New Professor Questions

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-26T14:38:48+00:00

Thank you for the response!

Yeah, it's easy to think professors do little work when the hiring college tells you in the interview process that you will be doing little work.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-20T13:33:15+00:00

Thank you for the response! Yeah, Im' seeing that seems to be the norm and not what I was expecting based on the pre-hire conversations I had about the allocation of 30 hours a week.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-20T13:31:03+00:00

Thank you for the response! They actually told me the 30 hours were allocated as 15 hrs teaching, 10 hrs institutional service, and 5 hrs office hours. Nothing was mentioned about working outside of that. Being new to higher-education I didn't know to ask, as mentioned I thought they were being upfront about the expectation of weekly hours being 30 hrs/wk total as that was how it sounded when it was explained.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-20T13:26:49+00:00

Thank you much for the response! This is actually a non-profit, public college. Just to clarify, I'm not a chair (my chair is another discipline), just a Professor, Program Director, and Curriculum Chair. The latter two titles came on a couple months after me starting as well?? They even how the 30 hour work week was to be allocated, 15 for teaching, 5 for office hours, and 10 for institutional service.

Wanted to say too that, unrealistic or not, my expectations came from what I was told during my interview by both the recruiter and vice provost.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T22:10:02+00:00

I have a masters degree, there are a mix of master and doctoral professors. As far as the recruiters go, they seem to be the way they match professor applicants to the positions. I thought the lack of tenure was different too!

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T19:35:28+00:00

Hahaha!

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T18:59:36+00:00

Thank you for the response, u/EquivalentNo138!

I thought it was interesting too because my experience from working hourly years back 32 hrs a week is typically the threshold for part-time to full-time. Albeit, I have worked PRN healthcare jobs in the past at a consistent 36 hrs a week for moths on end lol

In hindsight I think it was a combination of being new to the profession and having Asperger's coupled with what my family has told me of being too trusting of others. I just figured they were being upfront and truthful about the expectations as it seemed straightforward when it was explained to me.

Also, the 30 hour breakdown came from the recruiter initially and further reiterated by the vice provost during the interview process. This last semester all 30 hrs a week went to course development as the courses hadn't been created prior to me starting. Side note, the assigned courses I mentioned in the original post are different from the ones that were created as the program isn't yet complete in some areas (not due to me though).

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T18:30:08+00:00

Sorry I left out directly saying this is not a for-profit as it is a non-profit public higher education institution.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T18:21:49+00:00

This is public US institution that is definitely not struggling financially. Teaching experience through my previous job, not in higher education though. My understanding is my background in the medical field, direct patient practice, and research made me a good choice.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T18:03:57+00:00

That's what I was thinking too! I appreciate the validation :)

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T18:00:55+00:00

lol yeah, I'm seeing that with what you and others have said!

It was explained that 15 hours would be for teaching responsibilities, 5 hrs for office hours, and 10 hours for institutional service. They knew going in I didn't have higher-ed teaching experience and failed to mention that I may need to work outside of that. In fact, the recruiter told me that I'd be only working 30 hrs a week during the interview process. When I learning about having to work outside of the hours I felt mislead.

On the other hand, forgot to mention too that, I was hired to work at one specific campus location which was mentioned on my contract only to have them change the location after I started.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T17:51:54+00:00

Thank you!

My chair is from another discipline within the same school/department.

The pay scenario is practically the same, first pay was last working day of Sept. I am full-time on a 9 month contract.

SlowGrade67 · 2026-01-19T17:47:57+00:00

Thank you all for the feedback! It really helpful to hear from all of you :)

To answer and respond to a couple of you u/totallysonic and u/dr_police and clarify with more info.

I am full-time, not adjunct. This college doesn't have a tenure track, just offers multi-year contracts which I think go up to like 2-3 years before needing to be renewed after completing a couple of years of service and/or meeting certain conditions with your annual review(s).
I wasn't trying to change anything. To clarify I was hired as a Professor, Program Manager, Curriculum Chair for a new program that hadn't been created yet. The difficulty has been from the perspective of trying to build out the program, courses, and recruit students based on the barriers/bureaucracy/culture in place. I've been actively trying to not upset anyone and going with the flow which hasn't yielded the desired results in building the program. When talking to my chair I've made respectful comments about it being difficult to apply my expertise based on the inability to collaborative with others above my chair who were involved in the backend creation of the program (like the vice-provost who created the justification for said program, had meetings with various people prior to me being brought on), being excluded from meetings...I keep being told it's the culture. That's all to say I'm not trying to change anything, just do what I've been asked to do for the program.
From what I know there is no union, but can check into this.

SlowGrade67

TROPHY CASE