Comments on Staff Teaching

• I know! How about everybody do the job they were hired to do?
• Posted by WTF on July 2, 2009 at 5:15am EDT

• Was the staff member hired to teach?

  If not, then only adjuncting for him or her. Case closed. End of story.

  But...

  You mention a librarian as one example. Does said librarian work extensively with the English department to help coordinate the research component of Freshman comp? That's a case where perhaps the staff member's specific duties should incorporate a teaching component ...and everybody may end up happier.

  But a librarian who wants to teach political science? No.

  Counselor who wants to teach Psych 101? No. Doesn't he or she have back-to-back counseling appointments to deal with? If not, then aren't there plenty of counsel-y things that staff member should be developing for his or her primary job (you know, the one he or she was actually hired to do) instead of worrying about teaching something not officially governed by that job.

  Now, if Mr. Librarian and Ms. Counselor would like to teach during the daytime for 3 hours a week, I would think you could be flexible with allowing them to shift those 3 hours of their regularly scheduled hours to the night or weekend. Surely some students would like to have the reference librarian on-hand at night or make a counseling appointment during normally unavailable hours. In this case, win-win.

  I'm just sick to death of hearing people whine about how they want unreasonable accommodations to the job they were hired (and paid) to perform because they want the ability to take a job from someone else, which is where that daytime adjunct money will end up coming from.

• What to do?
• Posted by Lil Johnny on July 2, 2009 at 6:45am EDT

• Our state policy explicitly prohibits staff from teaching during their "normal work hours." However, staff can change their work hours or schedule with their supervisor's permission. They would have to still work the required number of hours for their regular position. As a program coordinator at a rural comunity college with rising enrollments and fewer full-time teaching positions, there have been times when I really needed more adjunct instructors who could teach during peak hours (8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.). I could not find anybody who could come during the day for the amount of money we pay. In situations like that, I have had qualified individuals on campus teach courses for us. They are paid just like an adjunct instructor.

  Given the increased administrative duties instructors have taken on over the years I don't see anything wrong with administrators or staff members taking on more instructional duties. In fact, I have found that one of the best ways to get administrators to understand what faculty do and have to deal with, is to put them in a class. They quickly see it is not so easy to improve retention rates and they quickly learn that student evaluations can be brutal. It is a real eye-opener for most and they learn to appreciate the full-time faculty more. Personally, I think anybody who is credentailed to teach, is interested in teaching, and has the skill-set that is necessary for it, should be allowed to do so. But the responsible academic unit must control who is allowed to teach. You don't want the VP or Dean of Student Services deciding who will teach in your department and what they will teach and when. That is a nightmare scenario.

  How much time to give them for teaching a course??? Since instructors have been given more administrative duties without anything being taken off of their plate (and without a pay increase), I say they should just get the three hours on instruction and should not be paid for it. If they have to work evenings and weekends to prepare for class, so be it. You want in the club? Welcome to the club. The 50-60 hours a week for the same amount of pay club.

  Ideally, a college should have enough resources, and faculty and staff members, that people doing multiple jobs on campus would be rare. Ideally, we could specialize and focus on doing a limited number of things. In reality, we don't have those sort of resources where I work. Faculty are being asked to do more and more things that were traditionally admin/staff functions. Why not make it a two-way street. I say welcome them with open arms. In fact, I'll even go a little further with this idea. I think ALL college/university presidents and vice presidents should be forced to teach one class a semester... and an introductory course at that (no escaping to the pleasure of upper-level courses or graduate seminars). High level administrators seem to forget what it means to teach and frankly, they lose touch with reality. They also don't really understand what type of students we are dealing with nowadays (millenials). Sitting in a one hour seminar on generational differences does not really qualify... Sorry admins. Putting administartors in the classroom would be the best thing for most institutions. Their expectations (retention, graduation rates, pass rates, etc...) would likely become more realistic and achievable.

• What about distance ed?
• Posted by T on July 2, 2009 at 8:00am EDT

• Let staff members teach a distance ed course. Then they can do it from home in the evenings.

• Comments from a librarian who teaches...
• Posted by Catherine , Librarian at Cape Fear Community College on July 2, 2009 at 9:15am EDT

• I am a librarian. More specifically, I am a library director. I have taught credit courses at a few institutions where I have served as the library director. At only 1 institution has this been part of my regular load. That was when I was teaching a 1-credit Library Studies course. It's pretty clear to see how that course should be part of the librarian's load. At other institutions, I've taught English as an adjunct (YES, I have an MA in English) and I now regularly teach a 1-credit College Success course as an adjunct. The important thing to note, I believe, is that I do this by CHOICE. It is not expected or required by my administration. I would not want to set any sort of precedent or expectation by teaching credit courses as part of my load, because then that expectation might trickle down to the librarians on my staff--who already have FULL-TIME jobs. If one librarian can teach as part of her load, then we should make every librarian teach for free!

  That said, there are many advantages to having librarians (and other professional staff) teach. My classroom experience lets me get to know so many students who I may not have met if I had stayed just in the Library. How wonderful it is to have a sustained classroom relationship with students that lasts several weeks or months, rather than the brief "one shot" instructional sessions with which so many librarians struggle. It may be cliche to say, but my teaching informs my librarianship. I also understand and can relate better to my faculty peers...there's less of that "me staff"--"you faculty" dichotomy. I can talk first day handouts, rosters, attendance, grading, disruptive students, classroom management, instructional technology, and pedagogical successes and failures with even the most seasoned faculty member. PLUS, there are advantages to the institution when a full-time staffer is an adjunct. I don't "teach and run." I'm here 40+ hours a week--contributing to the life of the campus. I am much more accessible to students than most adjuncts can be. AND, I find that I have, at times, become a voice for adjuncts at my institution. When, on my adjunct time, I find my classroom door consistently locked (and me with no key), or access to the classroom technology curtailed (by locks or passwords), or important information that didn't trickle down to me, or useful on-campus teaching resources that are being promoted only to the full-time faculty...then I can remind the "powers that be" how this hampers the success, or even marginalizes, our part-timers.

  But getting back to the matter of whether teaching should be included in the load for staff. That's an institutional decision that should be made up front and the job description should reflect it. If counselors at your institution are the best ones to teach the Introduction to College course, then make it a part of the job description for all counselors and reduce the remainder of their work load accordingly. If the reference librarians will be expected to teach a new 1-credit information literacy course that your college in implementing, then revise the job description and re-evaluate the work load. DON'T set a precedent just to accommodate one individual who wants to teach but doesn't want to do it outside of his/her normal load. As others have sort of asked, "Doesn't this person have enough to do in his/her day job"? Good teaching requires a much greater time commitment than just the few in-class hours one sees on a schedule.

• Don't forget. Your accrediting agency is watching...
• Posted by Master of None , Associate Professor & Accreditation Liaison on July 2, 2009 at 9:45am EDT

• In short, as concise and clean as your last reaffirmation of accreditation may have been, when you add a staff component to the faculty credentials mix, expect intensified scrutiny by your regional accreditor when it comes to reviewing these new faculty members' degrees and transcripts, the level of professional development the are afforded within their home departments, participation in shared governance and curricular planning, etc. etc. I witnessed the mix of tears, rage and dismay that came when at least a dozen staff who had been teaching a section or two each year of psychology, sociology, economics, government, compositions, etc. were summarily relieved of current and future assignments when off-site and on-site reviews pressed deans and a provost to defend credentials or roll the dice toward 'warning' or 'probation.'

• No staff teaching
• Posted , HR Director at Southern Vermont College on July 2, 2009 at 9:45am EDT

• At my institution we have discontinued allowing staff to teach here -- we encourage those who want to teach as an adjunct to do it at another institution, perhaps online.

  We have found that having staff members away from their normal duties during the day (paid or unpaid) creates problems for students who need to contact them or even for colleagues who need to schedule meetings involving them.

  In the example concerning a Counselor teaching a Counseling course (a practice we allowed in the past and stopped), there is a real potential for conflict of interest when the Counselor (as teacher) has a student (who is also a counseling client) in his/her class.

  We decided that rather than try to figure out who might have potential conflict, and whose absence creates operational inconvenience, and then being accused of unfairness because some are allowed to teach and some are not, we would disallow all staff teaching. Period.

• Posted by random thoughts on July 2, 2009 at 10:00am EDT

• I assume that it is not just that these staff would like to teach during the day, but that their doing so will also help the school serve students. If the school doesn't need the courses taught at that time, then the answer is clearly "no." (I presume that most of your students would prefer to take courses during the day.)

  There are virtues in having staff in the classroom. In addition to the greater understanding mentioned by Lil Johnny above, there are payoffs in terms of employee satisfaction. If the staff member wants to teach, does it well, and the school benefits, then it makes sense to find a way to make it work.

  In an amendment to my letter of hire (as an academic administrator), I was allowed to teach up to six semester hours per year during work hours. There was no additional pay and my only time out of the office was in the classroom (or occasionally meeting with a student) -- preparation, grading, etc. was on my own time. I thought of it as a win-win -- I got to do something I enjoyed (and for which I was qualified) and the school offered courses it otherwise couldn't offer. (When I taught at night, I was compensated for time away from family, as any other adjunct. And of course, when I then taught the same courses at night, I didn't have a new prep.) It was not a bad arrangement, although I did wish that a limited amount of the preparation could have been included in the job -- I could have done a better job of teaching. But I would rather have had the arrangement I did than to miss the opportunity to teach.

• Staff Teaching
• Posted by Vallie Mae , Director Career & Experiential Education at College of Mount St. Joseph on July 2, 2009 at 10:30am EDT

• My staff teaches career development course work as adjuncts during the lunchtime hour (If they choose to do so). This gives them the chance to get to know their students at a different level, and I see it as a fit with their responsibilities. I can make a case for staff members teaching freshman experience course work as well. The resulting relationships that can be formed can enhance student retention. I agree that it gets complicated when you have staff teaching in academic discipline areas, and you need to be consistent about expectations for staff when they are taking on teaching assignments. But there are benefits to having staff members in the classroom on occasion, as it gives them an idea of what a faculty member workload looks like.

• Salaried administrators...
• Posted by John Ashby , Adjunct Instructor at Saint Louis University on July 2, 2009 at 10:30am EDT

• For many years as administrator of a service department, I concurrently taught as an Adjunct and occasionally had daytime classes (not preferred) and student meetings. This is pretty common for academic administrators who want to keep their hand in the classroom, and they are salaried after all. The typical expectation would be that there be no conflict with full-time responsibilities, and that the full-time role still occupies over 40 hours/week of effort.

• Posted by MAZ on July 2, 2009 at 10:45am EDT

• To refuse to allow staff to teach in areas that they are expert in would be to not utilize all the resources at hand. At our institution, we have many students that need staff services after hours. I believe that this ability, for those that are interested, actually helps us expand after hours services.

• Not as part of their workload
• Posted by Dean John at community college on July 2, 2009 at 11:30am EDT

• We have a few staff who teach, but they are paid and they have to do it outside of their normal assigned hours. Frankly, our faculty union wouldn't allow staff to teach as part of their "staff" workload, anymore than the staff union would allow faculty to do staff work. The faculty have a point--it takes work away from faculty members (the adjunct who isn't hired...).

• Talk about a can of worms....
• Posted by Say What , Adjunct Professor at Austin Community College on July 2, 2009 at 12:30pm EDT

• Before addressing the original post, I'd like to first answer the problem posed by "Lil Johnny" (inability to get adjuncts during prime time day hours) is easily solvable. When a necessary resource is scarce, your priority becomes getting maximum usage of that resource. Schedule faculty members according to where/when adjuncts aren't available and answer any complaints by citing either the school or department mission statements.

  As for the OP, your question seems to co-mingle a number of concerns. It is the responsibility of the job applicant to demonstrate fitness and availability for the job. The hiring department should chuck any application where that isn't clear, regardless of who the candidate's current employer is. End of story in that regard....

  The school's general policy on outside employment - assuming there is one - should act equally well for staff members who seek employment as adjuncts. If such an outside employment policy doesn't exist, one should be put into place and it should be neutral (i.e., no preference/exception given as to where the staff member seeks outside employment).

  When a member of state government teaches at a state institution, nobody even considers co-mingling discussions of the jobs' respective pay, work hours, benefits, etc. They are two distinctly different agreements. So too it is with staff employees who wish to adjunct teach.

• Can of worms
• Posted by Lil Johnny on July 2, 2009 at 1:45pm EDT

• Say what,

  Where I work, the students want their classes during the peak hours, not in the late afternoon or evening (when they work or have to take care of their chidlren/family). In addition, where I live and work, there are few people who would be qualified to teach college-level courses of any type. There are even fewer who would do so for less than $1,500 a course. If I lived in a larger city, like Austin, I am sure I would have a larger pool of adjuncts to select from and we might not need any breathing/available/qualified individual to teach the classes we need to offer. I guess it ultimately depends on the situation of the school. Location... Student Need... Budget... etc...

• I have taught as adjunct while being university staff
• Posted by Jim , senior learning specialist at a major computer company on July 2, 2009 at 1:45pm EDT

• A number of years ago (okay, it was back in the 1980s) I was a programmer/analyst for administrative systems at a public university. I was invited to teach an undergraduate COBOL programming course for the technology and engineering school (from which I had received my own M.S. in systems science). I taught in the evenings as adjunct faculty. I held scheduled office hours during the regular business day, but did so in a student work area on the first floor of the computer center rather than in my office in the administrative systems department on the third floor (because of confidentiality concerns -- that is, that students not be roaming about in an area where computer terminals had access to student records and where confidential information might be on printouts stacked on desks). The time allocated for these scheduled office hours was subtracted from my lunch time.

  This was a great opportunity for me; I got to teach but also got to do my regular programmer/analyst work (which I also enjoyed). My student ratings were quite high, both in the university's end-of-semester surveys and in the unofficial surveys conducted by the student newspaper. I also heard from some former students who told me that my course had been one of the most useful courses they had taken.

  After I left my staff position at the university to go to work as a systems analyst for an aerospace company, I continued to teach as adjunct for a few more semesters, on and off, but finally gave it up because the time commitment was too great to justify as a hobby and the salary was far too low to compensate for the time I was putting into it. (You may take that as an indication that my salary in private industry was quite a bit higher than my university salary had been.)

  I think it is an excellent idea to allow staff to teach as adjunct faculty, but -- for the reasons you listed in your discussion -- only outside of their normal work schedule.

• Us too
• Posted by sibyl on July 2, 2009 at 2:15pm EDT

• My institution's practice goes along with the emerging consensus: staff and administrators who teach do so as adjuncts, for adjunct pay, and they are expected to do their full-time jobs as well. The only exceptions are the president and vice presidents, who effectively teach for no additional pay.

• Posted by Mark K. on July 2, 2009 at 7:45pm EDT

• At my university, staff who teach are granted an overload, i.e. more $$$. They are not allowed to teaching during their normally scheduled working hours, they must have written supervisor approval, and there is a cap to how many credit hours they can teach per semester. My understanding is that the decision to assign staff as instructors for particular courses is made at the departmental level, subject to approval by academic affairs--the same process as adjuncts are hired.

• What about higher-ups?
• Posted by Jim on July 3, 2009 at 6:45am EDT

• I know plenty of administrators who have taught a course once in a while. They're on twelve month salaried contacts--are they also banned from teaching? What if they earned tenure as a professor before "rising in the ranks"? What about situations where teaching a specialty class does fall under the list of reasonable job duties, such as a counselor offering a class on depression and suicide to residence hall staff?

  Do you tell your President, a Ph.D. engineer, that he can't teach a class in his field? If you allow that, then why not a counselor or residential life staff member who is qualified in his/her field?

• Admins teaching
• Posted by Noreen on July 3, 2009 at 6:15pm EDT

• A community college president with a Ph.D. in engineering?!!! I wish. That would be a relief after the parade of Ed.D.'d goofballs we've suffered through. Someone actually capable of reasoning from evidence would be just ducky!