Incomplete grades & temporary faculty

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, MS writes:

How should people with temporary positions deal with teaching demands that extend beyond a particular course’s contract? Suppose I am contracted to teach PHIL 101 in the Fall term, and there is a student who (for legitimate reasons) needs to defer some of their term work until the following term. My inclination is just mark the stuff, since I’m invested in my students. But I also feel like there is something exploitative in having that even minor burden fall to temp workers.

This is a really good question. I imagine there are a few different situations where this can arise. First, one could be in a temporary postdoc or visiting position, and then leave for another institution before the student is able to finish the work they need to finish the Incomplete. Alternatively, one could be in a part-time adjunct position where a student needs to finish up work after the course of your contract is over (i.e. during the summer months). I agree that there seems to be something really unfair about expecting people who are no longer getting paid for a course to have to do substantial amounts of work like this after the term is over (or after they have left the university for another institution). But I also imagine that, insofar as Incompletes are covered in faculty handbooks and the like, they are nevertheless considered by the institution to fall under the terms of your contract. So unfortunately, I'm not sure what to advise other than making things as easy on oneself as possible. Perhaps departments could/should come up with policies to have full-time faculty do this kind of work (though I'm not sure whether that would fly with administrators). What do you all think? 

Comments

[anon]

This varies by institution. At mine, if work like this comes up after your contract, you're entitled to an hourly rate while doing the work, and you could refuse if you really wanted to. In practice, no one bothers getting the hourly rate for one or two papers, but for the really large courses you do get a sizeable stack of late papers/exams and it's normal to ask for and get the extra money. I imagine if someone refused the extra work it would default to the chair, or someone random would need to get hired for it.

Maybe I'm overly influenced by the place where I have experience working, but I'm skeptical of "I imagine ... they are nevertheless considered by the institution to fall under the terms of your contract". If the contract is to work from Day X to Day Y, and business arises post Day-Y, how could the business possibly be covered by the contract? The details of this probably depend on the specific wording of the contract and also local employment law.

To respond directly to the OP, yep, whenever you're getting asked to do unpaid work it's exploitative. And the person ultimately at fault for putting the students in this situation is the person who gave you a temporary contract, not you. But how to respond to all this depends on a lot more than just the minor exploitation.

[SLAC Associate]

Especially if one's contact isn't renewed for the following term, I'd raise the issue with the department chair and let them that they will have to figure out how to deal with that student's accommodations after your contract has expired. The adjunct can't be sensibly expected to continue grading work after they're no longer being paid by the institution -- hell, it's not all that unusual for adjuncts to no longer have email access or login priveleges after their contract is up, so in such cases it'd be functionally impossible for them to continue communicating with the student and entering their completed grades.

[Former VAP]

I worked a few one-year VAP's. In cases where the student had to take an incomplete in the Spring semester, I just informed the Chair of the student's name, the grades on their assignment so far, the relative weight of the assignments, and what the student needed to complete. Nobody ever expected me to do the work of grading, if the paper came in after my contract term. Furthermore, my email address was soon deleted after my contract term anyways, so I don't even know how the student would have gotten in contact with me.

[Canada, Why]

I was wondering: since it legal in Canada to discriminate against non-Canadians, should American departments be allowed to discriminate against Canadian applicants?

[Why Canada]

Canada, Why: you might be unaware of this:
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theonion.com/perky-canada-has-own-government-laws-1819563891/amp

But also: there is a certain amount of flexibility in how the law is interpreted. Consequently, the more research-y and the more pressure the University in Canada has to have a strong international reputation, the less likely they’ll worry about whether the applicant is Canadian.

[Canadien]

Canada, Why
The same sorts of restrictive laws that privilege Canadians for Canadian jobs exist in the USA, and privilege US citizens. I know this, I was a Canadian working in the USA. I had to be so much better than my US competitors to get the job I got. In fact, they first offered the job to a US citizen who was ABD; I already had numerous publications, including two in Phil. Sci.

[David]

As a Canadian who has lost out Canadian jobs to Americans, let me tell you that I wish this law was enforced, but it isn't really.