The Issues and Solutions document below were generated at the "Involving Adjunct Faculty in Your College BSI Efforts" breakouts during the recent Fall Regional Teaching and Learning Workshops. The solutions were suggested by both the adjunct and full-time faculty attending these sessions. We all know the important role that adjunct faculty play in teaching our basic skills classes, and if you haven't yet had a discussion about adjunct issues in your Basic Skills Committee, I hope that this list will at least serve to get the conversation started. If any of you have other ideas that have been effective on your campuses, please send them to me so that we can add them to the list.
| Getting Adjunct Faculty Involved in College BSI Efforts | |
| Issues | Solutions |
| Lack of time Lack of money Lack of information |
Involvement in BSI committee: paid for through professional development Grants Adjunct contact person Administration must value adjuncts more Coordinate, combine email distributions Full time partnerships or mentoring Social activities Create website where adjuncts can contribute effective practices for flex credit Include BSI as a part of the new hire process |
| Adjuncts don’t meet on a regular basis with FT faculty | Create videos for the department to introduce new hires to BSI work |
| Motivation to come to meetings with time commitments they already have | Give flex or CEU’s (continuing education units) Use to build CV |
| No way to share/create cohorts | Office or lounge space, flex support, partnerships or mentoring by full-time faculty |
| Lack of ties/connection with school and faculty | Orientation/welcome to school |
| Meetings scheduled at convenient times for full time, not necessarily part time | Consistent meeting times, poll adjuncts |
| Lack or professional development with no pay | Grant writers need to consider part-timers as well |
| FT-PT building a sense of team | FT-PT partnerships and mentoring program |
| Lack of campus orientation and sharing of student and faculty resources | Orientation/welcome to school |
| Difficulty with resource access for night faculty | Orientation/welcome to school |
| Involvement/engagement Space Having a voice |
Virtual community – BLOGS, resource links (allows faculty to see connections – the whole picture) Mixed training – full time and adjunct – “adjunct only” faculty inquiry group Increased “meaningful” professional development Union connection with adjunct |
| Lack of cohesive on campus efforts | Technology, CDs, emails, retreat? Adjunct experience – tap into it! |
| Evening classes | Online tools/newsletter, mentoring |
| Lack of guidance (when teaching new courses) | Partnerships and Mentoring |
| Time/availability | College hours that are more flexible/social Consistent/meaningful virtual connections whenever possible |
| Isolation | Develop partnerships and team/mentor relationships Buy-in on both sides PTers need ownership FTers must value adjunct input RESPECT vs marginalization |
| Adjunct faculty not offered opportunities to work on BSI | Listserv for all faculty members related to basic skills opportunities Course level mentor or partnership program Shared office space Flex credit/pay/stipends for adjunct faculty to participate Learning communities with adjunct-tenured faculty teams |
| Not enough training (FT get the spots) | Part of BSI $ allocated to part-time faculty User friendly training product FAQ |
| Lack of awareness of BS issues, history, resources, campus efforts | Need campus Basic Skills coordinator and a Basic Skills adjunct coordinator Physical and virtual place for dissemination of teaching and learning resources, especially basic skills |
| Campus-wide communication of basic skills issues | More comprehensive adjunct orientation of campus resources and teaching/learning resources Campus-wide “planning hour” to allow cross-discipline coordination and faculty planning w/o teaching conflicts Compensation for adjunct participation in Basic Skills training/department meetings/professional development |
| Lack of connection with faculty from other disciplines | Multidisciplinary meetings on basic skills that require adjunct faculty attendance |
| Freeway flyers not on campus long enough to make connections w/resources and great college community Day vs night part timers Time of meetings & compensation Equity |
Regional trainings: Building investment between districts nearby Flex time Retreat BSI Funding: (college success initiative – CSI) Include part-timers in leadership roles & compensate (legitimatizes role) |
| More opportunities than adjunct realize due to lack of communication, e.g. this workshop | Credit for basic skills certification Develop network of communication to describe terms of employment at various colleges – will reveal disparities |
| No consistency in support for adjunct at state level | Recruit adjuncts for faculty development committees |
| Sense of alienation at department and college level | One adjunct email address state-wide; forward all emails to gmail Handbook for adjunct faculty re: resources, bargaining agreement, contract specifics |
CB 21Recoding for Basic Skills Courses
Your college should have a spreadsheet of all the basic skills courses and their master course file CB coding. Discipline faculty should be correcting the coding on paper until the fall data is submitted. Then between January and March 10 colleges will need to submit their newly coded basic skills courses through their MIS to the Chancellor’s Office. If you do not recode in the spring, all of the basic skills course data will be rejected as errors. This is not rocket science. The training session is archived and available at the BSI website and the Academic Affairs website at the Chancellor’s Office. If your college or district needs help, contact jfulks [at] bakersfieldcollege.edu