Ventajas
- You have a very flexible work environment. My supervisor was very helpful with creating semester schedules which met the needs of the instructors. Some instructors (for example) had kids and could only work during the day while they were at school. - Overall a good position for someone with a Master's degree and some teaching experience. - A good place to start if you are interested in teaching as a career. - Although I was not aware of it for 2 years, apparently benefits are offered to part-time faculty at a discounted rate. - Sick time! If you are sick, you can still get paid (other colleges not the case). You accrue it at the rate of about 1 day (8 hours) per month if you teach 12 credit hrs/month
Desventajas
- Opportunities for professional development come from within - you can utilize the free credits (3 per semester, I think) to work on a degree, but don't expect much more in professional development. - Career advancement = none; In almost 3 years, there was no talk of full-time opportunities within the department. As with many higher ed institutions, they'd rather take on 20 part-time employees than have 10 full-time ones (full-timers are 1/3 more money after benefits, etc.) - "exploitative" pay = you might make up to $15,000 a year teaching a full course load - Very little communication (if any) with other departments, offices, etc. (you have no idea what is going on in other parts of the University) - lack of connection to other teachers = We met once a semester to discuss issues, otherwise never really met with other faculty regularly (some for lunch); just an overall disconnected feeling from the college