The Meeting Place: "Adjuncting Around"

"The Administrator," a blogger posting from the U.S. northeast at Confessions of a Community College Dean, replies in this post to a series of questions posed by about the hiring process and prospects as they relate to those with a career in adjuncting. The questions refers to himself as having been "adjuncting around" for a significant portion of his career and presents The Administrator with the following questions (somewhat summarized):

Does adjunct experience count for something positive, or does it mark me as a loser? Does it matter to a prospective employer that I have been geographically limited in job my searches by my partner's job? Does it matter to a prospective employer that I once had a tenure-track teaching position at a four-year school but didn't get tenure because I lacked the PhD? Does it matter to a prospective employer that I'm getting kind of old to be doing this adjunct stuff full-time, or does it demonstrate how much I love teaching and working with students?

Perhaps the bottom-line questions are these: Is there such a thing as too much adjunct experience? Is a large accumulation of adjunct experience ever a desirable trait in the hiring process?

The Administrator sets his answer against the backdrop of three factors: academic profile of the institution, geographic location, and the needs of the institution/department at any given time. His answer is rich and insightful – if overly gentle – as he addresses the topics of teaching experience, a degree’s “sell-by” date, the politics/ethics of hiring committees, issues of geographic diversity, age, and the myth of academic meritocracy. Perhaps equally important to note: he offered himself as a resource for further questions.

The post is worth a read – don’t miss the comment.

Happy start of school to all those currently underway!