Papers and papers and papers
I’m home on spring break, and one of my aims over break is to clean up areas of our apartment that are overrun with things we simply don’t need anymore. My wife and I are on opposite ends of this spectrum¹ — she is of the “save everything!” variety, whereas I used to “clean my room” as a child by just shoving everything I didn’t want anymore into my brother’s room².
One of the things cluttering our office, other than books and half-finished notebooks, is old student papers. As a first-year doctoral student at my institution, I don’t teach this year, nor am I able (or did I want) to continue teaching at my past institutions. But, sitting atop those bookcases are various file folders and manila envelopes filled with old student papers from those institutions, and one of the more time-consuming parts of cleaning up the office has been shredding all of those old papers. This got me thinking about the aspects of adjunct labor that are shifted onto the labor, not just from the administration onto the labor but outside of the institution and into our homes.
Holding onto old student papers is one of the more hidden, but also more common, things adjuncts are asked to do. To be fair, all instructors are asked to do this, and it makes sense — hard copies of final/major assignments and exams are asked to be retained in case of things like grade disputes. The period of time depends on the institution, but I’ve been asked to retain them for up to two years by some places. However, full-time instructors have two important advantages mitigating the burden of this request: first, they have office space (and maybe even filing cabinets) in which to keep these things; second, they typically have access to industrial shredders to help them get rid of old documents once the time period has passed.
On the other hand, I don’t have either of those things, which means that I had to make room in my home for old student papers — and, to that end, had to do so for a greater number of classes and students than the average full-time instructor. We do have a pretty robust shredder here; but, it’s still limited in both capacity and power, and I’m looking at a minimum of four garbage bags filled with old, shredded student papers by the time I’m finished with this.
You might say, well, why not do everything electronically and avoid this? I do actually do most things electronically when I teach, precisely to avoid the burden of paper. I take and grade the vast majority of assignments electronically so as to avoid having to carry around (and potentially misplace) lots of lengthy paper assignments, in addition to wanting to keep a record of such assignments that, hopefully, won’t go anywhere. However, certain assignments cannot be completed electronically and are required, by the institution, to be kept by me rather than given back to the students³ — e.g., first-day writing samples or blue-book exams.
This might not feel like a lot. But, the point is that for adjuncts teaching multiple classes at multiple institutions, this all adds up very quickly (again, minimum four garbage bags just of shredded material, just from the last two years). Further, this is done not for the benefit of the instructor, but for the benefit of the institution, to ensure access to major assignments in the case of a grade dispute down the line, a dispute which, in my experience, I have no part in resolving other than coughing up the required materials.
Retaining papers is just one example. Another I can think of is the way I feel obligated to make my tech purchases serve my needs as an instructor. Another side effect of not having my own office, as well as jumping from school to school, is that I don’t have a “work computer” and therefore must keep in mind that, when I purchase a laptop, e.g., I will need something that I’ll be using regularly for work (and again, since most of my assignments are taken electronically, “regularly” means “for hours, each and every day”). I have colleagues who stick with old-style flip phones, and I’d likely still own a smartphone anyway because it’s not possible to play Pokemon Go on a Nokia. However, even besides, I find that a smartphone is pretty necessary, as well, not only to keep up with student emails at multiple institutions, but also because not having my own office means my on-campus availability is far more limited than my full-time colleagues.
I’m not sure what the tech solution should be. But, regarding paper retention, the burden should not be placed on instructors at all, I feel — this is for the benefit of the institution, and it is a requirement of the institution; therefore, the institution should collect and retain these assignments as needed. However, the burden absolutely should not be placed on the adjunct instructors. I can tell you that I have much better things to do on my break than shred old student papers, and I shouldn’t really have to do so just to get my home organized and clean. Moreover, though, while I’d prefer to see adjunctification reversed, as long as it is in place, at the very least, institutions shouldn’t place these kinds of burdens on the already overworked and underpaid adjunct instructors.
[1] Except for books. Between the two of us, we have ten overflowing bookcases — plus my shelves up in Albany — and that is after a minor purge last summer. My plan, particularly now that I have a field and a focus, is to continue to purge my shelves of books that I likely won’t ever need again, despite my belief that it is quite important and lovely to have a library overflowing with books yet to be read. For now, though, that’s a task I need more than just a week to complete.
[2] Coincidentally, I still do this — my brother is taking an old tablet I’ve since replaced to use in his restaurant.
[3] I also disagree with this, but that’s another matter.
