Have you ever set a goal for yourself and then struggle mightily to achieve it? And then, after many months, you realize that YOU set the goal so YOU can change the goal?!

After missing many Tuesday publications of The Adjunct Advocate, I’m aiming to publish it every other Friday. I’m sure that by moving it to Fridays that all of my time-management problems and life curve-balls will be solved (insert here whatever emojis you feel are fitting for this absurd sentence).

Two comments diverged in BYU student ratings, and sorry I could not appease both

The Post Adjunct Award Luncheon Celebration

Our Adjunct Award Luncheon on April 20 was a beautiful, happy start to a new tradition—honoring and celebrating the work we do (and enjoying lunch and good conversation)!

Thank you to those who helped present recognition of service awards to adjuncts who have worked 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years at BYU: Gary Fuller, Kylie Turley, Michael Ashman, Amanda Erdmann, and Erika Price.

And thank you to the English department for paying for lunch (and the jazz band), designing and printing the certificates, and the thank you money (check your April paycheck—$100 for every five years of teaching at BYU)!

Last but certainly not least—congratulations to Shamae Budd, who received the Adjunct Faculty Award for Creative Work, and to Rebecca Purse and Jacquelyn Christensen, who each received the Adjunct Faculty Award for Teaching!

Click here to read what was said in their honor (and for a guide to finding a fellow adjunct who might be able to give you some ideas on how to address your student-diagnosed ailments—thank you, Winter 2023 student ratings!—or current writing and teaching doldrums. Rebecca, I’ll be contacting you about how you organize Learning Suite . . . ).

“It is also a gift: now I am free to teach”

The following is what Kylie Turley shared at the luncheon when she presented the 10-year teaching award. It’s worth reading, even if you’ve already heard it. Thank you, Kylie, for letting me share it with everyone.

To continue reading, click here—it’s not long, but Beehiiv says, “There are limits to what we’ll let you copy and paste!”

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] (and maybe one day [email protected]—mail.byu.edu was down the last time I tried to set up my new professional look).

Stuff for your calendar

Normally, stuff for your calendar includes stuff from the university, the English department, and me, the Adjunct-in-Chief, but as most of us have entered our favorite time of year, it’s not as robust as it usually is. Stay tuned!

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

^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.

SUMMER PSA

If you’re 45 (or older) and haven’t had a colonoscopy—or are due for another one, contact your primary care doctor TODAY and get the ball rolling! I found out yesterday that one of the two polyps removed last Friday during my first-ever colonoscopy was pre-cancerous! Just imagine what that little polyp could have turned into five or ten years from now!

What everyone says about colonoscopies is true: the prep is the worst part. I will never drink Gatorade again. The end.