Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Also...

....I got another job ad/offer emailed to me today. To teach 2 brand new classes, at a campus that is two hours away by car.

The start date is in on Monday. In five days.

I won't be sending my CV in. And God help the students who are enrolled in those two classes. Whatever well-meaning person takes this position is in no way, shape, or form going to be able to put in their best effort. But I guess it doesn't matter, as long as they get a warm body to stand in front of all of those tuition dollars students.

Five days to prep. Astounding.

3 comments:

  1. That is just...appalling. But when I quit a week before classes started last spring, they had no trouble finding someone. However well-meaning that person might have been, I have no. Doubt ze took the extra classes for the money. Not out of greed, mind you, but because ze probably otherwise didn't have enough classes to make ends meet, as I didn't. Which was why I quit in the first place. It's sad. Truly sad for the tuition-paying students. No one can prep a new class properly in that amount of ime.

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  2. Exactly. This school is known for its excellent undergraduate education ... something tells me that the students taking these two courses are not going to get the best value for their education dollar. As you say ... no matter how well-meaning the instructor is, no one can prep a truly great (or even good) class in less than a week. Much less two.

    I almost didn't post about this email, because it felt like overkill (since I've already posted about last minute job offers). But in the tradition of William Pannapacker, I think we need to bring this kind of thing to light. Grad students need to know that if they don't win the academic lottery, this is what they're going to get. And college kids (and their parents) need to know that this is how many college classes are staffed these days.

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  3. I was just called by a community college regarding anatomy positions which are still vacant. Scanning listings across a few states, there are almost no other biology jobs at community collegesl. Anatomy and physiology for pre-medical and allied health fields is the slot administrators are perpetually trying to fill because the most who develop advanced skills are in medical school and don't want to teach; it suggests that you're lucky if you get a good anatomy teacher. (would be a good option for paleontologists who want to teach, rather than switch careers). You'd think this job market information could be more effectively transmitted to current grad students who want a guaranteed job

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