The Adjunct Interview Committee was convened in 2013 as a final step in the hiring of adjunct faculty. Since Harcum relies heavily on its adjunct faculty, the College has continued to implement programs to help ensure that the variety of candidates we bring in from various disciplines are effectively enculturated to the Harcum community and mission. Each semester adjunct faculty are required to attend Orientation sessions to hear about college policies and updates and to participate in a faculty development program to assist their effectiveness in the classroom.

In the Fall of 2016, we piloted an Adjunct Web Page, so that resources specifically of interest to adjunct faculty could be easily located by that group.

 

The Adjunct Interview Committee is a part of this effort, and benefits the college by bringing together hiring managers from various departments who meet with adjunct candidates and then participate in a brief teaching demonstration. Candidates are provided with a description and agenda for the session that includes a list of key components that the Committee wants to see (either demonstrated or addressed in discussion): e.g., agenda, learning goals, active learning, student rapport.

 

At the conclusion of the teaching demonstration, the Committee members discuss the session and make a recommendation to the hiring Program Director as to whether or not the candidate is recommended for hire.  Each participating Committee member completes a feedback form; these forms are tallied in a summary report to the Program Director. The categories of both of these forms aligns with the classroom observation report so that the hiring PD is able to assess the candidate's development from the time of teaching demonstration to the first and hopefully subsequent classroom observations (first semester of hire and every three years thereafter).