Hello World, This is Proffing

Hello world! … or at least the small sliver of it that may be interested in this site.

I want to take a moment to lay out here my vision for proffing.com. As an academic and social scientist over the past two-plus decades, I’ve watched with fascination the change — more evolution than revolution, perhaps — that the world of higher ed has experienced. Budget issues, the changing profile of students, issues of diversity and inclusion, a pandemic … each, in its own way, both a microcosm of the general forces re-shaping our country and world and at the same time being comprised of the characteristically-complex melange that makes up higher ed. As a researcher and educator, I’ve been particularly interested in the relative role of tenure-track faculty and professional track faculty, though I know this term may vary greatly from school to school. Of course, like any categorization, especially a dichotomy, this one is highly imperfect. This is particularly the case as the latter both grows and changes. At my institution, the University of Maryland, for example, the term “professional track” refers to instructors ranging from those that have taught full-time at the University for decades, contribute double-digit weekly service hours and conduct research, on one hand, to those that co-teach an occasional course, on the other. And, of course, much lies in between.

There are many reasons for the growing importance of professional-track faculty. Some are budgetary. Others relate to the cutting-edge skills professional-track faculty bring to the classroom. Moreover, in many cases, professional track faculty are more in touch with the job markets our graduates will face following their graduation, and are thus a fount of valuable advice.

For all of these reasons, and more, schools of all shapes and sizes depend more and more on professional-track faculty.

This is the “demand side.” There’s also a “supply side.”

It is my observation that it is the case that there is an increasing interest among non-career academics in teaching in a college setting. As above, “teaching” can and does mean many things, ranging from visiting a class as a guest speaker to committing to a multi-year appointment as an instructor.

The problem I’ve observed  is that there’s a great deal of asymmetric information  — on both sides. Those seeking these opportunities aren’t sure how to find them. They might search university websites, but these are notoriously out-of-date and fragmented. They might have a friend who teaches at a local university, but she probably only knows about her department’s teaching needs. She may not even know that unless she holds an administrative post.

Those responsible for staffing courses, on the other hand, have a difficult time filling new vacancies. Sabbaticals, retirements, new programs, changes in teaching preferences all conspire to present us with new vacancies each semester — often at the last moment — but other than reaching out to our existing set of instructors or going through our third-degree connections on LinkedIn  we have a very hard time filling them.

This matching problem is precisely where I hope proffing.com can help. Whether it’s a new course, an existing course or just a session for which a guest speaker or panelist is needed, I’m hoping proffing.com can help schools publicize through a specialized channel what their needs are. For instructors — again, those seeking a course, or courses, to teach as well as those interested in being a guest speaker — the platform provides a means to see (what’s available) and to be seen (by posting their profiles and course ideas). To the latter point, I suspect/hope that there’s real value in building an instructor-centric platform like I’ve tried to do here.

Finally, let me finish with an overt attempt at lowering expectations. I’m starting this website with no idea where it’s heading. I think there’s value it can add, but I’m not entirely sure what it should look like. This first version is very much a version 0.90, maybe lower. Please let me know what you like and don’t like, what functionality would be helpful and what is unnecessary. If you’re ready to check it out, please create a free instructor profile or post a free listing. Listings can be for adjunct instructors, guest speakers or companies that may want to work with students on a project.

Thanks – Dave Godes