Endings, Part III

Fall semester: day seventy-eight

I'm getting there, slowly but surely.


I've found that in my last week of classes, I'm dealing with a lot of little things more than anything else. Not many huge, important big things pop up -- it's more of the wrap-up, the bow on the semester and getting everything tied up neatly that's what's important this week.

Make no mistake, I am busy; I have been busy with work for my students since August, though not necessarily busy at all times. As a professor, there's always something that must be done, something that can't wait, something that has to be taken care of or that I should be working on during any and all free time. As the semester draws to a close, those things become smaller and smaller -- making sure I have everything graded and posted, making sure I've calculated scores correctly, making sure that I've wrapped up all that I've needed to wrap up. Hence, no big things hang over my head, but a bunch of those little ones.

On Monday morning, I was interviewed very quickly by one of our longest tenured professors in the department; it seems like he was gathering information to bring up in a faculty meeting at some point.

"You're a lecturer, correct?" he asked.

"Yes, sadly, that's the only title I get."

"I thought so. Do they offer you any health insurance or benefits?"

"Psh. No."

"Do you get invited to faculty meetings?"

"Not that I'm aware of," I said. "Though I could have been invited or otherwise welcomed to attend them at some point and haven't been made aware of it, or I simply missed it."

"Well, you would know, wouldn't you?" he asked. "I mean, they would've told you, right?"

"I suppose, though I'm rather out of the loop most of the time on department happenings."

"How much do you make per class?" he asked.

"$2,000," I replied. "I'm teaching three classes this semester, so I'm making six grand total. Before taxes."

State and federal taxes take about $150 or so out of each of my paychecks every two weeks. No, that's not a joke. I have the living shit taxed out of my wages and always have. I'm hoping this means I'll have a higher tax return for 2013 when I file in a few months.

"Thank you," he said. "I'm just taking an impromptu survey of the adjunct lecturers in and around the department."

"Sure, no problem," I said.

I'm wondering if this is going to come up at the next faculty meeting, and/or if anything will come of it if it does. It's not a secret that many of us adjuncts aren't exactly happy with how little we're being paid for the work we have to do. As Daisy's father put it over Thanksgiving break, it's more slave labor than anything else. I do it because I want to continue to teach and build my CV, and because I'd rather not stand over a burger grill or a fry cooker for forty hours a week to make, basically, the same wages or a little more/less. Still, many other states and universities have unionized their adjuncts for better pay and better (read: any) benefits. I would imagine that's probably never going to happen in a state as conservative as Kansas, so I'm not holding my breath there.

Yesterday morning, I faxed my second (third) set of forbearance forms to the loans people, making sure that yes, this time I had signed them. I got confirmation from the machine that it had been received, and by the time I arrived home last night I had an email from them stating that my forms had been received and were being processed. I don't know if that means the forms I faxed or the paper forms I mailed before leaving for Omaha last week, but regardless, they're the same and they're working on them. This calms my fears a bit -- everything should be processed in a somewhat timely manner and they should be able to see that I'm incredibly poor and grant me my year's forbearance. There's nothing in the way of that now. So, really, I'm a bit relieved. Am I still concerned about being able to survive on the two paychecks I have left between now and, say, the end of January? Yes, but hopefully I won't have to worry/wonder about this stressor that much longer.

Last night I wrapped up my 210 class with my students' oral presentations. Of the 20 students enrolled, about fifteen of them gave their presentations one after another from about 6:30 to 8:45 or so. The other five were either no-shows or they told me they couldn't do it because it wasn't ready/they were sick/they'd just give up and take the grade they had/etc. I have three or four of those students who are trying to finish up the last of their work for my class over the course of the next day or two, and I've given them until Thursday (since we'd normally have class on a Thursday) to get it done and get it to me via email. Those grades are being calculated and posted this weekend; I don't have to wait on them like I do my other two classes, as they have no final exam. All of the students who were there and did their oral presentations got between a 92 and 100 on them -- I tended to be a little lenient on the people who were visibly really nervous, and basically automatically gave a 100 to people who did really well. Because the class ran for as long as it did, I didn't get home until about 10PM.

There has been a drastic shift in the weather -- yesterday afternoon, it was in the 60s. It felt like summer when I stood outside to smoke; I didn't need a coat, even. By last night it was easily in the 40s, and now it's 34 outside with reports of mist and freezing fog throughout the area. There's apparently this big snowstorm system that's hitting the upper midwest right now (meaning, like, Minnesota and Michigan, those places) and below it the weather people here were predicting ice and snow over the next day or three. The Weather Channel just says cloudiness and coldness for me all the way through the weekend, which I'm okay with I suppose. I don't have a lot to do between now and then -- I'll be giving my 011 students their practice final today and coming home, giving my 101 final tomorrow morning and coming home (since I don't have my 210 class anymore) and will then be spending basically the rest of the weekend before finals week begins finalizing my grades for all three of my classes as much as possible, grading whatever is left.

Something else interesting (or troubling, whatever you want to call it) popped up yesterday. One of my 101 students mentioned that he'd signed up for my 102 class next semester -- the only class I've been outright told I will indeed be teaching -- and said that when he checked his schedule a few days ago, someone else was listed as the instructor of record for it.

"That's really strange," I said. "None of the composition classes should have named instructors at this point; we don't even get control of our classes' rosters via Banner and Blackboard until January 1."

This is true; I found this out this week as well via a Blackboard announcement. Blackboard is getting upgrades over the month we're off, but we should have access to our classes on there by the New Year. The spring semester starts on January 21.

"I don't know either," my student said. "I just thought it was weird."

"Let me look it up," I said. "I'll see if I can figure out what it is."

I looked up the class -- I had to sort by days/times until I found it -- and my student was right. There's only one 102 class listed at those days/times on the West campus; it's the one I'm supposed to teach, and the instructor of record is some guy named Kevin. Someone I've never heard of. Someone who, apparently, none of the West campus staff had ever heard of either.

My name's not Kevin. It's Brandon, in case you're new here.

Also of note: for the entirety of the 102 sections listed for the spring, of which there are probably forty or fifty -- that class is the only one which has an instructor listed. And it's not me.

"I wonder if it's a placeholder name, or something," I asked the West campus administrator. "[English department administrator] told me that I was indeed getting that class, and was happy that I was because almost all of my students in my 101 have already signed up for it and that keeps our student retention high."

"That's really odd," she said. "I'd ask [administrator] about it. Perhaps there was a typo at the registrar's office and they plugged in another ID number."

I sent an email to the English department administrator giving her the CRN for the course and asked her to look into it for me to see if there was something weird going on with it. That's something that needs to be looked into, as I think said administrator is the only one who can give the authorization to name an instructor of record for said classes, and it's indeed quite possible that there could've been a typo when they entered the ID number at the registrar's office. All employees have ID numbers; most of us have two of them -- one is the state ID for payroll and the like, and the other is the university ID which everyone has. Mistyping one number or letter is indeed quite possible.

I didn't hear back from her, but if she's in there this morning, I'll ask her about it then.

On that note, brave souls, I must dress myself and vacate the premises for my last in-front-of-a-class teaching day of the semester -- after today it's just final exams for my two remaining classes. Wahoo.