I LOVE MY JOB

I love my job, honor bright. It makes me crazy-busy and I am not paid enough, but there are other things about it that I value. And although I have been known to complain about it at times, I love the demographic (mainly young white suburban males). I love that I get to challenge them about various environmental, political and social issues. I honestly feel privileged to be the one that gets to crack their world view open a little, so it can grow.

So yeah, I love my job. But I don't always love the place I work. You see, the development team at this fine college is involved in a campaign to raise three zillion dollars for 'student success.' Of course, they know the instructors at this school are absolutely rolling in it, so that is who they are targeting for donations. They have sprinkled us with fliers and emails. They have attempted to hypnotize us at both inter and intra departmental meetings. They have even developed strategies to shame us into donating. It seems they have done everything shy of calling our grandmothers up at two in the morning, breathing heavy with so much meaning, into the telephone.

The guy who is heading this campaign called me at the beginning of fall quarter to ask me if I'd like to give. He told me how they had set some asinine goal to get 100% participation from each department. Unfortunately, he called the same week I realized I was getting $200 less per pay check due to a "mistake" where I was told I had been "overpaid" for "prep time." Needless to say, I wasn't in a philanthropic mood. I explained to him the Plight of the Adjunct Instructor, but I think he has since forgotten, because he sent another email last week. The following letter is my response.

Jim,

I appreciate you taking the time to send me a personal email about The College's campaign. Perhaps you don’t remember, but I spoke to you on the phone several months ago. At that time, I thought I made it clear to you my situation here as an adjunct instructor. I have no health benefits, I have no job security, and as of fall quarter 2006, I am technically paid only for those hours spent in the classroom. This quarter, that sums up to about twenty-seven teaching hours/week. Of course, I can’t get all of my grading and lesson planning completed while I’m in the classroom instructing! So in actuality, I put in about forty to fifty hours/week. I am physically in the building at least forty hours each week and on most nights and weekends I put in a total of five to ten hours of work/week.

I have heard you talk about this campaign and how it will directly contribute to student success. I am asking you to consider the overtime I invest each week as my personal contribution to student success. I would even argue that the time I spend with them is even more direct than monetary contributions. But if you would like to break it down to dollars, this is what it looks like: I am contracted to work 27 hours a week. It is standard practice that for every three hours of class, I should get one hour of prep time. So let’s say I am paid for 36 hours a week (HR would tell you this is included in my hourly paycheck). This means I’m putting in four to nine hours of overtime each week. According to my contract, I’m supposed to be paid $25 for each hour of overtime, but things like curriculum improvement and grading assignments are not considered official overtime. But I still put the time in, even if I don’t get paid for it. That means I’m not collecting some $100 to $225 a week. Over a single quarter, that comes to $1200 to $2700. Please consider that my contribution to The College.

I feel like I already give more than is expected for this job. But I do it and I do it happily because I love teaching and I love teaching at this institution. While I think it is unfortunate that my dedication to this college goes unnoticed and unappreciated by those outside of my department, I think it is very regrettable that I am being compared to people that don’t have to pay $300 every time they need to see a doctor. I have over ninety students this quarter and I do the very best I can to give each one the attention they deserve. This is why I don’t feel bad about not contributing in the way you are suggesting. The fact remains, I am contributing. I hope this makes sense to you. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if you wish to chat more about this. Thank you for your time and have a great day yourself!

Winter Wren