Zombie Halls Syndrome

                There was a nice post retweeted and discussed this week on how technology can create empty halls in academe, where no sense of community resides in departments. This community is important for graduate students because writing a dissertation is an isolating experience in and of itself. However, this discussion of isolation and empty halls made me think of how summer term in most institutions suffer from acute zombie hall syndrome.

                In most post-secondary institutions, from May to August, you could walk the hallways where professors’ offices are for hours without seeing a single professor, program assistant, dean or chair. For those who have receive the tenure track holy grail (or full-time teaching) summer is a time for research, for writing, for preparing fall syllabi, in short for doing the work the system expects of a tenure track professor (producing the intellectual capital as part of the higher education knowledge economy). Professors need to engage with their colleagues as well as the material they research and teach, in order to stay current and be relevant. All of this is an important part of not only a research agenda but also a teaching portfolio (though there are sadly many academics who see this a two separate entities).

                However, I ask, what happens to the students during this time? Do we (as instructors/professors/teachers/ knowledge partners) not equally owe it to our students to be accessible in those summer months? I know what I am suggesting is tantamount to heresy and that there are simply not enough hours in a day/month/term to also be open to student queries along with research work. Yet, think of the message zombie hall syndrome suggests.

                Zombie hall syndrome says: we have checked out, we’ve given you enough, the neon “closed” sign is illuminated, be back in September. Pedagogically it undermines community, learning networks and engagement. This is even displaced to our electronic communication. Emails state “I will be returning to campus August 26^th, for any urgent matters please contact the poor P.A. who doesn’t have time off in the summer.” There has to be a better way to do this.

                I work in continuing education, we offer subjects three terms a year. This summer has been one of our busiest terms in memory. My end of term grades meetings are this week. I start teaching again September 3^rd. We do not have zombie hall syndrome. My door has been open all summer. However, I’m an adjunct, I do not have full-time teaching, I’m not tenure anything. Some may say because of my position I have no onus to research or publish. Well we all know that the system doesn’t work like that and in order to stay current, marketable (in the age of apparent expiry dates of PhDs) and more importantly relevant for my students I need to research. And I have.

                Since May I have presented at one international conference (in England), presented on a panel at another local conference, submitted a draft of an article for consideration in a collection, drafted a panel proposal for a conference, and in the next two weeks will have finalized another article for submission for another collection, all while editing my dissertation (read rewriting) into a monograph manuscript for peer review. And while teaching two classes. My story is not unique, it is the harsh reality of life as an adjunct.   

                My faculty prides itself in being available for our students 365 days a year (or close to it). Instead of this being a drain or time consuming, rather I saw it as a positive. I gained inspiration, motivation, and energy from my students. The learning community was present all summer. My students questioned, engaged; I questioned back. I went home at late at night and wrote or read. Or sometimes I would do nothing but read the newspaper or do crosswords. My office was full of life during the day – I saw 5 students on average per week in my office (I also do lower level administrative duties for my faculty so some of these students were not enrolled my classes but rather in the program I help oversee). No zombies, no dead spaces, not in our offices, not via email.

                So why do most full-time department and faculties have to roll up the carpet and put up the “gone fishin’” sign in the summer? Wouldn’t it be beneficial to all involved to maintain a “presence” not just via email but in real life?

                I know that this will probably be classified as #confessyourunpopularopinion but isn’t it time post-secondary institutions and instructors reclaim the empty zombie summer term halls? Just a thought.

* FULL DISCLOSURE (before I get the “it must be nice to be….” Tweets)

I do not have regular family responsibilities (no children, etc.). So I do understand that I am speaking from a privileged position of sorts. However, I do not come from money, I come from a squarely lower middle class family (if that even exists anymore) and I make adjunct coin with no benefits and I am only paid for teaching hours (not prep, nor am I expected to hold office hours). I have rent and bills like many do. But I still believe that even if you are married, single, have children, pets, a mortgage, rent, car payments, a ramen noodle addiction, we owe it to ourselves and our students to not fall off the radar for four months.