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The room I teach a three-hour class in one night a week is simply too hot and humid for productive engagement. It’s unacceptable. Students cannot learn under these circumstances.
I’ve often worked in unacceptable rooms in my career, too small, too hot, too cold. I rationalized this as part of the sacrifice of working at public institutions where lots of necessities go unmet, but I’m done with that.
The first thing we do next week if the room is too hot is go looking for one that isn’t. How many people are currently teaching in unacceptable rooms?
Woke up exhausted and with a headache and I swear it's because I was dehydrated after a three-hour class in which I sweated through my shirt and pants.
I'm done with accepting this. My first email was to the first-year experience coordinator. The next one is to the college president. What good is the security of a voluntary adjunct gig if not to make some noise about unacceptable conditions for student learning?
Thinking about what I'm going to do about this makes me realize that if I'd ever been on the TT and gotten tenure I'd be a monster pain-in-the-ass to administrations. As irritated as I am, I take pleasure in prosecuting these sorts of causes and am disinclined to give up.
It's possible there's an easy fix, like the building's air conditioning goes to sleep at night, and my night class gets steamed out. If so, great. I just have to remind those in charge there's people working in there. But I'm going to find out what's up.
I should also mention that I'm doing this while not yet drawing my $2800/semester salary because there's HR paperwork I have to sign, but they close before I'm on campus for my evening class, which means I have to fit in a special trip during work hours.
Already working on a room change, but I'm going to ask students about their experiences in classrooms in general. Solving my problem is relatively straightforward, but if there's an underlying issue, it needs to be brought forward.
