The Adjunct

Sorry, but I lack a FAQ.

Why don’t you have a FAQ?
I don’t have a FAQ because I have no frequently asked questions. In fact, as I write this I don’t even have a website. But I would like to say a few words that accomplish more or less the same thing as a FAQ, if you’ll indulge me in this act of self-absorbed belly button gazing…

What is belly button gazing?
Belly button gazing is a term one of my former professors used to refer to writers who examine themselves through their own writing. Other people have used the phrase, putting oneself under the microscope, but I prefer my former professor’s term because it carries with it intonations about the mindset of the author themselves: a belly-button gazer is someone not just examining themselves closely, but also obsessed with themselves, writing about themselves purely for an ego-trip and oblivious to the world outside their own navel. My professor actually enjoyed belly-button gazing, but had the good sense to call it what it is: self-indulgent. I have never been a fan, but I am also human, and it takes a certain level of self-indulgence and ego to be both writer and blogger.

What is the purpose of this website?
My website serves many purposes, the least of which is to give me an outlet for my thoughts on the subject of life as an adjunct teacher, an unpublished author, and a citizen.  I like the idea of using this website as a tool to shape and develop my thoughts into coherent and applicable articles of value. Al Gore praised the internet, and wrote of our country’s need for a public forum, where citizens can send as well as receive, and I couldn’t agree more.

So on that level, the website allows me to both develop my thoughts into written articles, and then send them out there to be received by others. Thus, when combined with the ridiculous amount of time I spend surfing the Internet, I am participating fully in our newly emerged 21st century public forum.

Also, to be fully honest, I hope to use this website to serve my career as a writer. I have written a few novels, dozens of short stories, but am still without representation and more or less unpublished. On a business level, writing for publication means selling your words for the purposes of other people’s interest and enjoyment. By creating a website that is a combination of static articles I have written, as well as a living, constantly changing blog, I can try and tune more effectively into the concept of writing for an audience, writing for others enjoyment and interest, as well as writing for the sake of writing. Who knows? Maybe it might even help me land an agent.

Finally, I’d like to think that my website might actually be of some small help to a few people. I believe very strongly in education, and feel that adjuncts in particular get the short end of the stick (and considering how little respect teachers get in this country, that’s a pretty short stick to begin with). I have a lot of pride in what I do, in what my wife does, in what all teachers everywhere do. You could say that education is my religion, in that I truly believe that education is the ultimate solution to nearly all of society’s problems. When I was thinking about launching my own website, I felt discouraged because a) everyone in the world already has a website, and b) I am not fond of belly-button gazing and didn’t want to create a website just for the sake of having a website.

In discussions with my wife and friends, the question came up about what I might be able to offer in addition to just a general “From The Brain of Brian” type blog. It was around this time that I stumbled upon The Adjunct Professor’s Guide To Success, and found myself frustrated at what this book offered (or didn’t offer, to be more precise). That’s when the idea hit me to offer a website with the theme of being for adjunct instructors, by adjunct instructors. This is not unique, and many great resources exist, but I felt my thoughts on the subject had validity, and that if I combined larger articles on life as an adjunct, with a blog that would often (but not always) focus on said sad life, then I might have something of interest to others that also serves my personal and professional needs. Hopefully, this website succeeds in one of the three.

Do you blog about politics?
I sometimes do, but I try not to. That is not because I feel it is unimportant, quite the opposite in fact. I feel we are living in a time where the politics are more important than ever, and truly have the capacity for a true and significant change in who we are as a nation, and even as a species. However, I don’t feel like having another political blog for two distinct reasons:

1. There’s already a million political blogs

2. Several of these, on both sides of the spectrum, are doing a good enough job.

I’d like my website and blog to be the drop in the bucket that explores something other than politics.  I beleive strongly in the potential and value of the internet as a forum for us to share ideas, thoughts, analysis and critique, but I’d like to contribute to areas that may not have as much attention as politics. I may offer analysis from time to time, or, more likely, refer to someone whose analysis I find spot on, but I have no desire to become a political blog.

If not belly-button gazing, and not politics, then what?
I work full-time as a part-time college instructor. I love my job, and believe it to be important, but it is far from an easy life and I would like to direct my energies at thoughts, musings, rants and raves about this odd profession known as college professor.

What is an adjunct?
Adjunct.
-noun
1. something added to another thing but not essential to it.
2. a person associated with lesser status, rank, authority, etc., in some duty or service; assistant.
3. a person working as an institution, as a college or univeristy, without having full or permanent status.
4. Grammar. a modifying form, word, or phrase depending on some other form, word, or phrase, esp. an element of clause structure with adverbial function.

Who is The Adjunct?
I am.

I am something added to another thing but not essential to it.

I am a person of lesser status, lesser rank, and no authority, in duty to my students and serving society.

I am a person who teaches at a college, but I have no permanent status.

I am a modifying form that depends on another form.

I am the professor whose name is listed in the college catalog only as STAFF.