and hassles with none of the rewards. Resentment definitely could go both ways, but such feelings are seldom in evidence. it's remarkable that there isn't more rancor than there is.

Having said all of the above, we FTers have not done all we could to include the PT staff in departmental governance and intellectual life & are fobidden to extend to them the travel and research benefits that our FT union has negotiated for us as a bargaining unit. Our budget problems are now chronic & we're receiving pressure from the Dean's office to offer fewer courses to bring down the total number of annual dollars that we spend on adjunct salaries. Yet, money really isn't everything. i've discovered that most of our staff teach because they genuinely believe that they are making a difference in students' live for good & derive a great deal of personal satisfaction from the intellectual engagement inherent to running good courses.

There are things we could be doing but aren't. Ironic as it might seem to FT faculty who get tired of committee work, regular meetings attended by both FT and PT staff to discuss departmental business would generate a significant morale boost among our PT staff--many of whom have expressed to me that being accorded some collegial respect would go a LONG way with them. Finding some way to give our PTers their own offices--or to at least reduce sharing from 6 to a room to 2 to a room would also provide similar encouragement. But these things aren't being discussed actively.

Here are the big reasons why we're not going to be able to do much to improve the conditions of adjuncts here. Since the mid-1980s, we've paid our adjuncts $800credit hr. (i.e. $2400 a section) which puts their pay well above the national average. So, every time our WPA says, "we need to raise salaries," the fact that we're the best in a rotten situation stops the conversation cold. To make matters worse, nearby schools pay adjunct faculty considerably less than we do--so we can't argue that we're losing good staff to more generous institutions either.

# 'We are being cut mercilessly by an administration less concerned with student expenses than with self-perpetuation; paper, reassigned time for managing placement essays, hiring -- all are being dropped or charged to students. Given that situation, I put all class materials on my website, as do many of my colleagues, both adjunct and tenure-track.

I am the department chair, and have nothing but admiration and respect for the adjuncts who make up over 50% of my staff; I think their pay rates are abominable; they must share a single office (most faculty share 2 to an office); in time of budget crunch they have been treated most shabbily by the administration of the college.

# 'I do not know much about the full time faculty's academic relationship with the university. This is particularly true regarding their use of computers to teach and how the university administrators interact with them.

I do know that I have developed a near pathological hatred of the university's administrators and the full time faculty. The former treats part-timers like slaves and the full time faculty views us as second class citizens at best. all of the part time instructors are as resentful as I am.

This is largly meaningless, however, since most people are afraid to act, and it is against the law to form a union of part timers in Ohio.

# Adjuncts are considered as poor teachers. One full-time tenured faculty said that ALL faculty should be PhDs. Unfortunately, in our state (Arkansas), only 12.5% of the population has a Bachelor's degree. The pool of available applicants doesn't contain enough PhD candidates! Yet, still, adjuncts are looked upon as second-rate teachers and something to dispense with. If we do manage to attract PhD faculty, they often stay just a year or two to get experience, then move on to states where pay is better. Thus, we lose continuity within our community. MAMSMFAs should be better utilized in these type situations, including the use of adjunct faculty.

# 38) Adjuncts aren't allowed to add significantly to the intellectual climate...:) They're ignored and left out of the mix.

3 Computers:

--Pos

# 'Number 35: I use technology to deliver handouts, updated information, and general material to my students. To this end I administer several web sites and maintain a discussion forum for my students.

# '#35 webct, e-mail, discussion lists, ppt, course materials online

# '35. Technology helps me show student examples to my students via computer carts, but students also get practice in working with computers since many students come to our university with litte or no computer experience from high school. However, meeting and conferencing with students face to face is just as important as tech skills are.

# '35) I use a computer listserv in my classes, both to build community and to model rhetorical impact (audience) for my students. I also use computer data bases for source material, and strongly encourage students to employ computer assisted sources and technology during the class.

# 'Teaching writing in a computer classroom is enhanced by technology. A primary consideration for community college students (especially in developmental classes) is that they may not have had prior extended experience with technology. In today's workplace, a level of computer competency is essential. If we do not offer students more contact with technology, we are shortchanging their family wage opportunities. Secondly, those of us who write professionally would never consider relinquishing our computers! Why would we expect students to write in a way other than the way we approach our tasks? Anyone who remembers revision before the computer fully understands this.'

# 'I use all sorts of technology in teaching. My program has a Web site, on which myt syllabus is posted; students have a place to chat as well as a paper exchange, where they can engage in peer commentary. I have developed other comprehensive Websites to enhance my teaching. I also regularly use the MOO. Finally, I teach in a smart classroom and make use of that technology in my writing workshops.'

# 'Access to excellent web resources for grammar, writing, and literature.

Facilitates class discussion and consultation outside class.

# '#35. I use whatever technology is available to me. I make an effort to be properly trained in order to use it to its greatest capacity. It saves paper and helps students see how efficient communications can be using these technologies.

# 'Technology provides a means for students to automate some tasks that may distract from the writing process. Technology also fosters a way of thinking (methodical and logical) that can help students as they draft, think, learn, and revise. I know that the different ways of thinking and writing that technology requires both acclimates students to "real world" demands *and* provides them with a different means of working with, for instance, computers for research or as word processors.

# '35.

Technology helps me in the classroom because it interests my students and gives them more motivation for projects and research.

# 35 I use a computer lab once per week to teach writing and researching skills. I also use on-line programs for peer response work, saving class time for other matters. This works well.

# 'The use of technology in my classroom helps to increase the interest of the students. It adds deeper perspectives in my classroom and I believe it helps to challenge those who wish to be challenged through technology and introduces and educates others to the potential use of technology in their education.

# 'Computers help by making student / teacher communication faster and less expensive (than long-distance phone calls).

They also serve as an additional medium for instruction, assignment submission, and assessment.

# 35) Technology is a primary resource in making me an efficient teacher, especially in communications, record keeping, and grading. Brains and ability are my primary resources in being an effective teacher.

# 'I teach introduction to rhetoric, a remedial freshman composition course, in a computer lab. The course is run as a writing workshop. I first explain and demonstrate the rhetorical mode the class is studying and then encourage the students to begin brainstorming, organizing, and writing rough drafts while I return the previous weeks papers, discuss them individually with students, and assign remediation as needed. A peer edited, typed rough draft must be completed by the end of each class. The revised paper is then submitted at the beginning of the following week's class. I find that students progress more rapidly with this type of immediate feedback. Also, two of the reasons that many students are in this course are poor spelling and nearly illegible handwriting. In most workplaces, writing is done on computers, so computer assistance in these areas is justified, I think.

# '35. We are without a decent library--without the 'net, research papers would be impossible. So would many other learning opportunities.'

# 35 I use technology to help cut down on photocopying requests; i.e. I put my syllabus, assignments, and any other relevant information on my webpage. Also, I use various websites to demonstrate how to critique websites and for various writing exercises.

# 'The use of technology is extremely important in the classroom and beyond. I have found web-based programs (i.e. WebCT, Blackboard) to be a wonderful way to keep in touch with students outside of class and post important messages and assignments. Even for face-to-face classes, the internet is a useful tool in making sure everyone knows exactly what is going on day to day.

# '35. Computers in the classroom allow us to spontaneously research topics that are ambiguous or confusing. Before students had to go to the library and often find the assertiveness to ask for assistance. With computers in the classroom, I can work one-on-one with students to show them how to conduct a search on a specific topic. I can show the ease with which they can look up the definition of a word or find information on an author. Students enjoy the excitement of discovery online. This discovery---the surprise with themselves and with the information they find---encourages a broader intellectual curiosity and the confidence that they can, in fact, "do college."

# 'Referring to Item 35, I believe it is important to use any kind of technology to enhance the learning of the students and the presentation of classroom materials. This is an essential part of teaching.

# 35. Classroom resources available on the internet and through the library are very helpful for my classes. I do not teach distance-learning classes.

# '35. I have been developing and teaching the FY sequence for exclussive online delivery over the past year-and-a-half. As a part-timer, I have enjoyed royalty rights to the course design without much interference from full-time faculty. The full-time faculty don't have the interest or technology background to prepare and deliver online courses, but the programs are market-driven, so they've lined up willing adjuncts to shoulder the initiatives.

# '35: Computer technology allows me to force students to focus on writing; therefore, it is a great benefit.

# 'I use technology heavily and find that it aids in establishing contact with working students that never could happen in a trad. classroom. For instance, the working student may access research materials at times when the libraries are closed.

# '35 technology is especially important in relation to teaching students to write research papers.'

# 'Question 35: I find that using technology in the classroom is better FOR MY STUDENTS, as it keeps them engaged in the topic, forces time on task, betters communication between teacher and students, and gives them prompt feedback re: grades and progress in class. I decided to learn to use technology (time not rewarded by department) because I knew that my students would benefit. I would not encourage anyone to use technology in the classroom primarily as a way to enhance promotion, unless their department is unusually supportive of lecturers and advocates ongoing professional development.

# 'I'd say technology affects my ability to be effective in the classroom at almost every level: in terms of how I decided to assign readings, plan lessons, and generally design my course. Without thinking about it (until I took this survey), I plan for the fact that I get a certain number of copies to make and to print per year, and after that, I'm charged. Because of those contingincies, I upload as much as I can to my course web pages for students to download and print on their own if they lose copies given to them in class. I rely heavily on email to stay in touch with my students and to clarify what can't be said in front of other people, in the course of a class hour, or to just listen to them talk about writing.

# 35) I insist on teaching in a computer based classroom so that my students can work on their rough drafts in class and receive feedback as they are writing. This classroom is rarely made available, and is often left empty. I have had to consistently demand access to the classroom. Full time faculty are not interested in computer mediated instruction it seems.

# 35-- As an adjunct, I find e-mail and a webpage useful for communicating with students, as well as the online classroom environment my institution has adopted. More students send me questions by e-mail than would ever set foot in a faculty office.

# 'Aspect of teaching' does not corrolate with the more specific "computer technology" term. I chose, therefore to agree on item 9.C omputers do save me time and produce neat tests and handouts, attendance sign-up sheets, for office hours, syllabae and covers, and let me participate easily in polls like this one. I am not, however, a convert or dependent upon computers for effective teaching overall. I champion one-on-one conversations, rhetorical attention by students to their writing, discussions, and speaking. I have found it easier to keep in touch with students better via of email, even to the point of tutoring some of them who need to play "catch-up" to pass my course.

# 'I am a heavy user of technology. I have taught online writing sections for three years now and have used the Blackboard learning platform to supplement my face-to-face classes for five years now. Technology allows me to respond to my student's writing process more quickly and in greater depth.

# '35. I use technology to disseminate information via listservs, e-mailing, webpages, and other online methods. I use multimedia presentations to better integrate information into my classroom lectures.

# 'Provide effective, timely feedback to students with e-mail. Distribute assignments in a cost-effective manner. Provide additional resources for teaching on the web and through presentations.

--Mixed

# 'I teach technical writing and work in an electronic classroom. While I'm not always enthusiastic about computer technology, it certainly makes communicating with the students easier (especially with nontraditional students who are not on campus much) and the students themselves seem less intimidated by writing when it involves computers.

# 'overall teaching effectiveness can perhaps be enhanced by technology but technology is not essential, rather,effective teachinbg is primarily related to small class size, opportunities for individual student participation advancement, positive in-class reinforcement for assignments done particularly well;primarily, effective teaching requires a variety of innovative approaches and methods to insure that the largest number of students remain interested and stimulated.

# 'Much remains to be done regarding implementing computer usage, emailing, editing skills, research skills into the classroom and curriculum. Both faculty members in all categories and many students are still reluctant or even phobic about using the computer technology available.

One big problem is lack of discipline in setting aside a specific time in daily schedules to check onto the internet and read and respond to mail, check on daily news items and so forth. Just as in the past, if students did not read assignments, attend class, and take notes, results are often poor, today's students need to establish the discipline of daily or regular times to check their accounts on line.

# 35: I use many powerpoint presentations and writing assignments from the computer items I've developed as well as companion websites.

It's difficult on all the questions to be so general--there are good and bad situations.

# Item 36:adjuncts DO frequently develop computer skills, but are minimally rewarded for them.

# 22. It would be nice if everyone could share their computer skills with others, but the demands upon our time are such that a requirement to do so

would simply add to the uncompensated expectations placed upon all of us.

Item 11: full time faculty from my department rarely seek to develop computer skills; I know because I've seen the college's statistics on faculty who are taking the computer classes.

# '35. Yes, but I only use computer classrooms in composition courses 2-12 weeks a semester--because of limited availability.

# 35: I find technology to be relatively important to my overall teaching effectiveness. I use technology to teach a "web-enhanced" version of my classes. I would like to use the technology to teach a "hybrid" version of my classes, but have found fairly significant resistance to this idea. On the other hand, while I have found significant support for fully online composition classes, I do not believe I could teach effectively in that venue.

# '35) Technology is no more or less important than any other aspect of teaching. Maybe because I'm not especially good with it, I find it hinders teaching sometimes as much as it might help it if I were more skilled.

# 'Writing and writing technologies have been intertwined for several thousand years. I assume that that history will continue.

# 'Item 35:

The computer laboratory is set up so that students stare at their own screen or at one of the screens projected on the wall. However, most college English courses are concerned with concepts and ideas--rhetorical strategy, logical thinking, audience awareness, etc.--which are best taught in a conventional classroom setting, where I can make eye contact, and where students can talk easily to me and to each other in small groups or as a class.

I think the computer lab is useful as a tool for editing and formatting. I do NOT think it is useful for general instruction--classroom discussion and the free exchange of ideas between students from diverse backgrounds. In short, I think the computer lab is an impersonal place, which is helpful in teaching specific, limited, practical applications. '

# 'I do *not* believe that technology-use is essential for successful writing instruction. Right now, I see many departments investing resources in computer classrooms when their money would be better spent on reducing class sizes and improving compensation and training for instructors (both full-time and part-time).

But in terms of my own teaching effectiveness, I feel that technology definitely enhances the learning experience in my classroom. I've used technology in a wide variety of ways, from teaching 100% online courses to hybrid courses incorporating courseware and web activities into conventional classrooms. The single thing I consider most important today is simply the ability to display and critique websites in my classes. A close second is the use of online discussion boards to help students collaborate outside the classroom and to make their perspectives more visible to one another. (Most of my students' informal writing assignments and reading responses are posted to discussion boards.)

I'm also very interested in using technology to get students more involved in the assessment process. The Online Learning Record and other forms of online portfolios interest me very much. I'm currently working at a relatively "low-tech" institution (just a few classrooms are networked), so experimenting with that kind of tool is a bit tricky. But it seems like an important way to make assessment and self-assessment a more visible and less threatening experience--something we could weave into our ongoing discussions about "good writing" by viewing models and samples of the students' own works in progress and by learning together about how to explain and achieve the qualities of better communication.

# '35. I teach in a computer classroom (I designed the first computer classroom for our department), so using technology is an integral part of my teaching (full-time). When I work as an adjunct, I do not use a computer classroom.

# '35: As an adjunct teaching freshman writing, I find that computer technology helps me mostly by supporting classroom work--keeping in touch with students, helping them keep in touch with me, etc. Many times, however, I find that word processing gets in the way of teaching important revision skills. My students tend not to focus on how easy text is to change in word processing so much as on how easy it is to keep; they actually have a stronger commitment to the first words they put on the page than they would have if they had to retype every paper.

36: In our department, the adjuncts are often as or more computer savvy than the tenure-track professors. They are usually not rewarded for it, however. (That's a poorly worded question, by the way--like "do you still beat your wife?") In fact, our best computer-based comp teacher, an adjunct, was not retained for the fall, because the department brought in 18 untried Ph.D. students to teach. The paying undergrad students are the losers, as usual.

# 35. Computers are useful in the classroom for in class writing and peer editing. However, the classroom set up often is useless (or obstructive) when a teacher must lecture or for group discussions.

# 'I personally make use of technology for record-keeping, assignment posting (on "Blackboard"), and handout production. I think the basic comp. courses would be improved if they took place at least onceweek in computer labs, and if the students were given instruction in basic word processing and file handling along with their writing instructions. Most of my students are poorly prepared to use computers as word processors, a necessity in college writing, since no one has typewriters anymore.

# 'students can get materials online.

# 'For the few years when teaching in the computer classroom was available to those outside of the state-funded rhetoric and composition program, I found computer classrooms much more effective than traditional classrooms as far as teaching freshman writing went. No literature classes were taught in the computer classroom.

# 'My research area is computer-mediated communication. Therefore my whole way of looking at pedagogy is computer-mediated.'

# 'Technology is almost a necessity in teaching the research paper.

As a part-time instructor, email is indispensible in communicating

with my students.

Inter-faculty communication is frequently simplified by email since I

am on campus for only a few hours per week.

35 I teach online classes and also use discussion forums, sharing of drafts via the web, and make lectures and handout available electronically for all classes.

36 Most adjuncts are not involved with using technology though workshops are open to them. But a few do teach web-enhanced or online classes and do it well. I don't think those who teach online classes were given the same incentive (overload pay the first time the course was taught) as fulltime faculty.

24, 26 I think adjuncts should be encouraged to share their skills but not obligated because they don't get paid enough to be pressured into the time commitment. So I did not strongly agree.

# 'Number 35: I feel it is extremely important for students to be computer

competent in all their classes, especially Rhetoric and Composition. I do not

think it should necessarily be a part of adjunct faculty's job description.

Comp and writing classes work better for me when I connect with students and get them to connect and depend on each other. The class becomes a "writing group" with exchanges between students, with me, and with outside readers. Literature classes are run in a similar way. Also, aside from working in a limited number of available computer classroom where we connect through computers as well as face to face, technology is found in distance classrooms that our dept. does not believe in using.

# 'My students must learn to think critically and convey their thoughts effectively. Technology sometimes enhances learning those skills and sometimes detracts from learning them in the sense that it reqiures time and energy in its own right.

# 'Item 35. I happen to believe there is no replacement for old-fashioned teaching interaction with my students. Using computers distances me from the students, and without that connection most of what I have to share is lost. I depend on my passion for writing to inspire and motivate my students, and computers are like a wall between my students and myself. There is no pedagogical system, or machine, that can replace human interaction.

# '35. I can't schedule a lab, usually so I don't bother although that doesn't mean I don't have ideas.

# 'Group discussion and one-on-one conferencing still seem the most important means of teaching writing in our classrooms--especially because of the large numbers of non-native speakers and new immigrants from a variety of cultures. The need for interaction and for students to hear the spoken word is strong.

--Neg

# '35) Interpersonal skills, oral and written communication, ability to motivate and to understand and address students' skills and problems, are all more important than technology. I rate technology as a 3 or 4 out of 10,'

'Access to Blackboard, e-mail, and the university mainframe helps both in day-to-day classroom activities, as well as in semester-by-semster issues. Without Blackboard and e-mail particularly, I would be less accessible to my students, and I would be able to offer them less one-on-one input.

# 'Because I have never had the opportunity to teach in a computer classroom, I don't know what role technology would play. This a university-wide issue though. Only select classes are taught in computer classrooms and first-year composition is not among them. Of course, it is the adjuct pool that is most likely to teach those classes.

# 35) Question: ("I find technology important overall to my teaching effectiveness.") I don't find that using technology necessarily helps my teaching effectiveness. What I think is more helpful in my case is the one-on-one conference with students. Technology would help me teach a greater number of students in terms of conveying information, but I don't particularly find it helpful in teaching writing. That is not to say that I do not insist on students acquiring computer skills and research skills using technology. I very much insist on this. The most useful piece of technology to me is email. Students communicate with me. I can encourage them to come to class, and if I have a question about their assignment, I can ask it. The students also seem to appreciate my being willing to talk to them electronically.

# 35: Technology provides one more method for communicating with my students, but it's not the most effective. '

# '35. I disagree. Face to face contact and one-on-one communication is the most effective, but technology fills a need when that's not possible.'

# 'Question 35: I received an MFA in creative writing this year (2003). For the past year I was a writing instructor in our composition program. I found computer technology most useful in teaching the boons and doggles of on-line research. As far as actual writing goes, a willingness to wield the pen not only as an instrument of invention, but as the sword of revision is the only technology necessary.

# 'I find technology to be relatively important to my overall

teaching effectivesness.

As an adjunct, I would like to use the same tools and skills that I use in my fulltime, non-academic, job. This is not always possible. The few computer labs are always already booked and the other high tech toys are often, likewise, unavailable.

# '35) Technology plays a minor role in my teaching; respect for my knowledge and experience (16 years' worth), from my colleagues (full- and part-time), my chair, and my students affects my teaching more than anything else. I would appreciate more autonomy in the classroom (e.g., my choice of textbook, not the department's) and more input as to how the writing courses are taught.

# 35--A strong pedagogy for teaching writing far exceeds the need for technology. Writing is brain work, not computer work. We need to spend more time normalizing teaching methods rather than focusing on integrating new technology into the writing classroom.

# 'While computer technology is important, it is not crucial for teaching reading and writing skills. The same goes for teaching literature. It's fine to have access to technology, but I really don't depend on it to teach Homer.

# 'Technology per se WITHOUT curricular retooling of teaching objectives to match the technology available is counter-productive i.e., worse than no technology at all. All "add on" technology to a non-tech writing curriculum is a waste of time, money, and a detriment to student learning. Especially in times of tight budgets, money applied to teacher salaries is more effective than rationalizing the efficiency of high tech applied to student learning. In times of fat budgets, proper application of new curriculum to match, for example, the network capabilities of a "smart classroom" can increas student learning dramatically. However, it will not make student learning more cost effective or efficient.

# 35. Email to/from students and wordprocessing skills are essential to my work, but I'm much more of a books person than a computer person in the classroom. I'm uneasy with all the computer questions above because I don't have much sense of individuals' recognition by the department for these skills--and I don't care greatly about such recognition nor about computer skill-sharing on a formal level.

# '16--Not sure what will happen under such conditions

27 and 28--don't feel qualified to adequately answer these questions

I don't see why there is such an emphasis on technology in this survey. I think good teaching may not necessarily depend on tech-savvyness.

# 'No. 35: I find personal communication far more important than technology.

Vis-a-vis question 35: I find technology increasingly essential to my teaching. I teach in a computer equipped classroom and use them on a daily basis. Students write in class on the computers, do web searches, post drafts and revisions to a course website, and any number of other activities. We do lessons on effective web searching, on using citation software, and on avoiding plagiarism. I can't imagine teaching, now, in a classroom lacking computers.'

'35) While some technology in the classroom can be useful, it is often overrated, and not just because many instructors do not receive adequate training to make the best use of it. A good, old-fashioned overhead projector can be just as useful as thousands of dollars worth of video and computer equipment that not only necessitates training to be used effectively, but also often falls into disrepair and becomes completely useless. Rare is the classroom that has thousands of dollars worth of WORKING equipment AND a qualified instructor to use it; even rarer is the course that can justify prioritizing much-needed funds in such a way. A good teacher will be a good teacher with or without fancy gadgetry, while a bad one will not be made better by it. Expensive equipment is a material, quantifiable improvement that can easily be paraded in front of anyone who wants to "see," at a glance, a "state of the art" classroom. Thus it has become an easy way to seem well-equipped. The best equipment in the classroom, however, remains a well-trained, well-paid, and well-respected teacher, not some poor soul who has to scamper around five different campuses teaching inordinate amounts of students just to make a living wage.

# 'Item 35. We have found that our students value the immediacy of real teacherstudent interaction. It gives us the flexibility to be sensitively attuned to students' needs and questions.

# ' 35--i do not enjoy working on the computer, and i use it at a minimum.'