After teaching for 8 1/2 years [continuously and most of these years teaching 3 courses per semester], I found out that my name was no longer in the schedule of courses from [college omitted]’s website. This was how I first found out about my first NON-reappointment. In a meeting with my chair, I was given the unhelpful and dissatisfying explanation that the quality of my teaching was uneven. [Everybody else has evenly stellar evaluations??] I was told that my seniority [to others retained] was “considered”. I was told that the personnel committee looked at “what they had” [teaching evaluations by colleagues and students] I found out by doing my own research that there were evaluations that I had copies of that were not submitted to the provost’s office and that were not in the department’s folder of photocopies. I found out that student evaluations even of my most recent years were not considered and I was getting very good evaluations. I went to the union’s grievance counselor with all my documents and went through step one grievance and got my courses back.
Right now my family depends on my $20,000 a year income. My husband is a full time CUNY student and I have a school age child. I was shaken and hurt by this improper non-reappointment. It is not a good feeling to come to class knowing you did not have your department’s vote of confidence. But I just have to focus on teaching my students and continue to love it.
The unkind lack of transparency about my original non re-appointment (e.g. the concerns, if any, about my teaching) and the silence about my grievance case makes me wonder to this day if I have made enemies or have become ‘marked’ by going to the Union and winning my case. This is the only reason why I am not naming myself, my department, or my college.
