Professor Mamas in 2009 - Page 28

[Carita]

I would maybe have phrased it so it sounds to him more like a choice (even though its not), so that he chooses the avenue that benefits him most instead of you choosing that avenue for him. i.e. Sure he can attend the 3:30 talk, but the questions gleaned from it on the exam would be most easily accessed at the 7:30 talk.

And here, we don't have midterms scheduled in advance - I give my students about 1.5 weeks notice when we have approached a half way point.

On the other hand the LD thing is an interesting issue. I have several students claiming LD this semester, and although its not my job to figure out who has one and who doesn't, I do find that the college is overly lenient in deciding who gets accommodations, and it's really everyone who asks. That bugs me. But IDK exactly what, if anything, I should say. I don't want my professorial grumpiness to get in the way of someone that needs help.

kerc - that is a def concern here as well. PhD good for accreditation, bad for professorial retention perhaps?

[kaybee]

Carita - At our institution there is a very formal process for dealing with LDs, and there are a host of accomodations out there. I have had students who were completely blind and others who were just slow. However, they all have to document the LD to our disabilities office.

Kerc - I agree with Carita. The 7:30 talk will be on the exam, and there's not really any way to make it up. If you want to go to the 3:30, go for it. Hopefully some of the same info will be presented, but no guarantees. It's been on the syllabus, and it's too late to make accomodations.

I will be going to both.

I just talked 3 of my grad students (none of whom are in residence here) into setting up a writing club. This is as much for me as for them. 30 minutes a day and report back to the group on progress. We have a lot of things to get written. I hope this helps.

Now I just need to set up a grading club.

[Realrellim]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

You were clear on the outset, the LD was there at the outset, the other midterm was scheduled at the start of the term as well. Here, the LD accommodations are to be put in place in the first week of classes. He needed to have dealt with this then.

This.

At my school, the policy is that students, even those with accommodations, are expected to complete the coursework. If that means attending a concert or a talk, they need to do that just like any other student. If everyone was told to go to the 7:30 talk, that's what he needs to do. He doesn't get a different option unless his accommodations outline something like "cannot attend events after 7 pm."

[Dmitrizmom]

Carita - I agree with the others that you were clear about expectations.

Things are moving along at both schools for me.  I was evaluated by the Dean at one school by the Vice Provost at the other school on my lectures this week.  Got good reviews from both.  

Only 2 more weeks at one and a month at the other until break.   Planning on only being at the community college in the spring - I'll be teaching 3 classes: Environmental Science, Health Sciences Anatomy, and Physiology.

[Carita]

so I assume we are going to ride this thread out til 2011?  LOL

met today about putting together an NSF proposal... as if i don't have enough stuff on my plate

trying to figure out how wrap things up with only a few weeks left.  I have the whole thanksgiving week off - which is great, but means i have 2 classes less to do what i need to do.  I really only have a handful of classes left!

[kerc]

Kaybee: see you thursday then. Do you have class between the seminars? I have a few ideas about erosion on the big lake/big river and just saw another joint proposal for sea grant.Want to talk about studying erosion?

Writing club: good idea. I could use that.

Grading club: I view it sort of like the laundry pile at home: I deal with it when I have to and develop little rules for myself to follow such as I don't hold tests for more than 7 calendar days if I can help it. Likewise, I try to not have to shuffle through the dirty pile three days in a row for clean jammies for the kids.

Thanks to everyone for input on the LD crap accommodations. I'm thinking the office here is just really unactive. Where I've worked before I've had more formal contact with the LD office and the students have been helped by the accommodations. Here: this student is a perfect example of the office. The student feels like he can get over on me because he has in the past. Most of the time I find students offered accommodations either (a). don't use them or (b). benefit from just knowing they are there but never actually use them.

Search: did I post this? The acting chancellor came to the meeting to discuss the search and basically said the search cannot be personal and we absolutely should hire a phd. YAY! Unfortunately I was cornered today and asked to be on the search committee to help balance the gender. I really don't want to do it, but will if they need me -- hiring the right person could continue to help the department move forward from a fairly backwards location. There are a number of good new people. Although I don't want to spend a gazillion hours on a search.

Yay for a good review with a big-wig.

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by kerc 

Thanks to everyone for input on the LD crap accommodations. I'm thinking the office here is just really unactive. Where I've worked before I've had more formal contact with the LD office and the students have been helped by the accommodations. Here: this student is a perfect example of the office. The student feels like he can get over on me because he has in the past. Most of the time I find students offered accommodations either (a). don't use them or (b). benefit from just knowing they are there but never actually use them.

Sounds like you have an extra line to start adding to your syllabi from here on out.  Figure out the stated rules for the university and go by those, remind students in the syllabus each term that you'll be going by the rules.

With the new boards only putting a few posts per page, we should probably move to a new thread for 2011.  Let's give folks a chance to figure out which way's up in the new format before changing much.

________

Mentors

Ya'll have them?  I keep seeing that one of the best ways for women in academia (STEM particularly) to buck a lot of the accumulation of (dis)advantage issues is to have solid, independent mentors.  I've been using one of mine (my postdoc sponsor) in recent days as a sounding board on my tenure case.  I'm so thankful to have him at my fingertips, and I'm handling the issues much better with his advise.

[ASusan]

Does anyone have any resources for negotiating a part-time contract? (Like what can I ask for? What is an average and what is the top per-course payment? Any guidelines on benefits? Anything else I'm missing?)

Thank you in advance.

And, no,. I don't have any mentors. Part of the reason I'm now in the position of having to negotiate a PT contract.

[kerc]

PT contract:  I worked PT for the community college repeatedly. My contract was dictated by collective bargaining. It was very good for PT people, probably at the expense of FT people.

My PT contract for the past few years: horrible. High work hours, not very good pay. Insurance was ok, but not fabulous.

My first line of advice: find out what others at that school have. Can you explicitly get sick days? are you paid per credit or per class? travel $$ for development? What are your insurance and retirement options?

[Geofizz]

ASusan, sorry you're in a tough spot.

We have a  PT faculty policy in place.  The percentage of full time defines your teaching load, so if you're unit's teaching load is, say,  2-2-2, then a 50% position is 1-1-1, and a 66% position would be 2-1-1, for instance.  The tenure clock is then extended proportionally, so doubled (or time remaining to tenure review is doubled if you start it mid-way through the tenure clock) for 50% time faculty.

Benefits stay in place as long as you stay > 50%.  Service loads should also be proportional.

What's going on?  Anything you can talk about here?

[kerc]

forgot to add:

my husband is teaching his second semester ad hoc for the university system. Last semester his class started at 5, this semester his class begins at 330. When we got his first paycheck he was afraid to ask about it:  it was double last semester.  When he finally got up the nerve to ask his dept. chair it turned out the university pays twice as much for ad hoc people during the day vs. the evening. 

One local school pays 1300 per credit for less than 5, on the union payscale above (in both science and history).

Another pays closer to 2800 per credit (for 3 credits) in history.

and the third more like 1500 per credit for both science and history.

Hope that helps.

[Geofizz]

kerc and I made different assumptions about your position.  ASusan - can you clarify - are you TT?  I thought you were...

The answer is really different depending if you are tenured/TT vs sessional/adjunct.

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Geofizz 

kerc and I made different assumptions about your position.  ASusan - can you clarify - are you TT?  I thought you were...

The answer is really different depending if you are tenured/TT vs sessional/adjunct.

Indeed. I first made the assumption you did: TT. Then I decided to add the $$ information because I wanted to be sure I answered her questions about how much $ per credit.

In other news: guess who came to the 330 seminar? yep. LD dude.

I might have forgotten to tell you folks the best part of it (which I remembered when explaining the situation to dh on the way to the seminar). This same conversation about which seminar to come to included a statement from him that he has a disabled parking permit, allowing him to park for free at neighboring university's meters. Therefore he should be like a bus driver and would have free parking for anyone who wanted it. Bordering on immoral IMO, but to announce that during class was so strange. I find myself that this guy does well on the paper so that I don't have to deal with him any longer (i.e. pass my class and bye-bye).
 

[ASusan]

I'm not TT here. I was at another institution, but I came here in a visiting position. DH was just promoted to full. I have been full-time here since 06 (this is my 5th year). They are offering me a continuing PT contract as of next year. My first year here, I worked 4/5 position and was pro-rated FT with benefits, but that is not likely to happen except under unusual circumstances in the future for me.

I don't want to whine too much about other problems that are associated with my position and dept here.  (e.g., when I came here, I asked how I could position myself for a TT position and made a suggestion myself for some post-doc training...and was given some poor advice - that the training wouldn't be useful or necessary for the dept. and I should focus on something else. They are now searching a position for which I would have been PERFECTLY positioned, had I done that training. In fact, it is a position based around a course I suggeseted they needed in their curriculum and have taught for them 3 times in 4 years. But, I don't have the specific type of training/background they now think they need. - that I predicted they would need/want/should have. AARUGH.)

I am being told that I am being offered $1,000 more per class than other PT faculty...but I don't know if this is true.

I have been used to FT benefits, including professional development funds. That is something I will ask about.

This will KILL our family budget. frowny face.

Thanks for you good wishes and support.

[Carita]

for adjunct work around here (for some other data)

3 credit class technical college pays $1800 ($600/credit)

3 credit class small private libral arts pays $2000 ($667/credit)

3 credit class small public pays $2800 ($933/credit)

for math

significantly less than kerc - i want to know where kerc teaches!! LOL

Edited by Carita - 11/12/10 at 7:08pm

[Geofizz]

Argh, ASusan, what a situation.  I have this sense you're in the same general area as me -- maybe based on an earlier discussion?  Anyways, are you at a public or public university?  If it's public, salaries are published.  You can get average salaries by rank and department on our hr website (and given there are two pre-tenure folks in my dept, I could work out the other guy's easily enough...) but they are listed by name in a book you can get at the library.  If you're in the same great state I am, and at a public institution, you've got access to that information.

We pay $7.4k/quarter (5 credit lab class) for sessionals, no benefits.  It's well known that STEM courses pay more, though.

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Carita 

significantly less than kerc - i want to know where kerc teaches!! LOL

Thankfully none of those places: I'm tenure track now!

But I live in a the union-stronghold state of Minnesota. We all mourn the loss of the Democratic governor/legislature in Wisconsin and the long-standing Democrat in the Senate in Minnesota.

I just sat in on a session on joining the union. It is tricky to give up 1% of my salary, then again....worth it perhaps.
 

[Carita]

I know b/c i live in a poor (though democratic) state, we are paid meager salaries.  even though we are a private STEM institution.  What's worse is without Tenure here, there are no large bumps for promotion.  so going from asst to assoc brings only a 1-1.5K perk.  trying very hard right now to not think the grass is greener elsewhere...  if we got paid near what others get paid in depts mentioned above, i might have stayed an adjunct!

Edited by Carita - 11/14/10 at 4:42pm

[Dmitrizmom]

Y'all are making me appreciate what I'm making at my CC.  :lol  It's not great and they are on a hiring freeze, but as an adjunct with flexibility on what I can teach I've got better odds than most at keeping a steady schedule.  Of course, I'm hoping that I wow them enough that by the time the hiring freeze is gone that I will be one of their first choices to fill a vacancy.  :)

[Carita]

I took the liberty...

http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1288644/professor-mamas-2011#post_16153101