r/Adjuncts

Hi, everyone. While I'm not an adjunct, it felt more right posting here than the professors sub as I am in a visiting assistant professor position at a university that makes it painfully clear that we VAP's are not "real" professors. Lol.

This past school year, I worked my first year in this year-long VAP contract where I'm super grateful to have full benefits. In our handbook (which is outdated--our department worked on updating some of the language in this year, but temporary faculty aren't exactly fretted over despite our department needing a large number of us to function properly), it states that VAP's should be notified by March on our renewal status for the following year. It's July 5th, though, and no VAP has received word back yet. My director and department chair have been in contact a couple times over small arrangements like office assignments being shuffled around, but no contracts yet. When I asked my director about this, the answer was that contracts usually come out in July or August.

The problem is that I'm pregnant and due in late October. This is my first child and my first full time teaching job. I'm sick with worry that I may not be handling this the right way, but all of the advice I've received from friends, family, and former colleagues at other institutions has been to not disclose my pregnancy until I receive a contract. I'm entitled to maternity leave in the form of a semester off, which of course would the fall semester that begins the first week of September.

What would you do? I don't want to blindsight my director, despite routine mistreatment and neglect of temporary faculty. I don't want to burn this bridge, but I also don't want to screw myself out of maternity leave by sharing too much information just because I feel guilty about it.

Any advice is welcome! This has been eating at me.

Edit, and something perhaps worth mentioning: Whenever this topic comes up with my director, she always assures me that it's very likely that I will be renewed. Most VAP's do stay for three years. This doesn't provide much consolation when there is no contract, though.

Happy to say that I will be starting my first adjunct position in the fall, a year after graduating with my masters.

Context: my discipline is music, specifically jazz piano.

I received a second offer to become an emergency hire full-time at a different university. It was a non-tenure-track, associate professor of jazz voice. In the state of this particular institution, because they did not do a formal search to hire me, I would at the end of the year have to put an application in to a formal search that they, the dean and faculty, would have to put on to find a replacement for the interim hire, which would have been myself.

Meanwhile, I’ve already accepted and received an offer letter for an agent position at a different institution, even though part time, it is in my focus of jazz piano, and I will be teaching a couple of sections of a course and a piano student or two, in addition to whatever they find for me to do that is yet to be determined.

Ultimately, I turned down the full-time position. I’m curious to see if any of you would have done the same in my position.

Obviously, I can teach jazz voice, but all of my CV work is catered toward jazz, piano and contemporary music.

I'm considering applying for an adjunct position at a local college but have no clue what to expect.

I have a pretty mindless full time job 8:30a-4:30p (I work from home 2-3 days a week). If I only teach one course, I feel like I would have time for it no problem, and the pay $5500 per 3 credit course, so I feel like thats decent take-home pay(?)

My question before I even apply is- how does this all work?! I have NO teaching experience (EDIT: YES, I do qualify for the job and have an "in" with the school).

Will they help me set up a syllabus, am I using one thats already been created, am I allowed to tweak it?

Am I creating my own assignments and tests? Do I get decide how they're scored? I guess I want to know how much leeway adjuncts are given.

Will they sit in on my classes to make sure I don't suck and critique me?!

Do I get any say in which course I would teach? And how many courses.

What are the office hour expectations? (Based on your experience). Is the grading/planning/emails etc going to feel like too much while working a full time job?

Is there any support provided or are they literally just going to hire me and throw me to the wolves (aka the students) ?? Haha

What's your experience?

...I emailed HR and asked (some of) these questions and they said I have to apply before they'll get into details. Annoying.

I have a student this summer who has challenged every assessment and her wrong answers. She is aggressive and entitled and strikes fear in my hear when I get her emails. It never ends.

In the past I have had mixed experiences with students like this, some want to go to the Dean because they failed their exam (while never completing any assignments), and others I can sometimes work with them. This one is very aggressive and challenges all kinds of questions and points and accuses me of things - which really doesn't help. I try and manage these types and figure someone else at another time will teach them a few lessons but it's not worth it to me. I did reach out to the lead because it is excessive, 9 x she has emailed and I wanted to get some help.

Honestly, when I have asked for help in the past, that is when I was on the chopping block so that is why I don't ever ask anymore (mostly). How do you guys deal with these kinds of students? I am more than happy to help respectful students, and like being generous with them as I am able, but I don't like being taken advantage of or shaken down. : /

So I am fine now but I was completely shocked two semesters ago. I had this TA who was a former student of the department so I was expecting good things especially since she took the class before. She just had the biggest ego however and it affected everything.

She wouldn't understand how to grade and give students almost 0's. I teach Data Science so let's say there's 5 parts of an assignment. If the student got the first part wrong the whole assignment was a 0 even if they did considerable amount of work and everything else was correct. She even tried to gaslight me into thinking this is how things are done even though I've been teaching at this grad school for a long time.

She was hostile with students too and saying they were harassing her. In one specific situation, students were talking about following a step in the coding like "Filter out every oil company in Texas or something" and my TA gave 0 points because they included companies that could have been oil too. They were saying that there is a discrepancy in the English of it which she took as "she didn't know english".

I expected the TA to be a bridge between me and the students but I was their biggest protector. She also went behind my back talking to the other faculty it was humiliating but I stayed strong and I did tell my boss what I can do and I did my best working with them for a solution. I always stayed kind even when she was being very bitchy and had some talks about how i feel about teaching (think with passion and inspiration like Ted Lasso) but I just stopped after a while. She killed it on the last day of class though with final presentations and I made sure to tell her she did a great job on that.

Luckily I don't normally have TAs except for one grad class which I usually get to choose but it just shocked me. Even after years of teaching. I was so mad but didn't let it affect my teaching. I needed to show that I was the boss but in an effective way.

How do/did you deal with problematic TAs? I was one for many years and being that I'm an adjunct I'm always extra kind and patient until these situations happen!

Description of my job: I tutor general chemistry to a group of students. I teach them what is covered in lectures during the previous week but I can choose to teach ahead or teach what is being taught in that same week. I also make practice exams for the students and proctor the exam the week before their actual midterms/final. I also explain the answer key to the students after their practice exam (this is usually a larger group than my class).

The title is 'learning facilitator'

There appears to be some disagreement on whether tutoring one on one is considered leadership experience or not. The AI overview told me my specific position can be entered as both leadership experience and tutoring/TA/teaching depending on which aspect I want to highlight.

I have some time before I apply to med school so in case this does not count as leadership experience, I want to do some other ECs'.

Reasons I think it is not leadership experience: It's tutoring.

Reasons I think it is leadership experience: I have flexibility on when to teach which topics, It is a group of students and very rarely one on one (only if other people are absent), I make my own lesson plans taking help from the lecture content and, I proctor exams that I make myself.

Also because it is a higher responsibility role than usual tutoring. I have to do after - exam - check - ins and make them write a few things on why they could have done better on the exam and what changes they will make in future prep and check in and make sure they follow it for their next exam. This is not just teaching one topic or clearing homework doubts.

Should my job count as leadership experience on the AMCAS or do I need a different EC/job?

I have encountered problems in the past with students citing AI-generated sources, but never like this.

A student recently turned in a history paper where the sources had nothing to do with the topic. Try to imagine a history paper using sources on the composition of cosmetics. Just completely random AI slop.

The kicker is, at my school, using AI as a standalone tool is not exactly something we can act on. Something else has to be attached to it. So I gave the usual warning to check sources and make sure the sources actually support the paper.

Then the next assignment comes in and it happens again.

The textbook is provided. They could simply cite the textbook. Even with AI, they can do that much.

This time, they went to the trouble of trying to vet the citations a bit, but somehow made them worse. They cited page 78 of a book that only has 77 pages. Another source was listed but never cited in the paper. A third citation referenced page 102 of a source that only goes to page 98.

So what are we doing?

In the past, I was reprimanded by my lead for over-vetting sources, saying that even in their PhD program, their chair did not even go in and check sources. I have two master's so it's not like I haven't been through grad school myself, and I absolutely was held to a high standard. It is what it is, though. Thanks for letting me vent all.

I feel like so few people understand the significance of this, except for those in this group.

But I did it. After 7 years of adjunct teaching, I finally landed a permanent full time teaching position.

Academic level B - Lecturer, or the equivalent of assistant professor in other parts of the world.

Of course, the job market remains crazy hard. But miracles do happen.

Thanks for all the wisdom that has been shared in this group.

My teaching demo is done. Got a feedback from one panelist that maybe the students will already have left mentally middle of the class. Another panelist said that he liked how I connected the principles to this topic.
So what do you think? Will I get the offer or not? Its been 5 days.

Are you an online faculty member in higher education? I am a doctoral candidate at the University of the Cumberlands, conducting dissertation research on the relationship between how often program leaders communicate with online faculty and faculty job satisfaction and intentions to stay in their roles. My study is titled “The Relationship Between Online Program Leader Communication Frequency and Online Faculty Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions in Higher Education.”

If you currently teach online at an accredited U.S. institution, have taught at least one online course in the past 12 months, and report to an online program leader, I would love your participation! The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete, and all responses are completely anonymous.

Survey - https://forms.office.com/r/GmET1V0DwY

If you know other online faculty who might be willing to participate, please feel free to share this post with your network — every response makes a difference in completing this research!

If you have any questions, you can reach me at kgump23745@ucumberlands.edu

Thank you in advance for supporting my research!

I’ve been interested in being an adjunct for some time. I’ve applied a few places and never heard back. Any tips? BA/JD/MBA.

Been adjuncting for a but now but can't seem to land summer or winter session classes. Anyone have any luck?

I’m just wondering how others would handle this type of situation.

I’m an instructor at SNHU and I have a student who has submitted work late or not at all for the entire term. The student has made every excuse as to the reasoning. They asked for an exception to be made and I basically said no. Now an advisor has reached out and is pressuring me to make an exception for the student. The exception would be to grade the late work submitted 3 weeks past the due date and allow for a missed assignment to be submitted.

If I make the exception, I don’t think it’s fair to the other student who either followed the policy or did not submit work beyond the late window. The student deserves the grade they have, but making a stance against it to the school seems like a bad place to put myself.

I can share more if I missed anything. I’m just wondering how others have dealt with this, especially at SNHU.

I’ve been an adjunct instructor at a community college for 3 years now — my first teaching job at the college level. I feel like I am working in a vacuum most of the time, even though I teach in-person classes on campus. I’ve been observed twice in that time. I’ve been allowed to sit in on another professor’s class once. My “community” is my department chair and assistant chair, according to my department chair; all my questions and concerns should go through them. The full-time professors in the department have no idea who I am. I would just like a community of instructors to bounce ideas off of and learn from. I’ve even asked college administration about a casual meetup group for adjuncts college-wide and was told admin handles adjunct meetings.

Is this normal? I just want to have a community that can help me improve my teaching. I love working with the students and want to be able to continue to improve.

I appreciate any input!

I scanned the rules/description, searched the subreddit and only found similar questions years ago. Apologies if this isn’t allowed, but is there anyone doing or who have done remote/online Adjunct positions? How did you find those positions?

I’m trying to get started and have been searching for months but can’t find much. LinkedIN, Indeed, and other hiring platforms. Going to school sites. Nothing or no response.

For context: I’m approaching retirement from my current career (military) and I want to start teaching to grow/develop, get my feet wet, and build my resume for making that my next career. It has to be online/remote right now because I’m still in the service but I’m hoping that teaching/instructing courses help me for more opportunities when I retire. That can be online/remote still or in-person. Just looking for experience and thoughts.

Edit: moved this from the r/professor subreddit to not break their posting rules.

All, looking for some advice here. I am a current adjunct at a mid-sized D2 school. I have only taught for one semester (Spring) but I am picking up 4 classes in fall (2 MBA and 2 undergrad). They opened up a TT/Professor of Practice position that I applied for and I have the first phone screen on Monday.

I have never really interviewed before for a job in academia. For context, I retired from a 25 year career in marketing and this is the next (last) chapter in my career.

What sort of questions are typically asked in these interviews? Will they ask for a potential area of research? Do they typically ask for me to fake teach a class so they can watch? Any guidance for those who have gone down this path?

I’m currently trying to get an adjunct instructor position for Fall 2026 at a local community college. My friend currently works this same position, but they’re graduating and defending her dissertation soon. Because of my friend leaving, the hiring manager asked them to have me submit an application to their portal ASAP and to have me email the hiring manager as soon as I finished the application. It’s been over a week since submitting that application and since I’ve emailed the hiring manager, but neither me nor my friend who currently works there have heard anything. I sent a follow up email a week after submitting the application, so about two business days ago, and still have received no response. Is this normal or should I start thinking about other postings?

I have a question for any fellow SNHU adjuncts. We have 6 sessions a year and can teach up to two classes per semester. They say there is a cap, though, of 10 classes per year since we are all part-time.

My question is this: Do you find they stick to the 10 classes a year cap? I have taught here for 4 years now. Year one, I was figuring it out, so I taught much less than 10. Year two, I taught 2 classes each session, so 12 total, with nothing said. Last year, I had a whole session off, meaning I only got 10. This year, it felt like I would only get 10, but I was given a course rescue and a late-add class that gives me 12 again. It feels like 10 is the max unless they really need you. What is your experience?

Are there any adjuncts that teach social work classes at the CC level? I'm curious if that's a thing because of accreditation. I'd love to bring social work classes to my local CC, but I don't know how common this is.

Have an upcoming teaching demo. 15 mins demo followed by 15 mins QnA. Have prepared the ppt but not sure whether to consider the panel as participants or as themselves (faculty)? Its online and I would take the same course quite differently offline. Should I email the assumptions like I’m assuming that I’m teaching an undergrad class or something like that?

What are they generally looking at? 15 mins is quite less for a quants teaching presentation. My interview is already one. TIA.