April 4, 2016
I am writing in response to an article published in the Scribe on 14 March 2015 “Majority of credit hours taught by non-tenure track teachers” by Joe Hollman. Maybe I read this article incorrectly, but I have not found a single instructor who didn’t find the article (unintentionally) hilarious.
I propose that this article makes little sense other than to label instructors at UCCS as the second choice of instruction at UCCS.
This is according to Robyn Marschke, director of the Office of Institutional Research who explains that the reason that tenured and tenure track professors are not teaching all classes at UCCS is due to cost. Apparently instructors are cheaper to obtain.
This article had such potential to demonstrate how superior the education at UCCS is when compared to other academic institutions. It could have shown how fortunate undergraduate students are at UCCS to have instructors who are here to teach exclusively.
Instead it demonstrated that instructors at UCCS are second class scabs at UCCS. If a prospective student or a parent of a prospective student at UCCS were to read this article, what would they think? I fail to see why it was even published without due diligence.
In speaking with many of my fellow instructors at UCCS, we share a common theme: We all want to teach. We took pay cuts to teach and all the instructors I know hold advanced degrees in their field. Many bring a decade or more of industry experience including management experience.
Is there anyone better to advise graduating seniors about the job market and how to land their first job? Lecturers bring with them into the classroom real examples of what problems students will be required to solve when they enter the work force.
The quality of instruction at UCCS is superior to other academic institutions. Tenured, tenure-track, instructors, and lecturers all care very much about the quality of education provided to the student at UCCS.
I doubt if a student at UCCS cares about the details of compensation and/or job security of the faculty standing in front of them in the classroom, they care about the quality of the instruction provided by that person.
Respectively,
Terry Geiger
Editor’s Note: The article referenced above did not seek to disparage any specific category of teacher at UCCS. It was printed to show the difference in pay between teachers on campus.
Geiger is an instructor in the chemistry and biochemistry departments on campus.
To read the original article, visit scribe.uccs.edu/?p=4919.