Wind him up and watch him go...

[kasandaro]

For those of you following along at home, I've been happily working as an adjunct in the Journalism Department for a year and a half now, and was going to be continuing in the spring. I am also starting my doctorate in English in the spring, and because i R edyumukatid (Firefox's spell-check really does not like that), UNT want to give me money for a change. But of course, scholarship means full-time enrollment. And I'm currently listed as teaching two sections of Computer Apps in Journalism in the spring.

No big deal, right? I've taught Comp Apps in one form or another for the better part of five years and worked in the lab for longer. Teaching the class is a complete no-brainer, and I can do that and take classes, no problem.

Except that there's a catch. Apparently, UNT has this arcane rule for adjuncts that are taking classes, something related to budgeting. A class you take as a student counts it's normal hours. A section you teach counts as 6 hours. And there is a hard cap. According to what I've been informed, one cannot be involved in more than 15 credit hours.

15. By last count, three taken classes plus two taught classes is 21.

So I'm given the dilemma of bailing on teaching a section that, given the competent teachers in the department are all running into the same limit, will not be taught and taking classes full-time, or teaching both sections and not taking full-time classes which means losing a scholarship or two.

Before anyone asks, I know which I'm choosing. I'm just more than a little annoyed that I have to make the choice. It's not like I'm in bad academic standing - I've scholarships that say otherwise - or I'm a horrible teacher - again, course evals that say otherwise.