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Yes, we are also entered into a student popularity contest -- but students do not make tenure decisions. And tenure is based almost entirely on research. Student evaluations are tangential. Tenure track faculty do not share your lot. The popularity status is an irritant, more than a problem. And now that I have tenure -- not even that. When I was teaching as an adjunct, I was extremely aware that my continued employment was contingent on acceptable student evaluations. I want to think that it did not affect my teaching, but I cannot be certain. Suzanne M. Stauffer, Ph.D. Associate Professor School of Library and Information Science Louisiana State University 277 Coates Hall Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (225)578-1461 Fax: (225)578-4581 [log in to unmask] Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? --T.S. Eliot, "Choruses from The Rock" ________________________________ From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of C. C.C. [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, July 29, 2013 12:40 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Adjuncts and higher education I wish here to respond to the comments accompanying the note circulated on JESSE LISTSERV. I am writing not only as an adjunct but as the convener of the ALISE Part-time and Adjunct Faculty SIG. First, I would like to remind our colleagues that PTA faculty are not the only educators "who are judged in their student evaluations by how well they are liked." All faculty are submitted to the same multiple choice student evaluations and all educators are automatically entered by students in a popularity contest. Therefore it would seem that our tenure track colleagues share our lot and would be as vulnerable as we are in "want[ing] to be liked ] . . . [and being] more likely to assign 2 two-page essays and a multiple choice final exam for . . . [their] course, rather than a big term paper and other assignments and a comprehensive written exam." A prejudicial implication seems to be that adjunct and part-time faculty are not doing their job as educators properly because of the precariousness of their employment. Still, let us not debate this point; I would like instead all our colleagues to focus their energies on trying to answer the question regarding the administration's role in supporting the goals of achieving popularity status rather than educational goals deserves consideration as well as the question "what are the goals and motivations of higher education administrators for our LIS programs?" In particular, I would to invite Dr. Whitney to participate as a panelist in the Part-time and adjunct faculty SIG session Casualties and Collateral Damages: A Critical Look at Educational Entrepreneurship at the ALISE 2014 conference. Catherine Closet-Crane, Phd, MLS Convener ALISE PTA Faculty SIG [log in to unmask] ________________________________