However, response rate apart, I actually like the electronic format. The evals. for every course taught during a term will be returned at one time via email as opposed to coming back piecemeal – if at all. In the old days, there were several courses for which I never saw the end of course evals. since they “got lost in the system.” This is especially true for international courses.

Furthermore, it significantly reduces the administrative workload on the staff who have to prepare the packets, send it out to intered for analysis and then return the tabulated data to faculty. The process used to take several weeks. Now we should have our end of course evals. back in 2-3 weeks.

Furthermore, I like the fact that the playing field has been leveled with respect to in-class and online courses. It is easier to prepare promotion packages, etc. when the evals. for all classes taught (in my case that includes in-class, online and international) are uniform.

Bottom line: All things considered, I am glad that we have gone to the electronic evaluation format.

The Faculty has been trying to expand its governance over eCampus. A committee was set up more than a year ago to study eCampus hiring and faculty evaluation policies and it evidently issued some recommendations to the administration but not much has happened since. You might want to contact the Chair of your department about possible future teaching assignments or other concerns you might have. The Chairs are supposed to oversee scheduling but some are more active than others in carrying out this responsibility.

Sorry to have turned this into a rant! But this is the first place and time that I’ve been able to say this since these problems began after ecampus was created.

I also feel like those of us teaching for ecampus, adjuncts and full-time faculty alike, are being treated as though we don’t know how to teach! I, too, understand the need for some standardization, but the type of oversight being wielded, here, smacks of the same type of stronghold high school administrations hold over their faculty. The wondrous thing about higher education is the freedom we have (had) to explore our areas in unique ways…using whatever tools, books, and approaches which make for a richly varied college landscape. I think it is a fabulous thing to be able to take the same course with two different instructors and come away from both with unique impressions of the same class. My guess is that they’ve had to take this step because with all the new adjuncts Troy has hired (FAR more than some areas needed), there was a need to be sure many of these new instructors, who have limited experience, knew what to do. In fact, a lot of these new people are being hand held along, given classes to teach, while the experienced faculty sit on the sidelines with no classes assigned, watching the program try to find its bearings….strange, I know, but true.

OK, enough for now. Thanks for providing this area. I think it’s a great idea!

S.

One *significant* problem for adjuncts is the way they’re paid. A colleague in my department is teaching six classes but doesn’t get paid *at all* until the end of October. That’s absurd. The teaching is this person’s only job—indeed, there’s no time for anything else with that load—and expecting someone to work half of August, all of September, and all of October without being paid until the end of that time is ridiculous. Either people like this should be paid each month or they should be placed on full-time status so that they can get paid regularly. But because they’re adjuncts, they’re afraid to say anything lest they lose their jobs. I wonder how many professors and administrators would be willing to work without pay until the end of October.

I agree that faculty should have more input into policies and other areas of governance. The common textbook issue, for example, is just one of the most recent. Faculty in my department were simply told that we were going to be using the same book as everyone else in the system. No discussion. Period. I understand the desire for standardization, but there are other ways to do that. It makes no sense to use the same book for Troy (mostly traditional students), Montgomery (mostly nontraditional students, as I understand), and other venues. The books need to be chosen based on the students, and faculty should have greater decision-making freedom with their own courses. As I see it, e-campus *has* dictated this choice, despite the fact that my dean looked me in the eye and said that wasn’t the case. Another recent issue—a colleague of mine was *informed* that his students would be taking the CAAP in November. A request would have been nice, considering the need now to reschedule items later in the semester.

I do not like the online evaluation system. Out of my four classes last semester, only six students bothered to complete the evaluations. If only one student in a class completes the evaluation, and that student happened to be unhappy with the course, then you’re left with an overall negative evaluation when maybe the course actually went okay. Likewise, if the student was happy, you get a positive evaluation when, in fact, the course might not have gone well at all.

Yes, teaching loads definitely need to be reduced if publication and research are to be required components of tenure in the way we’re being told.

Yes, last fall’s exams were too bunched together. And it’s frustrating to have the exam times change, too, or be listed as p.m. when they should be a.m.

Yes, prayers at our ceremonies are completely inappropriate and should have no place here, especially considering the push to internationalize the university.

Yes, new faculty need mentoring. When I started here, no one really acted as a mentor, and I must say that the transition was quite difficult. And to top it off, I’d ask how to do something (fill out a faculty development plan, year-end self-evaluation, or supervisor’s review, for example), and the response would be usually “I don’t know” or “Don’t worry about it.”

Privacy issues need to extend to students as well. I’ve many times seen old student papers, graded exams, etc. (including items with social security numbers on them), piled in the hallways waiting for the cleaning staff to carry them away. These items should be shredded and definitely not left in the hallways.

As for the library, well, it’s embarrassing. If we’re to have graduate programs, we need a larger one and a better stock of books. The number of journal subscriptions cancelled in 2004 is shocking to me. Perhaps some kind of federal grant could help us there?

I told myself I wasn’t going to rant when I started writing this, but I’m afraid I’ve ranted anyway.

K