TeachingThe Humanities at Le Moyne College:
A Manual for Mentors

1. Mentoring Junior Faculty
2. Mentoring Adjunct Faculty in the Humanities
3. Mentoring Disillusioned or "Burned-Out" Senior Faculty

1. Mentoring Junior Faculty

2.Mentoring Adjunct Faculty in the Humanities

Unlike junior faculty, adjunct faculty do not benefit from asystematic orientation program at Le Moyne. This portion of themanual takes that into consideration. It also builds on severalpremises.

1. It is easy to forget to mentor adjunct faculty, sincemany of them are employed here only temporarily. But it isunwise to leave them without guidance. Both the department'sreputation and its ability to perform its instructional missiondepend in part on the services of adjunct faculty. Thedepartment will to some extent be judged within the college onthe basis of what its adjuncts do and how they do it.

2. The principal mission of adjunct faculty at Le Moyne isto teach. Service is not expected, although it should never bediscouraged, and scholarship is the personal responsibility ofthe adjunct professor rather than a departmental requirement. Thus the emphasis in these guidelines falls on teaching.

3. There are, in general, three classifications of adjunctfaculty:

• Those who look upon Le Moyne as an institution at which they can expect permanent part-time employment, and who came here with that intention.
• Those who look upon Le Moyne as an institution at which they can gain classroom teaching experience while searching for full-time employment elsewhere.
• Those who originally considered their employment at Le Moyne temporary but who have come to view it as permanent.

The mentor should consider these differences when advisingadjunct faculty.

4. Because of the low pay scale for adjuncts, it is oftenimpossible for them to devote significant amounts of time outsideof class and office hours to departmental or student concerns. Mentors should be sensitive to this fact and attempt to strike areasonable balance between their desire to integrate adjunctsinto the department and the adjunct's need to supplement his orher income and, in many cases, to search for permanent full-timeemployment.

5. Adjunct faculty serve the College and its students verywell. They should be accorded full equity as colleagues andincluded in the college community as a matter of course. Thecollegiality adjuncts enjoy within a department and the respectwith which they are treated can offset, at least to some degree,the low pay they receive at Le Moyne.

6. Mentors should consult the "Preamble" and "Teaching" sections of the portion of the manual that deals with the mentoring of junior faculty. Much of this material may be of usein mentoring adjuncts.

A Teaching Checklist for Mentors of AdjunctFaculty

SurvivalSkills for Adjunct Faculty

1. What do adjunct faculty need to know to survive and thrive?

• The mail room: where it is, how it operates, what is departmental policy on mailings. Obtain mailbox assignment and key in mailroom.
• Photocopying facilities and the Print Shop: locations and policies. Obtain faculty photocopying card from department chair.
• See department chair to obtain office key and faculty computing room key.
• See Security Office to obtain parking sticker for faculty parking lot.
• Secretarial help and Work/study assistance: what is available, and when.
• Computer assistance, including use of the VAX for the professor and for class work.
• Library facilities, including Inter-Library Loan.
• Bookstore policies and charges.
• Audio-Visual services.
• Registrar's Office: Blue books, Scantron forms, chalk, whiteboard markers, grade books.
• Variable Grading Program for personal computers.
• Use of Recreation Center.

2. Remember that Le Moyne is a very small place. Everyone knows everyone else, and a great deal of departmental business is conducted informally.

• Expect your teaching life to be an open book.
• Expect any comments made to a student (in a conference, on a paper, in class, after class, in your office, or in strictest confidence) to be a matter of public record among the student population before nightfall.
• This means that any exception made for a single student will probably have to be made for all students.

4. Suggestions for Mentors dealing with Adjunct Faculty:

• Consider teaming an adjunct with a full-time professor, or a long-term adjunct with a new one.
• Some adjuncts are willing to serve on departmental committees, or on college-wide committees. Check to see if such is the case and encourage their inclusion if possible.
• Consider some sort of expression of appreciation for the adjuncts in your department. For example, the Department of Religious Studies holds an "Adjunct Appreciation Night" once a year.
• Invite adjuncts to your department meetings and include them in departmental business to the fullest extent possible.

C.Mentoring Disillusioned or "Burned-Out" Senior Faculty

Mentoring senior faculty who have burned out poseschallenges quite different from those involved in mentoringjunior faculty and adjuncts. These challenges vary from personto person and are in part connected to the reasons for thedysfunction. Some of these reasons are suggested below.

1. Some disillusioned professors own careers which oncewere full of promise but which have deteriorated sharply inrecent years; in the language of space travel, their orbits aredecaying. There may be one or several reasons for this,including (but not limited to) the following:
   
• lack of success at teaching or scholarship, leadingto diminished self-respect and a sense of embarrassment atsuffering the previously unfamiliar experience of ineptitude.
• changes in job situations or working conditions,forcing the professor to retool, to change areas of expertise inpart or in full, or to perform his or her duties under unpleasantor vexing circumstances.
• changes in physical health or mental flexibility(which may or may not be attributable to advancing age), butwhich affect negatively the professor's ability to perform at hisor her accustomed level or to meet standards set by himself orherself, by the department, or by the College.
• the development of a feeling of superfluity or ofbecoming a "fifth wheel" in the department, whether because ofthe hiring of younger, better-qualified colleagues, of themarginalization of the professor's teaching or researchinterests, of diminishing camaraderie within the department, orof some other reason.
• changes in personal life or human relationshipswhich affect the professor's outlook on life, the impact of whichis carried by the professor into the classroom and into contactswith students and colleagues outside the classroom.
• the development of a feeling of bitterness towardstudents, colleagues, Le Moyne College, and/or the teachingprofession per se, stemming from any one or combination of anumber of causes.
• disillusionment with the attitudes and/or levels ofpreparation exhibited by today's students.
• inability to teach exciting and stimulatingelective courses because of a shortage of students majoring inthe field -- or, conversely, exhaustion brought on by teachingand advising too many majors in an understaffed but increasinglypopular department.
  
2. Other professors own careers which were neverparticularly promising or which never "took off." A rigorouspeer-review tenure system prevents many such candidates fromreceiving tenure at Le Moyne, but no such system is foolproof. Such professors may have suffered from poor self-imagesthroughout their careers, or may have developed feelings ofinferiority in mid- or late-career. Whatever the circumstancesthat may have led to such a development, these professors aredifficult to rehabilitate, since the foundation for excellencewas never present in the first place.

It must be emphasized that both types of disillusionedprofessors are capable of the unintentional infliction ofsignificant damage on the College, not only through poor teachingand poor advising, but through the effect their presence has onthe morale of otherwise healthy faculty. They may be the firstto appreciate that they are experiencing problems, but the lastto appreciate that something could or should be done to solvethose problems. Ironically, though such professors may be themost keenly aware of their situations, they are usually the leastaware of the damage those situations create. Or they may betotally unaware of their problems, believing that they areexcellent teachers who are simply misunderstood or unappreciatedby students and colleagues.

Although both types prefer to hide from reality, thatreality is that their situations are well known and that theythemselves are subjects of private (and often public)professional derision. For the health and well-being of allconcerned (including the morale of other professors who mustcarry the loads such faculty are unable or unwilling to handle),something must be done to help them....if, indeed, they can behelped. It must also be recognized that while some burned-outprofessors can be revitalized, others may be "terminally burnedout," a condition for which there is no adequate option short ofretirement. The mentor must be alert to this distinction and beable to suggest appropriate strategies in each instance. Since adecision to seek the retirement option moves the emphasis fromrehabilitation to removal and requires a decision at thedepartmental level and close consultation with theadministration, it falls outside the scope of this section of themanual, which is concerned with the possibility ofrevitalization.

The indispensable condition precedent to the revitalizationof a burned-out professor is that professor's own desire toimprove. If such desire is absent, little or no progress will bemade, regardless of the diligence and creativity of those who aretrying to help. This section will focus on three types ofburnout -- affecting teaching, scholarship, and service -- andoffer reflections and suggestions concerning each.

1. Ineffective Teachers.  Since Le Moyne is a teachinginstitution, these professors are capable of doing the most harmto its public image and viability. Word of their difficultiesspreads rapidly along both student and professorial grapevines. They can quickly damage the reputation of an entire department,particularly a small one. Since they are tenured, outrightdismissal is unlikely in the absence of clearly demonstrableincompetence. But since there was something in these teachersthat made the College want to tenure them in the first place,dismissal should clearly constitute a last resort. Theinvestment that the College and the department made in suchpeople warrants efforts to rehabilitate them. Some suggestionsfor such rehabilitation are listed here.

a. The department should designate a colleague to workwith the disillusioned professor. In most cases, this will bethe department chair, but there may be cases in which thispairing would be counterproductive. For example, the chair maybe much younger than the professor in question, and the lattermay respond less defensively to suggestions from a seniorcolleague. Or there may be a particular person in the departmentwho is close to or highly respected by the burned-out professorand whose suggestions may be taken more seriously than those ofthe chair.

b. Whoever is designated to work with the professor inquestion must work to place that person in a position that makeshim or her want to improve in the classroom. This should not beimpossible, since it is likely that the individual was once aneffective teacher (provided that the Committee on Rank and Tenuredid its job properly), but it may be difficult. It is crucial toconvince the professor that such change can be accomplishedgradually and that the results will be of considerable benefit tothe professor, the department, the students, and the College.

c. One approach would be to ask the professor toassist in the evaluation of a junior colleague who is coming upfor tenure and/or promotion soon. The professor should be askedto evaluate areas of performance that the department knows areproblematic in his/her own teaching. When discussing theevaluation before it is sent to the person being observed, thementor can focus on areas in which the disillusioned professorneeds to improve. At the very least, this exercise will give theprofessor in question something to ponder.

d. A second approach would be to encourage the burned-out professor to design a totally different type of course(because of "changing needs of the department" or some similarreason). This might break him or her loose from a rut and leadto reinvigoration, at least in that one course. Depending on thesituations of both the professor and the department, partial orcomplete retooling might be suggested involving the employment ofnew technologies, equipment, and/or techniques.

e. A third approach would be to require not only theineffective professor, but all professors teaching sections ofthe same course, to meet several times each semester to exchangeideas in an effort to improve the teaching of the department as awhole. Peer pressure and the natural desire to "pull your ownweight" may then be employed to effect change. Isolation of aburntout professor is an understandable reaction on the part of adepartment, but it is the reaction least likely to improve thesituation.

f. A fourth approach would be to arrange for theprofessor in question to team-teach a course with a colleague.  This is a more direct approach than item "e" and one in which theprofessor's responsibilities to his or her colleague areimpossible to evade. It may be necessary to work out anarrangement with the Dean whereby the colleague receives somesort of consideration in return for such service, but if the Deanrecognizes the problems posed by the disillusioned professor,this should be easy to accomplish.

g. With luck, one or a combination of these approacheswill result in some improvement. If this is the case, theprofessor should be encouraged to devote part or all of his orher next sabbatical leave to further improvement. Possibilitiesmight include: taking a graduate course in an area of interest,with the course to be paid for by Le Moyne; learning in a formalway about innovative teaching techniques and technologies;directed and sustained reading in an area crucial to thedevelopment of a new course. It may be possible to accelerate aprofessor's leave if the time is right and the Committee onResearch and Development, as well as the Dean, can be convincedof the potential benefits.

h. Central to the revitalization of burned-outteachers is flexibility and direct involvement by the AcademicDean. Depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary tomove the professor into a reduced teaching load for developmentalor rehabilitative purposes. Insistence on a 4/3 teaching loadmay be inappropriate in such cases, while one or two years at areduced load, compensated for by the transferral of the professorto other types of duties which he or she is capable of performingeffectively, may benefit the college and revitalize theprofessor.

2. Ineffective Scholars.  Here we mean scholarship broadlydefined, e.g., not limited to the sort of publication thatresults in promotion, but inclusive of other forms of scholarshipsuch as authorship of book reviews, activity in professionalassociations, service on editorial boards, research that enhancesclassroom performance, and other such things. People who engagein one or more of these activities are probably not burned-outscholars. Those who engage in none of them are likely to realizethat they have a problem, and may be willing to discuss with youthe reasons for their dysfunction. Such reasons might include:

• Repeated rejection by publishers and journals of theprofessor's scholarly efforts.
• Inability to find a topic for research that isinteresting and stimulating.
• Lack of available resources, such lack being attributableto the nature of Le Moyne as a small, teaching-centeredinstitution.
• Boredom with scholarly pursuits in general, often coupledwith a feeling that the incentives for further publication (e.g.,merit increases once every three years for full professors) areinsufficient compensation for the unpleasantness involved.
• Marginalization of one's chosen sub-field within thediscipline as a whole, often coupled with an unwillingness toswim against the current and/or an injured self-image.

Once the reasons for the ineffectiveness are understood, itshould be possible to take steps to remedy the situation. Suchmeasures will vary widely, depending upon the circumstances andpersonalities involved. Mentors should seek suggestions fromcolleagues who have dealt with professors in similar situations.

3. Withdrawal from College Service.  This sort ofdisillusionment can be extremely difficult to cure, because theprofessor can simply cite disgust with policies and practices ofthe administration as sufficient reason for a sensible, competentprofessor to direct his or her energies elsewhere. In theabsence of compelling incentives to serve, such as impendingpromotion, convincing such professors to reorient theiractivities will be difficult. At Le Moyne, withdrawal fromservice has traditionally been less prevalent than other types ofdisillusionment, and those who have reduced their commitment toservice have often remained proficient as teachers and scholars(in part, perhaps, because of the increased time at theirdisposal). Once again, each case must be examined on anindividual basis, and strategies for dealing with the dysfunctionmust be individually designed.

|Welcome|Proposal|MentoringManuals|Calendar|Newsletter|
|Teaching Links|ProgramInput|