How to Hold Office Hours Without an Office

I recently heard about an adjunct lecturer in west Texas who had to hold office hours in her pickup truck. Fortunately, she had a King Cab and could store her students’ papers in a two-drawer file cabinet behind the driver’s seat.

Well, that’s one way to solve a perennial problem. It’s no secret that part-time faculty members across the country often struggle with inadequate office space, or no office space at all.

Some instructors are fortunate enough to share with a few others a full-blown office, complete with a desk, a phone, a file cabinet, and maybe even a computer. Most adjuncts, however, can expect nothing more than part of a work table in a conference room, a few minutes of time at a spare desk in the supply room, or a time slot at one of several desks set up in a general “adjunct office.” Many part-timers have nothing more than a mailbox, and are left on their own to find space for anything else outside the classroom. Institutions require us to hold office hours to meet with students, but how are we supposed to do that without an office?

Let’s think about why we need an office in the first place. For full-time professors, an office serves as a home base for the myriad duties and services that make up their job: meetings, administrative work, fund raising, departmental work, student advising, office hours, scholarly research and writing, class preparation, and grading.

Do adjuncts have the same office needs? We have the luxury of a very narrow job description focused solely on teaching and the tasks directly related to it, like grading, class preparation, and meeting with students. For most part-timers, none of those other academic duties apply to us, at least in the sense that we need office space for them. Of all the adjunct duties, only meeting with students really requires any kind of space on campus. The rest of it we can do from our home offices.

So the real question is, How much of a campus office do we need?

First, we need a place to receive mail -- definitely snail mail, probably e-mail, preferably both. This is a bedrock office requirement, and adjuncts shouldn’t even show up to work without this. You can use your departmental mailbox as a place for students to leave written messages or drop off rough drafts, and for you to return assignments, leave graded rough drafts, or whatever. Clear out all the departmental clutter (memorandums, announcements, newsletters) and bulk mailings (catalogs, offers for cheap subscriptions). Use your departmental mailbox as ground zero for your dealings with students outside of class.

Next, we need a phone line. Students must have a phone number where they can reach us. If you are given a campus extension, or one to share with other adjuncts, use it. If you aren’t given one, a few days standing at the secretary’s desk tying up the phone line most likely will result in you -- and the other adjuncts in the office area -- getting your own phone line. As a last resort, give students your home phone number, or the number of a separate line you reserve for work. (The cost of this may be tax-deductible; check with your tax adviser.)

Finally, we need a place to meet with students. Ideally, this space would be a relatively quiet spot off the beaten path, away from the faculty refrigerator or coffee maker. It doesn’t have to be an office; it could be a conference room corner, a spare desk, or a vacant cubicle. If these are not provided for you, ask for them. Or scout them out on your own and use them until told otherwise. Chances are, even if you’re “busted,” your predicament will catch the attention of someone in power, and you’ll get some kind of remedy.

What it all boils down to is this: Part-timers need some kind of office space primarily to be available to students for prearranged office hours.

Fortunately, the 21st century has given us some alternatives. Office hours, as a concept, need not remain within the confines of the traditional office. All manner of “bricks and mortar” venues have been replaced, quite successfully, with cyberspace venues. Much of the meeting with students that occurs during traditional office hours can be done via the Internet through e-mail messages, file downloads, chats, discussion groups, and instant messaging. Because of the ease and convenience of online communications, you can now be available to your students 24/7 instead of just a few hours a week in a dusty, crowded office.

Indeed, I spend less time in a traditional office now than I ever have in more than a decade of teaching, and yet I am more available to students than ever before. How so? I answer about 10 to 20 e-mail messages from students a day. I give them my personal home phone number (which they really don’t call too often -- but it makes them feel like they have special access). I have a fax machine in my home office where they can send finished assignments.

I review rough drafts via computer, proofread outlines for papers, answer questions about reading or lecture material, and even offer personal advice that students probably wouldn’t discuss face to face in the office. And I still use my on-campus phone numbers, e-mail addresses (when I am provided them), and general office area.

When I do need to meet with a student face to face, it’s often just as easy to meet in an atrium, in the dining commons or coffee shop, or in a courtyard than in my office. Or, I can meet with students for a short time after or before class, at a nearby bench or table, or in an adjacent empty classroom. Students just arrange such meetings with me in advance.

So that west Texas adjunct really didn’t have to meet students in her pickup truck. She probably could have found a bench, a table, or a few chairs in a commons area somewhere on the campus, and been a lot more comfortable. And if it was the file cabinet that she needed access to, she and other adjuncts might consider one of those snazzy new rolling briefcases that all sorts of consultants and freelancers roll around with them nowadays. Good ones run for as little as $30.

The point is, adjuncts can solve their office-space problems with some resourcefulness and tenacity. Keep reminding your hiring administrators that you need space to do the job they’ve hired you to do. But in the meantime, get creative and make something work for your situation. Our job is to meet students’ needs by being accessible and responsive. This has more to do with attitude and heart than with an actual office.

A NEW COLUMN:

Jill Carroll, an adjunct instructor in Texas, will write a monthly column for Career Network on the adjunct life. This marks her debut. To learn more about her, and her new book on adjunct careers, here’s a recent profile in The Chronicle.