Monday, June 28, 2010

Lights still on, but nobody home


The other day I received an "all college" e-notice from a school which has not offered me an assignment for over two years.

[As I'm sure many of you have experienced, my "separation" from the college was never actually communicated to me. After five years of nearly continuous classes, just stopped getting assignments.]

Got me wondering ... how long do you permit a school which has terminated you by default to continue the charade that you are a member of the (adjunct) faculty and pester you with communication which has no relevance to you whatsoever?

They keep you on THEIR faculty list.
Do you continue to list them as an active employer on your CV?

Is there even a way to "disenroll" yourself from their EMail address?
Is it adjunct suicide to assert yourself and inform the college that if they cannot find the courtesy to inform you of your termination, they cannot (however indirectly) continue to use your name to bolster their published faculty roster?

2 comments:

  1. 2 related stories:

    1- I taught at Adjunct U for a little over a year (4 out of 5 quarters) so they gave me an e-mail address. Despite the fact that every time I offered to teach my offer was ignored (not even a "thanks for applying"), I kept getting e-mail from them that was sent to not just my Adjunct U e-mail account but also to my Grad U account.

    When Grad U nixed my account after I quit, all e-mail offers from Adjunct U stopped...even though I still had an account at Adjunct U. The e-mails I kept getting for the next year or so were all those stupid campus-wide nonsense. But no job offers!

    2- Grad U closed my account 3 months after I informed my program I was not going to finish my degree. I received no e-mail from anyone about anything...

    BUT, about 2 years later a prof sent me a desperate e-mail begging me to take over a class whose instructor went AWOL. One reason I quit that program was their lack of funding (a whole 3 years of "forced labor" for a program that usually took 5-7! Such generosity!) and an unwillingness to provide adjunct work to all of their own students (as at many schools, some students were favored over others). But here they were, digging up my personal e-mail address and offering me a class (ONE CLASS!). I politely declined and did not even receive a "thanks for the reply."

    I intend to write a nasty note if they ever dare do it again.

    If adjuncts and grad students are not respected enough to be kept in the loop for work (the whole reason most of us affiliated with the school), I think we need to be more proactive about restricting our former employers' ability to harass us with e-mail that only serves to twist the knife of rejection they stuck in our backs a little further.

    Do I sound bitter? ;-)

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  2. You said:

    "Is it adjunct suicide to assert yourself and inform the college that if they cannot find the courtesy to inform you of your termination, they cannot (however indirectly) continue to use your name to bolster their published faculty roster?"

    It probably is adjunct suicide and if you're ready to cut that (probably useless) cord, then you certainly ask them NOT to include your profile on their faculty list.

    I did that quite a while back. I taught a course for Piddly U who got all wet over my CV and minority status and long after I broke it off, they still kept listing me. Long story short, I got tired of students writing to see when I'm teaching next, do I need an assistant, others writing to see whether I'd sit on a committee (sit on a committee? I'm not even on the fucking payroll!!!) They didn't want to remove my name because my profile looked good/diverse/inclusive and all that other shit that didn't benefit me in any measurable way at all.

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