adjunct faculty

adjunct professor

tutor

coordinator

senior advisor

Lone Star College

Normal contact hours is 18 hrs per week which includes 3 academic courses. In Chemistry that is 9 hrs lecture & 9 hrs lab contact time per week. With office hours, student services, prep time and institutional service weekly work hours is 35 to 45 hrs per week on the average. Teaching is loosely monitored by management with very little if any collaborative interaction between other faculty and/or administration. Such has pros and cons with respect to individual and departmental growth within the system. 

One aspect that is most disturbing for faculty is that all administrative management for the past 17 years has been hired from outside the system. The potential for financial and professional advancement into the administrative ranks over the last 17 years ( in the division of Natural Sciences - LSC Tomball ) has been static for the sitting faculty. For academic freedom, the environment is very liberal in permissive instruction. However, with limited to nonexistent support by administration instructional support is very limited with respect to innovative growth and professional development. The hiring authority is exclusively localized in the dean level management. For Natural Sciences this translates to one that has very little experience in the LSC division being staffed and absolutely no vested interest in the nature, personality or objective development of the divisions. 

A positive aspect of the LSC academic instructional environment finds the system very open and liberal with respect to academic freedom. This gives the instructional staff great latitude in course development and freedom to dictate the direction and content of their courses. However, with management turnover rate being high in the divisions, uncertainty and development of professional objective are often stagnated when new administrative personnel are placed into positions of authority.  It takes at least two to three years to the managing supervisors to develop a realistic perspective in what the sitting faculty needs. Over all, LSC is a save and secure place to work, but advancement financially and professionally is greatly inhibited by intrinsic administrative policy.

LSC is an overall decent place to work which is total dependent on the location and/or if its a satellite campus. Worked part-time for almost five years. The management changed constantly so not much stability for part-time workers. Our hours would fluctuate dependent on scheduling and funding, which was not good if this was your only source of income. Part-timers are capped at 19.5 hours in order to strictly avoid being eligible for benefits. The best part was interaction with students daily and helping them out. I had the opportunity to take classes in lieu of benefits, and gain skills to help out in my own teaching career. 

The hardest part, it was extremely difficult for part-timers to more forward into full-time employment. Why? I have no idea. I applied throughout the years for a full-time position and I never once was offered even an interview. I did my job and went the extra mile for many students, and had good performance reviews, not sure why I never was able to move into a full-time position. 

Everything with LSC is dependent on the position, the campus and the admin, staff and faculty. LSC has decent policies and practices in place, but the system often lacks to find the right talent to properly implement their policies. Its a decent place to work, not sure about the long-term although many do end-up working for LSC 20+ years. 

The working environment at Lone Star College is friendly and congenial. However, life as a part time Adjunct can be quite lonely. Professors in this position typically get the smallest class loads, which results in a drastic reduction in pay. A reliable adjunct is not just working for the money or the benefits--a true, blue adjunct is more concerned with the transmission of knowledge. Of course, the financial renumeration can change from semester to semester. Unlike a tenured professor, adjuncts rely on enrollment to fill their core courses. During a good semester, the adjunct is able to teach three courses. When enrollment is down, an adjunct might end up sitting out the semester, as more senior professors get the first pick of classes. 
Despite these challenges, I've always felt that I learn a great deal more as an Adjunct Professor than I do as a well-salaried high school teacher. After all, the students are adults, and class discussion can be quite lively. Even in the course of a semester, you might see true intellectual improvement and change reflected in your students. If you're the kind of teacher that lives for water cooler gossip or long lunches with collegues, the world of an adjunct will disappoint you. We are a fairly solitary bunch...and one can only depend on oneself for innovations in curriculum and coursework.

Lone Star College has wonderful students, full-time faculty and adjunct faculty, but there are many students who simply don't want to be there. It's challenging to work around them! I began teaching as an adjunct four years ago with the hopes on securing a full-time position. Since I've been there, three openings have become available and they have been given to candidates right out of graduate school with no experience, two from outside the Lone Star system. I have years of experience, the enthusiasm of a twenty year old and I put 110% into each class. Most of my students who take Government I will wait if they need to so they can take my Government II class. And, I am not easy by any stretch of the imagination! My colleagues are also excellent instructors, although many of my students complain about their teachers. Compensation is ridiculously low, there are no benefits for adjuncts, and there is no job security or path for advancement. The Lone Star system is completely dependent on adjuncts, and yet they do nothing to incentivize them or hold on to them or to attract the best teachers. I teach at Lone Star because I am passionate about the students. I give my bes because I want the best students who can't afford to go anywhere else to be prepared and I want the struggling students to keep trying and improve.

More concerned with students paying for courses than academic standards. Adjuncts are ruthlessly exploited, with minimal benefits and job security. LSC generally avoids paying full-time benefits by not allowing adjuncts to teach more than three classes per term. LSC does not pay into Social Security. Instead it pays much smaller amounts into a separate teachers' retirement account. The separate account requires adjuncts to continue working at the college for many years to receive any payment at all. This is unrealistic, because most adjuncts will need to find better paying jobs to live on before the benefits kick in. Unlike Social Security, the benefits are not portable across institutions, jobs, industries, or states. They only accumulate in certain Texas academic institutions. Therefore our Social Security does not increase and we are unlikely to receive more than token benefits from the teacher retirement system. There appears to be age discrimination against older faculty. This may be in order to push out older faculty before their meager alternate teacher retirement benefits kick in. Superficial "Have a nice day" pleasantness combined with exploitation and discrimination is especially irritating. College attorney has dictated classroom policy violating faculty academic freedom.

As a peer mentor in EDUC 1300 class, my main duty is to assist students to be successful in EDUC class. I understand that some incoming students do not know how to deal with their school works, or communicate with their professors. I help them to understand and apply their EDUC 1300 course material. Sometimes, I meet with them in small groups or individually to assist them with homework or anything regarding the EDUC class. Moreover, I help them to communicate effectively with faculties and staffs. I understand that it may be difficult for students to ask their professors for help, but I want students to know that their professors and other staffs are happy to help. We are all here for the students. 
              In addition, I believe it is useful to provide campus events for students. It is because students not only can engage in school events, but they also can feel they are members of school. Since they are new students, I take them to campus resources: advising, computer labs, financial aid, library, and so on. Also, I cooperate with professors and other mentors to help students get succeed in their class. Lastly, I attend ongoing peer mentor training programs to learn how to help students more effectively.

For the final semester of my 2 year degree I was required to be employed in the technology field. With great fortune I was able to apprentice at the college I started from. An amazing experience - new temp classrooms were being set up and I got to install a network infrastructure from the ground up. 

The semester also saw a major network expansion project which included new servers and a SANs installation. I got to convert an empty space of the server room into a productive space. I also participated in installing software on the new servers and setting up server management software. 

The semester saw a hurricane making landfall in the area and I helped secure the infrastructure from potential flooding and prepare for a shutdown. 

We also experienced a major virus attack I helped to support the users during this time while getting to see the intense effort of the Admins to root out and erradicate the problem. 

All of the above was well above and beyond what I expected from a few months of hands on learning. But, the best part of the apprenticeship was mapping out the existing infrastructure and diagramming what I discovered. For someone new to the field, the experience was the perfect way to cement together all the theory I had gained from prior year's courses.

As a Faculty Adjunct at Lone Star College- Kingwood campus, I have my full attention directed toward my students and my professional development. My hours are often spent working on planning lessons and activities, working with students, and student assessment. However, as is experienced by most adjunct faculty, I am only paid for three hours a week which are devoted to interaction with students and not for any office hours, or external lesson planning or grading. Thankfully, I am allowed to work from home and I have online access to WebEx, which means I can speak with my students via video chat. 
Lone Star College has afforded me resources, workshops, and active learning experience to better perform as an educator. I have been given a great opportunity to help lower-income students who want to find education to support themselves and their families like myself. 
I only wish that I could meet with fellow adjuncts in my department more often so that I can seek out ways to better focus my lessons and objectives.

I patrol the College Campus in several different types of vehicles. I use golf carts, and motor vehicles. Most of my patrol is done on foot. I talk with students on a dailly basis, enforce local, state, and federal laws. I work all events on campus and work with the staff to secure a safe learning enviorment for all the students. My shifts vary depending on man power needs. 
The management on this campus is outstanding, I cannot say that for the rest of the college system. My co-workers for the most part have never been real police officers. I will leave that issue there. 
The hardest part of the job is having to baby sit the students who are now young adults, and the spoiled staff members. We the police are a evil necessity and are only wanted when needed or thought to be needed. Other than that out of sight out of mind. 
The best part of the job is helping out these young students that really need some guidance. Most are happy to get a few words of wisdom, like been there done that. Not in so many words. The campus is like a small town and its my town so I help when I can and when I am allowed to help.

A typical day at LSCS is basically to stand-by and address any computer issues the end-issuer may be experiencing and to solve those problems within minimal time to ensure they can complete their work. 

Working as a team (co-workers), we are constantly learning from each other whether it be computer issues, program issues or rebuilding machines for faculty or staff members. Management offers training classes (or online meetings) for new programs or to refresh/update their employees on current programs.

The hardest aspect of the job is informing the end-user that their computer will have to be changed-out due to the ongoing updating of new programs requiring faster machines, their PC is out dated or the dreaded BLUE SCREEN appeared, Most enjoyable aspect of the job, bringing in the PC and looking at their faces and seeing the excitement and worry that may bring on with the new PC. Being able to sitting with them and  showing them basically that everything is the same as their old PC...just faster.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Adjunct faculty 1 salary reported	$53.82 per hour
Adjunct professor 5 salaries reported	$52.93 per hour
Tutor 4 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Coordinator 4 salaries reported	$46,953 per year
Senior advisor 10 salaries reported	$47,412 per year

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