A systems approach to strategic success with adjunct faculty

Abstract

Rio Salado College has a reputation for being an innovative community college with a high reliance on adjunct faculty to accomplish its mission and purposes. A 2006 cover story for the Chronicle for Higher Education noted that only a few full-time faculty managed over a thousand adjuncts (Ashburn, 2006). Rio Salado College prides itself on its systems approach to the management of adjunct faculty. This approach directs faculty, organizational resources, personnel, and other supports so that adjunct faculty focus on teaching and learning processes-the core aspects of their work at the college. Davis, Helminski, and Smith (2005) and Bird (2006) have presented and shared some of the keys to this college's success. This chapter reviews and updates those strategies within the context of Rio Salado College' s unique mission, vision, and culture. It also examines adjunct faculty as players and knowledge workers in the global economy.Rio Salado College has what many would consider an ideal situation in terms of adjunct faculty at a community college. There is a stable, qualified, and proven cohort of adjunct faculty teaching courses. The adjunct faculty continue semester after semester, with little turnover. This stability has helped to maintain the quality and consistency of the instruction provided to students. The way Rio Salado successfully recruits, retains, evaluates, and manages adjunct faculty within a nontraditional academic context not only informs practitioners of best practices but also speaks to the nature of the adjunct faculty role in this new and challenging environment. 55 7

Blending at Small Colleges: Challenges and Solutions

“…In order to standardize the program course creation and launching process, the college has adapted the existing instructional design model and processes. The college adopted an online education development model: "one course, many sections" [25]. In this model, a standardized course is being developed and populated into scheduled live sections.…”

Perceptions of the other: Voices of adjunct and fulltime community college faculty

“…The ability to identify the hierarchical removes within institutional domains was confirmed when Smith (2007) discussed how community college administration and fulltime faculty members are in an integral position to weave adjunct instructors into the organizational fabric of their institutions. Addressing the administrative and full-faculty removes would allow adjunct faculty to be viewed as important and desirable members within the academic community and should not be merely viewed or valued as members of a cheap labor force.…”

“…Rouseff-Baker (2002) stated that the development of procedures for faculty needs to focus on the structural and practical needs of faculty. An aspect of this focused endeavor is regarding the presence of organizational layers, or removes, within the institution (Smith, 2007).…”

“…Administrators perceive that time spent in this act of integration, coupled with a consistent effort and the utilization of available resources, would provide an important aspect of incorporating adjunct faculty as desirable and important members of the academic community. Fulltime liberal arts faculty have expressed that, all too often, adjunct faculty are excluded from curricular and collegial conversations with peers due to adjuncts' limitations of time and availability (Smith, 2007). Adjunct faculty typically arrive just before their assigned classes and leave campus after their classes conclude.…”

“…According to Smith (2007), adjuncts are often excluded from collegial conversations and events with their fulltime peers because of their unavailability or time limitations. Amari supported Smith's finding of exclusion and offered the following statement after the researcher asked how his/her contributions to his/her institution affected fulltime faculty.…”