I've been in a shared office situation as an adjunct and as a one year temporary faculty. It is awkward when you have student consultations and I feel that the modern climate and laws on confidentiality pretty much rules out this kind of arrangement.
The school had two 'adjunct' pools, by the way. One was just a shared space, a converted conference room. The other in a different building was specifically designed for adjuncts with one large room with continual desk running along two walls, shared computers and a central printer, lockable cabinets overhead for the adjunct's materials. The space had several small 'consultation rooms' connected to the main room for use with students to maintain confidentiality of discussions. Paul On Jun 12, 2012, at 4:56 PM, Ken Steele wrote: > > Hi Marty: > > I have dealt with space crunches on several occasions and have not heard of > regular faculty sharing offices as a common solution. In my experience, the > typical solution is to find a vacant office -- somewhere, anywhere -- for the > required time period. > > In the past, the ASU psych department has housed faculty from several > departments when we had vacant offices. When our building was renovated a > few years ago, the faculty was scattered across the entire campus. (That > year+ period is called 'The Diaspora' of course.) > > My concerns would be the impact on productivity and confidentiality issues. > Regular faculty have similar hours of work. When I am working on some task > (academic, administrative, or educational) then I don't want to be > interrupted by someone in the room talking to a student, colleague, or > fishing buddy. But I can't ask my roomie to leave or be quiet. I have > materials that I can't just gather up and go to the library. Some of these > materials are very sensitive, like budget or research data, and I have > promised the relevant body (Administration, IRB) that I will keep them > confidential. > > Students come by to ask for help or to discuss personal circumstances. You > can have official office hours but those darn students often won't/can't > follow the official schedule and just show up in your office. I don't want to > hear my colleague's discussions with students and I don't want him/her to > hear my discussions. Many of these discussions can take a quick turn from a > bad grade to very personal issues like pregnancy, brain tumor, return of > cancer in parent (all of which I have encountered last semester). These > students will be inhibited by the presence of another faculty member. > > On the other hand, sharing an office has often worked well with some adjunct > arrangements. A faculty member who teaches only on Tuesday and is never in > the building otherwise will not have much conflict with a faculty member who > teaches only on Thursday and is otherwise never on campus. In these cases, we > make sure that the faculty members have clearly-defined personal spaces that > are never to be used by their roomie. > > Ken > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [email protected] > Professor > Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu > Appalachian State University > Boone, NC 28608 > USA > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > On 6/12/2012 3:21 PM, Bourgeois, Dr. Martin wrote: >> >> >> >> Hi, everyone. Faced with both a space crunch and a budget crunch, >> my university's administration is planning to have faculty begin >> doubling up and sharing offices. I have never heard of regular >> faculty being asked to share offices. I'm curious as to how >> common such a policy might be. Please let me know whether your >> institution has any faculty sharing offices, and, if so, how >> decisions get made as to who shares offices and who doesn't. >> >> Thanks! >> >> Marty >> >> */Martin Bourgeois/* >> >> */Professor and Chair/* >> >> */Social and Behavioral Sciences/* >> >> */Florida Gulf Coast University/* >> >> */Fort Myers, FL 33931/* >> > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=18371 > or send a blank email to > leave-18371-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18372 or send a blank email to leave-18372-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
