Oh how I’ve missed publishing The Adjunct Advocate! It’s been too long! And this edition of the newsletter will probably be too long! I have so much to write!

IMPORTANT! We’re less than a week away from our Adjunct Faculty Awards Luncheon on Thursday, April 20 at 12 pm! Please come! If you missed the RSVP window, send me an email and I’ll put you on the list! To quote one of my favorite songs, “I want a [luncheon] with a crowded table”!

And don’t forget the new textbook and reflection training before in 2111 JKB, starting at 10:30 am (not 11 am, like originally announced).

Team ChatGPT takes a commanding lead over Team Teachers!

Just this week two adjuncts have reached out with questions about what to do with students who used ChatGPT to get writing done.

I had no advice. In my 23-year teaching career, nothing has made me feel more overwhelmed about teaching writing than ChatGPT.

A few weeks ago I reached out to the great Tyler Gardner, the director of the RWC, and he hopes to put a training together for us in September about the good uses of ChatGPT and the bad uses of ChatGPT in an effort to help us navigate these dark, ChatGPT-infested times.

Hopefully, by fall semester, University Writing or the English department or BYU (someone, anyone help us!) will have clear and concise ChatGPT policies that we can add to our syllabi—a consistent policy will go a long way in helping everyone get the hang of these new times we live in!

Remember you have agency—and so do your students

That’s the most useful takeaway from our chat with Jon Cox the BYU CAPS Psychologist about how to respond to students’ crises.

We teachers have agency: we can stick to the policies detailed in our syllabi and we can make exceptions. Both are okay!

Unfortunately, it’s likely either option will make us feel uncomfortable when it comes to working with struggling students, who also have agency.

We can’t force them to attend class, to submit assignments, to choose school over family, to function when they’re overwhelmed with grief. They have agency, and we need to respect it, even though it makes us feel all sorts of feels.

This semester I’ve been working with several struggling students, but there’s one who has tugged at my heart in a way that has made me want them to succeed more than just about anything.

So in an effort to help them be successful, I’ve sent emails, asking how they’re doing and what I can do to help; I’ve extended due dates; I’ve met with them in my office; I’ve sent them more emails, letting them know where they can get help and how to petition to withdraw from my class after the withdrawal deadline.

And still this student who has my heart is going to fail my class and probably lose their place at BYU (their fall semester didn’t go well either).

Agency ain’t easy.

Become an essentialist!

If you haven’t had the chance to read or listen to our first Adjunct Book Club pick, Essentialism by Greg McKeown, then put it on your read-it-next-week list right now!

As we ate lunch and discussed Essentialism, we shared ideas on what we can do to make our lives easier to navigate and more fulfilling—to live like essentialists. Here are three tidbits from our conversation:

• “What would a man do?": Greyson Gurley continually asks herself this when teaching. Generally speaking, our culture has conditioned women to do more, to bend over backward for others, to always put others first, which can lead to us not living the lives we want to live. For those of you who are married, when was the last time your partner overbooked themselves? When was the last time you did?

• Less is more. In life and in teaching. Perhaps our expectations of ourselves and of our students are outdated. Perhaps it’s time to reexamine our syllabi.

• If it’s not a definite “heck yes,” it’s a no. You might feel uncomfortable saying no at first, but you won’t miss the stress and resentment that come when you say yes because of obligation, niceness, or expectation.

The Adjunct Book Club will return fall semester—yay! If you know of a book that would useful and enjoyable, let me know! I’m holding auditions this summer!

It’s my job to help adjuncts!

Please send me an email if you have any questions or concerns or need some help—it’s my job as adjunct liaison to help adjuncts! You can reach me at [email protected].

Stuff for your calendar

This list of stuff includes stuff from the university, the English department, and me, the Adjunct-in-Chief. You’re invited to it all! Please come when you can!

Also here’s a link to the department calendar if you care to see the future: The English Department Calendar.

APRIL

• April 14: TODAY! Tea at 2 pm in 4186 JFSB. Teaching Triumphs! Cha-cha-cha! End the semester on a good note by celebrating: What went well this semester? What pleasantly surprised you? What helped you enjoy teaching?

• April 20: Reflection Training @ 10:30 am in 2111 JKB. Come learn more about reflection from Jessica Enoch and the new WRTG 150 textbook and how it connects to Mindful Writing! Oh and earn $25 in Cougar Cash! Think of it as the perfect pre-show to our awards luncheon!

• April 20: The Adjunct End-of-the-Year Awards Luncheon @ 12 pm on the Hinckley Center’s Third Floor. There will be lunch, recognition of service awards, and cheering. If you missed the chance to RSVP, send me an email—I’ll make sure there’s food and a chair for all!

• April 27: 2023 Adjunct Faculty Seminar from 9 to 1 pm in the Tanner Building. Register here, and keep an eye on your email for more information about the different breakout sessions. Also keep an eye out for me—I’ll be there, guzzling Gatorade and starving in prep for my you-just-turned-45 colonoscopy the following day!

MAY

May: A Scheduling Survey. Watch your inbox for this survey! We—the English Department, University Writing, and I—hope to use the information we collect to improve the scheduling process and to create a single document that lays out the process so everyone can have a better understanding of how it works. I also hope to put this information on a future website for adjuncts.