I love my job because I love my students and the content I teach. However, teaching five classes between several colleges is more than a full-time load at most schools, and I make a fraction of a full-time salary. It has been impossible for me to cross over that indelibly thick line to the full-time world at my favorite school, WCC. Although I always have outstanding student evaluations on the school’s monitored site and have reached out many times for other jobs here, my fellow adjuncts and I do not get hired. There seems to be no preference, even though I have taught 1000+ happy students here.
Another problem: although I have been teaching here for many years, I have absolutely no job security. My courses have been swiped from me at the last minute by Senior Adjuncts, leaving me with nothing. And this further sets me back from BECOMING a Senior Adjunct myself, as I have lost that semester. Senior status should be determined by the total number of courses taught, not the number of semesters taught.
On the bright side, I don’t have mandatory office hours when I get paid to do my grading or course planning. I do that during my own personal time. Wait a second…….!!!