A Safety Net

I am feeling more confident about my decision not to take a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class this coming Fall semester. As I have commented in previous entries , when teaching as an adjunct, teaching five days a week when I am only teaching three classes, travelling 80 miles round trip each time I teach considering the price of gasoline and the fact that I am leasing a car, makes me question the logic. So, last semester, I let the college know I could not do a MWF class.

Of course, there were some concerns I had about this. My main concern was, the two Tuesday, Thursday classes are taught at a campus center, away from the main campus. While I enjoy teaching at the campus centers, it is more likely for a public speaking course to be cancelled at one of those facilities due to low enrollment. So, I certainly questioned whether I might not have enough students and the class would be cancelled.

Fortunately, I am up to 11 students. 10 is what is needed to make it go and usually at the campus center they will go as low as eight. Right now it certainly seems like I have enough of a safety net and don’t have to worry. As for the second class, this is the one that is offered to High School students. I don’t get to see those numbers on line so I am not sure where it stands. Still, this class has never been cancelled in the Fall Semester. In fact, since the Spring semester has been questionable, they no longer offer it then. As a result, there is more of a chance it goes in the Fall Semester. So right now, it looks good and I am happy I made the decision I did.