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January 28, 2007

Faculty? Me? Weird.

I was one of the judges for the ASUI Poetry Slam this evening. I had a great time. There was some stellar work. All the competitors should be very proud of themselves. Getting up in front of an audience like they did takes a huge amount of courage.

There were some tremendously funny poems and there were some astoundingly moving poems.

One of the other judges was the advisor for student programs or something of the sort, whatever they call it here, and he and I had some great chats. I may have to just drop by his office some day to see if there's anything else I can be involved with. Anyway, as we were getting acquainted, he said to me, "I'm so glad you're doing this. It's really important to get faculty involved in this stuff."

And I thought, "Dude. I'm not really faculty. I'm the pinch hitter. I'm the emergency backup plan. I'm the adjunct who's just been told, 'thank you for helping us out this semester, but your class will be taught by tenure and tenure-track faculty next year.' I'd love to be faculty, but I'm the very last grain of sugar in the bottom of the faculty barrel." Which is sad, because he's right. Faculty should be involved in this stuff. They should go see this stuff. They need to hear what their students have to say and be there to cheer them on when they take these big risks.

Hopefully, someday I'll be an actual resident of someplace. Hopefully, someday I'll actually be valued for my teaching abilities and be an honored member of a faculty instead of an embarrassment. Hopefully, someday I'll be able to actually qualify as "faculty involvement" at an institution of higher learning. Because I've just discovered that I'd like to be.

Posted by sally at January 28, 2007 10:56 PM

Comments

This is Heather--just so you know since my name isn't in my handle.

Anyway, I don't think you could possibly be embarrassment faculty or bottom of the barrel faculty. You are totally 'oh thank god her husband is in grad school here' faculty because if he weren't there it would be much tougher for them to find someone awesome and interesting and responsible and thorough and who actually cares to teach their catch all of classes. None of them are enough to hire a whole new faculty, but they need someone real to teach them, and they got you. I mean, Moscow is the middle of nowhere, it has got to be a little hard to get people to fill in here and there because the people who want jobs have them full time and the people who don't have them are probably job free on purpose. This is kind of rambling, but in case you missed it, the moral of this comment is you are awesome and you are awesome faculty.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 29, 2007 01:18 PM

Heather, you rock. I love your comments. It's like being in the same room with you. Which I miss.

And thanks for the words of support. I know I can teach well. I actually have students tell me that. There's just a lot of adjunct-related upheaval here right now that's pretty demoralizing.

Posted by: Sallyacious [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 31, 2007 12:52 PM

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