I haven’t been spending a lot of time around EMUtalk.org lately, and it isn’t because I’ve been enjoying that fabled “time off” that faculty get. True, according to the contract, I could close (and LOCK!) my office door behind me at the end of the winter term and report back for the fall term. But almost no one does that. Most faculty remain involved with activities like scholarship, service, advising, etc., even if they aren’t in their offices the whole time.
And then there those like me who teach. This (short and spring) semester, I’m teaching two courses, one online and one a “hybrid,” which is an experiment for me and for our department. I guess I’m lucky to be teaching two courses since a lot were canceled due to low enrollment; of course I’m also unlucky because two is more work than one, and that’s giving me a bit of the spring/summer term blues.
Despite the rather crooked tactics of the administration during the last contract negotiations regarding spring/summer teaching (the short version is the administration wanted to figure in this extra teaching to calculate faculty salary averages; they also wanted to hypothesize a 10 month rather than an 8 month contract for the purposes of comparison, so they just added two months worth of salary to the faculty average), faculty who teach in the spring and summer generally do it because they can’t afford not to. Basically, faculty are paid 10% of their base salary for courses taught during the spring and/or summer. In my department, the typical configuration is faculty teach either spring or summer and only two at a time, though I don’t think there are any rules for this and I know that there are faculty teaching more than this. Keep in mind these aren’t Continuing Education classes, which are a whole different deal. But I digress.
The point is this: you don’t have to know how much money I make to realize that making an additional 20% of my salary in 7.5 weeks is a pretty good deal. Granted, if the 100% was enough to pay all my bills, I might not do it. But it isn’t, so IÂ sign up for spring (or summer– not both) teaching when I can, and I usually think that it is worth it.
That is, until I get to the middle of the spring term. Then, me and my students end up with the spring term blues. (Think of a guitar going “Da-DAH-da-duh…”.)
Basically, there are two problems. First, the spring/summer terms are supposed to be the same in terms of credit hours and assignments as the 15 week term. But inevitably, this doesn’t work out the way that it should. A lot of students just assume that I am going to cut back on the workload, and then they become rather despondent when I don’t. These bad vibes give me bad vibes, which in turn makes me think “oh, maybe I am being too demanding, woe is me,” which further bums me out.
But even easing up a little still means too much work too fast. I see it in my students’ eyes (in the hybrid class– I don’t have that technology for the online course), this sort of shell-shocked look when I announce “and don’t forget, another essay project is due next class!” Sure, that’s a lot of work for them; but I have a similar problem in that I’ve got to read, comment on, and grade all of this student work at a much quicker pace. And then, like them, when I finish one batch of assignments, I’ve got another one waiting for me. It’s going from a marathon pace to a sprint and with not a lot of warning.
And then there’s the weather. It’s one thing to be sitting inside and/or in front of a computer working on school during a Michigan February; it’s another when you have a day like we had yesterday, with not a cloud in the sky, zero humidity, mid-70s, and the golf course is sending voices to my head. But what was I doing? School. All day long. Deep sigh.
I exaggerate a bit of course. The pace for other things on campus are a bit slower (not near as many meetings, that’s for sure), the classes are smaller, the money is good, and, okay, I have managed to get out and play golf a couple of times. Plus I’ve still got about 8 weeks of break/non-teaching time to enjoy in about 20 days; on the other hand, in about 20 days, I need to start working on a book and some other projects.
And one of those projects will hopefully be EMUtalk.org Some time in the end of June or so, I’m hoping to a) do some upgrades and editorial work around here, b) start a “summer reading club” (I have a particular book in mind that I will reveal soon), and c) start a FUNd raising campaign for the site, one where we need to come up with a whopping $60. Or so.
Anyway, that’s all coming soon. But now, I’ve got two piles of grading I need to finish no matter how nice it is outside.
Steve,
I get what you’re saying, really. Contrary to popular opinion in our society, teaching is hard work and it is rare enough that it is well compensated, or fully appreciated. And it can certainly be discouraging to have a group of students with that consumer mentality! Still, I find I am having a hard time feeling sorry for you. First, you opted to teach these classes. Second, you are being paid pretty well to do it, all things considered, as you yourself have admitted. Third, the lecturers in your department are paid FAR less even though they may have the same academic credentials as tenure track faculty (not faulting your dept. – this is true in general – and a weak academic job market doesn’t help). Many of them would probably jump at any chance to teach spring/summer even though lecturers do not typically make 10% of their base salary per course on the rather rare occasions when they do get spring/summer assignments.
That said, your point about the work load and students’ expectations and level of seriousness raises some interesting points about the value of a credit hour (as Susan raises in a previous thread – really I’m surprised that there wasn’t more discussion there). I’ve advised students who do better than half of their coursework in spring/summer/weekend/winter break type settings. While I suppose that some highly motivated people with busy schedules really do milk those for all they’re worth and actually learn a great deal, I suspect that is not the most common approach. Yet the fact remains that these shortened courses are tremendously popular with students and nearly always make enrollment, in my observation. And the fact that we (the University as a whole – not specific people here on this site) continue to offer so many of these sorts of experiences plays into the tendency for students to adopt a consumerist approach to higher education.
I wish I knew what to do about this on a large scale. Unfortunately I do not. Like many others I try very hard to structure my classes in ways that minimize the temptation to be a casual learner – I try to encourage people to become active and engaged. But that’s a small scale approach and sometimes the structure imposed by the university runs counter to my best efforts, for example, scheduling classes of 70-80 students in rooms that seat 250, with bad lighting, terrible acoustics, heating/cooling problems, and lousy technology that malfunctions more often than it works.
So we do what we can. In the meantime, grab an iced cappuccino or something and revel in the fact that at least parking on campus isn’t so bad during the spring/summer semester. And enjoy your 8 weeks off (from teaching), coming soon.
First off, I do mean my “blues” to be kind of tongue and cheek. I realize I don’t have that much to whine about, though again, the main reason why faculty teach in the spring/summer terms is they are underpaid during the rest of the year.
Second, and I don’t mean to get all defensive about this or whatever, but there quite frankly aren’t any lecturers in our department that have my degrees, experience, publications, etc. So no, that’s not really an issue.
As for the shortened format: I’ve had some successes with courses in places like Traverse City and some with the 7.5 week format. And truth be told, I’ve got a lot of good students this semester too. It’s just that I think that a lot of students– and instructors, too!– look at the 7.5 week format and say “hey, this has got to be easier!” When no, not so much.
BTW, my “8 weeks off” will involve starting (finally!) on a book project, advising students, doing other quasi-administrative duties, etc. But I take your point and I am counting the days.
I’m teaching spring term (2 writing classes) that basically filled immediately. I agree with Steve that the reason I teach extra terms is to make more money to supplement my rather meager salary (17 years and I still make less than most tenured faculty). I also agree that no lecturer has my credentials nor can teach the upper-level writing course (english 328) that Steve and I teach, which I might add is a required course for all the majors and for the English Education program. Steve and I are essentially the only faculty teaching this course at present.
However, with the exception of a few moments of panic when all the papers come in, I really like teaching spring term. The students on the whole are motivated, the pace is a bit frantic but the students step up and do wonderful work, the dim corridors of Pray-Harrold are quiet, and I have few meetings to attend. In fact, what I’d really, really like to do is just teach spring and summer and then pass on winter term, but that is a dream unfulfilled!
Oh, also in the “for what it’s worth” category of things: there are some lecturers teaching spring/summer classes in our department, and I’m pretty sure that the money that they get for teaching these classes actually represents more than 10% of their salaries. But that really has more to do with the fact that their base salaries are that low. Of course, I could be wrong about these numbers, so sorry if I am….
Coming from a student’s point of view, I can definitely confirm that a lot of students think that Spring/Summer=less work, thus easier. Personally, I expect there to be less work because there is just no physical/practical way to squeeze every assignment from a full length semester into the shortened format, however I do know that the assignments I will be working on are going to have to be done in a shorter period of time, which can be stressful (especially when I’m taking multiple classes in the English department – so much writing! So much reading! Only so many hours in a day!)
Minor complaints aside, I do really appreciate the fact taht I can take spring/summer courses. Because I’ve taken at least one course during each of these semesters for the past three years, even though I just changed my major for the third time (eep) I’m still going to graduate after 4 1/2 years of school. Not too bad, especially when compared to the people I know who’ve taken 6+ years.
I will say, I am enjoying my first spring semester on campus. Since I’m only taking one class, it’s less stressfull than fall or winter, but the speed does occasionally get to me.
The reason I’m getting the spring blues is because I realize that I’m probably going home for summer, and I’m going to miss EMU and the people I know.
I like the option for spring/summer classes – it gives me something to do, and I get to squeeze in some extra learning while doing it!
I can’t speak for Steve, but I know my spring and/or summer classes contain the same material and the same assignments that I teach in a regular term. Yes, it’s a sprint for 7 1/2 weeks, but again, I find the students eager and willing, and often more prepared and engaged than many are during the regular terms.
My spring classes contain exactly the same work as when the courses are spread over an entire semester, much to some students’ chagrin
It is TOUGH to keep energy high (theirs and, sometimes, mine) when we meet twice a week for almost three hours and have a week’s worth of reading/writing/other assignments between each class. That said, I feel it’s really important that the spring/summer courses contain the same material as they would if they were taught fall or winter.
Re: The amount of assignments in Spring/Summer vs Fall/Winter
Huh. Maybe my memory is off because the last couple of classes I’ve taken have been special topics and/or new classes being taught for the first time. I specifically remember taking the basic Astronomy course a few springs back, however, and the professor kept saying “Normally I’d cover this chapter, but we don’t have the time, so we’ll skip ahead…” Bad planning/lazy professor in that case?
A flyer in Pray-Harrold advertises for 3 credits in one week at Traverse City (SOC 202) with time to relax. Unless there are an additional 90 hours of outside class work, this is a fraud on the EMU student and a debasing of EMU’s reputation. Sorry, but that’s my opinion.
aging hippie points out to me that NCA standards require 750 instructional minutes per credit hour. For three credit hours, that’s 2,250 minutes or 37.5 (60 minute) hours or 45 (50 minute) hours. Where’s the time for homework, reading, and thinking in a one week class? Answer: it doesn’t exist — you have to bleed over into the week before and the week after.
I totally don’t understand why we succumb to the pressure to teach 14 weeks in 7 weeks. Why do we do this? What’s the problem with a 10 week term during SP/SU? Why two 7-1/2 weeks? Really, how many teachers do we actually have taking classes SP term?
Susan, I suspect that the 7.5 week classes are more attractive to students because of the shorter time frame, and are then a money-maker for the University. Longer, 10-wk classes (oh, what I could do with 10 weeks!) might not have sufficient enrollment because they are, well, 2.5 weeks longer. I would much rather see a 15-week full semester over the summer break. The classes are easier to teach, and the students retain more than I think they do in a shorter format.
I’m teaching in both the Spring and Summer semesters. ASTR 203 this term, and PHY 224 in the Summer term. (I might be teaching ASTR 205 in the Summer as well, if it makes.) These classes contain the same content as my regular-length classes. Same assignments, same projects, and at least in my Physics classes, the same number of homework problems. This means that the students are doing upwards of 30 problems a week! I warn them on the first day of class exactly what they are in for, and how much time I expect them to spend on this 5-credit class (plus lab – two labs a week).
Ya know, most of them do great! Most are highly motivated and are able to set aside the proper amount of time. A few struggle, as they work full time (another warning I give them on the first day – dont!)
I think that with adequate warning up front – on day one – the shorter semester can work, at least in the short term (pardon the pun). I’d like to see studies of retention from these shorter semesters, though. Anybody know of any?
Just two additional thoughts here:
These classes are money-makers for everyone, meaning that while the administration likes to point to these classes and say “see? faculty want to teach more!” (conveniently forgetting that the less than great regular school year pay is a major motivator here), the institution makes a lot more in tuition dollars, too. For me, this is why it is all the more problematic that classes were canceled this spring (at least in my department) at the drop of a hat because they had 10 or so students in them. I think that’s ridiculous.
As for the 10 week or whatever session: I actually tried something like that last spring/summer with an online class. I extended the term to 12 weeks. Long story short, I thought it was pretty awful. It turns out that the extra time created an enormous amount of paperwork problems, and the desire to be “done” and have a little break for spring/summer was even greater. Not cool.
It wasn’t just the English Dept that got cancelled classes – the 15-student minimum hits us all. During the off-season, this is particularly problematic! Last summer we had a 13-student class cancelled that dramatically changed the plans of a whole host of Ed students, as well as Physics majors. Really caused some bad feelings from the students, too.
It seems strange to me that low enrollment is not balanced by high enrollment elsewhere! Our off-season intro courses are filled to the brim, well above any minimum, and yet we can’t use the extra students as a kind of ‘credit’ for low enrollment classes. Can *anybody* explain that one to me?