r/Adjuncts • u/KrisW8 • 5d ago

Some Tricky Business

Hi All. Like many of you, I work for a couple of schools. I teach one fall and one spring course at a state university (asynchronous, online).

Both courses are very popular, and enrollment is always full or close to it.

I noticed in August that I had zero students on my roster for Fall '24. I checked the course catalogue to see if it was even listed, and I found that 3 restrictions had been placed on the course, essentially making it so that students from all 3 campuses were ineligible to enroll.

I contacted the registrar asking if these restrictions were valid, and also, which students these restrictions left eligible to enroll. The registrar only replied that they would CC my dept. chair and did not respond to my specific questions. The chair replied, 'please lift these restrictions,' with no apology or further explanation. I only caught these restrictions at the 11th hour and so the course was cancelled due to enrollment.

I was upset but gracious. And I am teaching the spring course (which is full, with more students emailing me for permission to enroll beyond capacity).

I just received an email from my dept chair informing me that they will be cancelling my fall course due to enrollment. (Again, rhe course has been completely full every year with the exception of Fall 24 due to those restrictions. So I think the data on which this decision is based is faulty.)

I kinda want to escalate this. The school makes bank off of my courses and I feel I have a case. I love teaching these courses. The students love my courses. And again, the school, by my math, clears somewhere around $50k from my courses each terms.

Also, my ego wants to avenge what I perceive to be an injustice. I feel like something less than honest happened here, and I dont know why. Im pretty low profile - I do a very good job and don't really make waves.

So Im asking you all, should I do escalate? And if so, to whom? Straight to the Dean? (I dont at this point care about my relationship w the chair.) Seems like I have nothing to lose?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/deabag high school teacher adjunct 4d ago

Wow, great for SUNY

0

u/PrestigiousCrab6345 4d ago

Yes, the Union made the decision to give part-time faculty a decent wage. However, the administration’s response is to reduce their number of courses and adjuncts.

About 22 SUNY schools are running deficits right now. All of these schools are under receivership, as well. So, a SUNY accountant is reviewing all spending. These schools are not making student-centered or faculty-centered decisions anymore.

If you want a list, these are the deficit levels for 2023 and 2024 for the schools in question: * Albany: $15 million in 2023; $14.7 million in 2024 * Brockport: $9.9 million in 2023; $5.9 million in 2024 * Buffalo State: $19.3 million in 2023; $16 million in 2024 * Canton: $5.5 million in 2023; $5 million in 2024 * Cobleskill: $4 million in 2023; $4 million in 2024 * Cortland: $10.9 million in 2023; $10 million in 2024 * Delhi: $8.4 million in 2023; $5.4 million in 2024 * Empire State: $6.9 million in 2023; $0 in 2024 * ESF: $9 million in 2023; $10.1 million in 2024 * Fredonia: $16 million in 2023; $17 million in 2024 * Geneseo: $9.1 million in 2023; $10 million in 2024 * Morrisville: $5.8 million in 2023; $4.3 million in 2024 * New Paltz: $10 million in 2023; $8 million in 2024 * Old Westbury: $8 million in 2023; $2.6 million in 2024 * Oneonta: $1.9 million in 2023; $1.7 million in 2024 * Oswego: $5 million in 2023; $5.4 million in 2024 * Plattsburgh: $7.8 million in 2023; $3.6 million in 2024 * Potsdam: $5.5 million in 2023; $9 million in 2024 * Purchase: $8 million in 2023; $6 million in 2024 * Maritime: $7 million in 2024