Presentation made with a colleague at the New Horizon\'s conference on managing adjunct faculty.

1. Big Foot, Area 51, Adjunct
Faculty, and Other Urban
Legends

2. Warning
• The ideas presented today may be
offensive to those who lack a sense of
humor. If you have no sense of humor,
turn back now…
Joe Edenfield, Dean
Paul D. Camp Community College
Dick Wilt, Dean
Eastern Shore Community College

3. Things we don‟t know enough
about…
• And other stuff that bothers us…
• Big Foot
• Aliens (Area 51)
• Adjunct Faculty
• Various Urban Legends
• Harry Potter (did Snape really kill
Dumbledore?)
• Many, Many More….

4. Big Foot
• Alexander the Great demanded that
one be brought to him
• 400 years later Pliny (Roman historian)
wrote about them…
• Cryptozoology
 Search for creatures rumored to exist

5. So you don‟t believe in Big Foot
• That‟s OK…
• He doesn‟t believe in you either…

7. Adjunct Faculty
• Associate Faculty • Freeway Flyers
• Temporary • Necessary Evils
Faculty • MIA‟s
• Reserve Faculty • Invisible and
• Percentage Expendable
Instructors
• Pretend Professors
• Academic
• Grunts
Underclass
• Slave-Wage Paper
• Roads Scholars
Graders
• Plug and Play
Professors

8. Who are they?
Remarkably like the full-time faculty…
Asian
3%
Hispanic
Native American
5%
1%
White Other
84% 16%
Black
7%

9. 4 categories for adjunct faculty
classification (Gappa and Leslie)
• Career-enders
• Specialists/Experts
• Aspiring Academics
• Freelancers

10. Why do adjuncts teach?
• Extrinsic
• Intrinsic

11. Are they or aren‟t they???
• Adjunct faculty teaching effectiveness
• Depends on who you ask…
√ Ernst and McFarlance (1978) –- No
√ Cruise (1980) –- Yes
√ Morano (1983) –- Yes
√ Boggs (1984) -- Yes
√ Gappa and Leslie (1993) –- Yes
√ Bolge (1995) -- Yes
√ Rouche, Rouche, and Milliron -- Yes
√ Jacobs (1998) –- No
√ McArthur (1999) –- No

12. They may look like full-timers
but they don‟t act like „em.
By 2 to 1 adjuncts -
•Spend less time with students
outside of class
•Have no interaction with
colleagues
•Know less about college
services for students
2004 National Study of Post-secondary Faculty. US DOE

13. Why do you use them?
Different reasons for different disciplines?
•General education disciplines
•OT disciplines
The big three:
•Flexibility (we can fire them guilt free)
•They are cheap
•Their content expertise
It matters because their needs differ.

14. Are they important?
• Yes
• Adjunct Faculty make up 67% of community
college faculty in USA
• AACC says that we should keep in mind that
full-time faculty members teach most of
the credit hours
• Hmmmm….

15. What about the VCCS?
• According to SCHEV 52% of VCCS
credits are taught by adjunct faculty
members….

16. What about my school?
 Blue Ridge  Patrick Henry
45.2% 46.8%
Central Virginia  Paul D. Camp
53.9% 55.5%
D.S. Lancaster  Piedmont Virginia
48.1% 57.1%
Danville  Rappahannock
50.7% 50.3%
Eastern Shore  Southside Virginia
47.8% 58.9%
Germanna  Southwest Virginia
61.4% 46.3%
J.S. Reynolds  Thomas Nelson
61.0% 52.2%
John Tyler Tidewater
65.3% 57.7%
Lord Fairfax Virginia Highlands
51.6% 41.1%
Mountain Empire Virginia Western
43.8% 57.3%
New River Wytheville
47.9% 66.8%
Northern Virginia 42.9%
SCHEV 2004 ROIE

17. Food for thought…
Increasing enrollment Increasing use of adjuncts
Who is going to do the curriculum development,
committee assignments, advising, student clubs,
and other duties as assigned?

18. No problem – just ask for more money
The “exemplary” programs you
read about in the literature are
probably not realistic for the
rest of us.
Are you going to hire an
adjunct faculty coordinator?

19. The Invisible Faculty Gappa & Leslie
“We are not loved!”
Strangers in Their Own Land
Roueche, Roueche & Milliron

20. Solutions -
• ASK THEM
• Find out who they
are
– How long they‟ve
been there
– What discipline
– Their motivation for
teaching
• YOU (Deans, VPs)
create development
programs

21. Think about this…
• Demographically similar to FT Faculty
• But, the legend is:
– They are all alike
– Truth is they aren‟t
• Different motivations
• Longevity
• Disciplines are different
• Campuses vary
• It‟s not just teaching

22. Urban Legend -- Nostradamus
• In 1555 Nostradamus wrote:
“Come the millennium, month 12
In the home of the greatest power,
The village idiot will come forth
to be acclaimed the leader”
True or False

23. Urban Legend – The Price is Right
• The week after Hurricane Katrina
devastated New Orleans…
• Bob Barker gave away a speed boat and
an all expense paid trip to New Orleans
True or False

25. Joe Edenfield interviews prospective
adjunct

26. Adjunct at professional development activity on
campus

27. Adjunct spotted actually arriving on campus to meet class.

28. Nursing adjunct giving demonstration.