Part-time Faculty ... Full-time Commitment

BY JENNIFER PENCEK

Ben Levine explains a point to students after class.

As students valiantly rush to make it to class on time, faculty members at Penn State Altoona are putting last minute touches on lesson plans and taking a glance around the classroom to see which students have the won the battle with tardiness.

Among the dedicated faculty are part-time instructors [also called adjunct professors] who, much like their full-time contemporaries, have to balance teaching with personal lives. Part of their balancing act also includes managing dual professions—college teaching and their "day jobs."

While some part-time instructors are retired professors who want to stay in education, many others have another career. With all of the competing demands on their time, a question naturally arises. What motivates adjunct faculty to take on the additional responsibility of teaching?

Flexibility

John McIntosh

For John McIntosh, part-time lecturer in health education for more than a decade, the answer is multifaceted. His love of teaching correlates with his dream to become a full-time professor one day. But he also enjoys the cooperative schedule his part-time status affords him, which he believes allows him to truly make a significant difference with more than a few students.

"The biggest benefit is getting through to more young minds at one time," says the 49-year-old from Altoona. "In my departments, we tend to be practitioners. We balance very well over there [Penn State Altoona] because they have both researchers and practitioners."

When not teaching four classes a semester, McIntosh co-owns the Center for Holistic Living with his wife of five years, Brenda, where he does mind and body counseling. The two also are raising Brenda's two children.

While some might think being just one of McIntosh's roles—instructor, counselor, businessman, or stepfather—would be tiring, McIntosh readily disagrees; it just takes scheduling and a love for all things involved.

"For the most part, due to the flexibility of our schedule, it works out," he says matter-of-factly. McIntosh and his wife juggle and coordinate their schedules while the kids are at school, "but one or both of us typically are home when they get home from school."

While McIntosh hopes to one day earn a full-time position, not all of his part-time counterparts have the same goal in mind.

Life After Retirement

Darla Wilshire

"After working thirty-five years, I don't want to march to the beat of someone else's drum," says Darla Wilshire of Altoona, part-time lecturer in English.

Wilshire, 60, spent the majority of those years teaching at the junior and senior high school levels in the Altoona Area School District. Wilshire planned to write a book upon retirement, but soon thereafter someone from the college called and asked her to teach a course. She did it, got hooked, and, five years later, the book still is waiting to be written.

"I don't have to teach, but I love it," she says. "I really enjoy seeing people move from one part to another. I like to put it that I'm an enabler. I like helping people move along."

While the extra money is a factor, the sheer satisfaction she gets being inside a classroom is Wilshire's primary motivator. She usually teaches three courses each semester and two during summer sessions.

Her son, Patrick, is an instructional designer who lives in Altoona but telecommutes for a company in Washington, D.C. Wilshire likes to think that she and her son have much in common, including finding their own niches in life and commonalities in their chosen professions.

"It's both teaching and designing," she says. "It's all interconnected."

Andrew Vavreck, division head for the Division of Business and Engineering and an engineering professor at the college, recognizes the important role that part-time faculty play. "The benefits include their extensive industrial and business experience, evening scheduling flexibility, and specialized expertise," states Vavreck. "They generally have a strong desire to teach and to give back to academia, and are among our best instructors." Finding a connection with students requires time and dedication. While there naturally are differences between the roles of part-time and full-time faculty member, their efforts and goals are parallel.

Sharing Life Experiences

Patrick McCoy

"Each instructor, professor, and assistant professor has different methods," says Patrick McCoy, a part-time psychology instructor. "I'm more about sharing real-life experiences instead of lecturing from a book all the time. Not that I don't do that, but I like to apply that to real-life situations."

"They generally have a strong desire to teach and to give back to academia, and are among our best instructors."
—Andrew Vavreck

McCoy lives in Summerhill, Pennsylvania, and has taught at Penn State Altoona since the fall of 1997, usually teaching three courses a semester. He worked as a therapist with different area agencies until dedicating himself solely to teaching six or seven years ago.

He balances his professional life with a fulfilling personal life, which includes being father to three grown children. As he looks at his own developing students, he likes to imagine futures of success instead of failure. One tool for success, he says, is education, which in turn may help prevent problems later in life.

"Being preventative with something fits my own belief system, doing the right thing, getting the most out of it," he says. "That's my hope. Through the psychology courses, students can become more aware so they can develop realistic expectations."

Realistic expectations for McCoy include many more years of teaching.

"I can see myself living this lifestyle for the rest of my life," he says.

Legal Eagle

That is a sentiment echoed by Attorney Ben Levine, part-time instructor in business administration. The 71-year-old from Altoona was an instructor while in the Army from 1957 to 1959, after which he attended law school and taught at the American Institute of Banking. He then continued his passion for teaching by joining the adjunct faculty at Penn State Altoona in 1975, while maintaining a successful legal career.

Still practicing law, Levine also has been able to devote himself to his students, which includes instructing them in one or two sections of a business law course each semester.

"Hopefully I'm effective at what I do," Levine says. "It's to get the kids to understand the practicality of that particular course and, every now and again, you get rewarded."

Married with three grown children, one might think that Levine is ready for a quiet retirement. But Levine has no intention of slowing down.

"I'll teach as long as they'll have me," he says. "I have a strong feeling for Penn State Altoona."