“I’ve been taking my time, expecting stragglers. I’m slowly introducing myself, trying to seem like a normal guy. Dr. Eliot Becker, welcome to remedial composition, Tuesday and Thursday, 3:40 until 5:00. Office hours, TBD. They look at me. Yes, I’m young. And I’ve been waiting a long time for this day. This is debut.”
“While grinding out my dissertation, I imagined an office door with my name on it, with bookshelves inside loaded with everything I had read in the last decade. And my own desk. And a chair on wheels. And a chair for students who would come for a conference. On the door, a window.”
“As an Eastern Tech adjunct, I get a parking pass, a mailbox, and a drawer. My drawer is in a filing cabinet in the adjunct office in the basement of the liberal arts building. There are two old wooden desks in the office. And eight filing cabinets.”
The life of an adjunct instructor. Eliot has a chance to start his professional life, but the odds of him getting a full-time tenure track position are slim.
Working with the under-prepared student. Eliot teaches remedial English. His students take “developmental” courses to make up for what they should have learned in high school. How well does the curriculum serve them? Are they really helped?
The issue of standards. Eliot meets senior colleagues for whom rules and regulations matter a great deal. An adjunct friend refers to them as “grammar hogs.”
The pleasures of small-town life. It’s not as easy as it might seem. In Freeland, his new hometown, Eliot is an outsider. How to feel at home there, become accepted, become one of them.
What about the money? Adjunct pay is not a living wage. Far from it. Eliot bags groceries and sings in a bar band for extra money. Conflicts ensue. Wasn’t he supposed to get married?
Some characters:
Eliot Becker, adjunct instructor.
George Herbert, department chair, dandy, efficient, and inscrutable.
Felix Archibald Turner, tenured political science instructor, rumored to be sexual predator.
Elizabeth Braun, tenured English instructor, mentor to Eliot.
Ron Blazek and Cecil Mack, adjunct mentors to Eliot.
Mercedes Drake, girlfriend, art historian and tennis pro.
Connie Delaney, small-town female friend.
Todd Norman, gun-nut co-worker at the grocery store.
David, student with Asbergers
Rae, student with Black dialect issues
Donna, student being battered by her husband
Thaddeus Torgensen, drummer in Eliot’s band The Falsies
Mr. Pinto, bouncer at the Red Fox Bar, where Eliot’s band performs