2008 Woodie Awards
Adjunct does not mean low quality
By: Joe Schuster
Issue date: 3/22/07 Section: Letters to the Editor
- Page 1 of 1
I'm writing in response to the story you published in the March 8 issue about adjunct pay. The article, I think, gives a misleading impression of the quality of Webster's adjunct faculty. In my department, we employ roughly 60 adjunct faculty every semester and they are, generally speaking, outstanding teachers and professionals in their fields.
Among them are attorneys, executives with advertising and public relations firms, award-winning journalists and consultants whose clients include CNN and other major news operations. As chairman of the department, I have the opportunity to read their course evaluations every term and, for the most part, students are enthusiastic about the work of the adjunct faculty who are able to translate their considerable experience into a learning opportunity for their students. Have we had adjunct faculty who have not been as effective as we'd like? Certainly.
In those instances, either I and the full-time faculty see them as
having the potential for great work in the classroom and work with them to improve as teachers, or we decide that, despite their impressive resumes, our students might do better with someone else in the classroom and we do not invite them back for another semester. But, at least according to the course evaluations I review, that number is very small - one or two adjunct faculty members a semester - and that degree of success and excellence is remarkable in any field.
Joe Schuster
Chairman, Department of
Communications and Journalism
Among them are attorneys, executives with advertising and public relations firms, award-winning journalists and consultants whose clients include CNN and other major news operations. As chairman of the department, I have the opportunity to read their course evaluations every term and, for the most part, students are enthusiastic about the work of the adjunct faculty who are able to translate their considerable experience into a learning opportunity for their students. Have we had adjunct faculty who have not been as effective as we'd like? Certainly.
In those instances, either I and the full-time faculty see them as
having the potential for great work in the classroom and work with them to improve as teachers, or we decide that, despite their impressive resumes, our students might do better with someone else in the classroom and we do not invite them back for another semester. But, at least according to the course evaluations I review, that number is very small - one or two adjunct faculty members a semester - and that degree of success and excellence is remarkable in any field.
Joe Schuster
Chairman, Department of
Communications and Journalism
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