The Adjunct Council is excited to begin a fourth year of the Adjunct Council Newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter is to briefly share practical information relevant to adjunct faculty. Inside the quarterly issue, you will find important dates, resources, contact information, adjunct accomplishments, and current news. With each issue, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, we will provide the latest news and resources to keep you updated and informed.

Adjunct Council meetings are open to all adjuncts. Meetings are held the second Thursday of every month from 3:45pm-5:00pm via Zoom Video Conference where we discuss issues pertinent to the adjunct community. If you are interested in attending, please contact Sharon McNeely at smcneely@nl.edu.

We welcome your thoughts and comments with a desire to present them to the appropriate university committee.

For more dates visit www.nl.edu/academiccalendar.

Education Technology Spotlight

D2L Daylight Experience

D2L's new user interface, Daylight Experience, offers the following positive changes:

• Simplified navigation design that is responsive for smaller devices
• Wider page layout for your content so that it's the focal point of the page
• New fonts, icons, colors, and simpler formatting of widgets provide a consistent experience
• Responsive homepage layout
• New My Courses widget featuring rich photography in a responsive tile-based layout
• New image library with over 3,000 images that you can choose from for course tiles

Who's Who at NLU

Library & Learning? It’s Worth the Trip!

By Elizabeth Schaefer

Meet Rob Morrison, NLU Dean of Library and Learning Support. This department encompasses all library operations, tutoring services, admissions testing, and student accommodations. In his addition to his full-time leadership position, Rob serves as an instructor. This makes him very busy indeed—busyness: a titillation that adjuncts can relate to.

Rob has worked at NLU since 2006, and also studied under this innovative institution. He earned his doctorate at NLU in Adult and Continuing Education. His professional experience predates his NLU tenure; Rob has worked in academic libraries for nearly three decades. Now listen closely, adjunct faculty: here’s where you come in. Literally, that is. Stop by the new library space, which is on the 6th floor, just "à côté de" student facing services. The new space is cozy and convenient; you see, it’s suitably located by the elevators. Never hurts to grab a book and run!

So, why the new space? Well, students need some downtime too, and it’s not always with a book in hand. The former library is now a Student Center, which hosts a hot spot for collaboration, socializing, and just plain relaxing between classes. (There’s a designated Quiet Zone.) If you’re unfamiliar with the library’s former address, the new Student Center is located on the 6th floor, Room 6005. Thus, if you’re teaching this term on the Chicago campus, definitely drop by and check out the new scene. And, of course, spread the word among your students.

Now, let's walk back to the library. Since the Chicago Campus librarians and learning support specialists can’t very well reside among the cacophonic student chatter (excepting the Quiet Zone), they are dwelling—and quelling our quest for knowledge—in their new suite. Of his peers, Rob speaks highly: “Working with a group of highly committed librarians and learning support specialists who are dedicated to student success” is one of his two most valued responsibilities. The second, he says, is “Being (himself) in a position to help students learn.”

But you don’t have to work in the library to support student success. Rob notes two resources that adjunct faculty might not know about. (And kudos if you do!)  “We provide services to students designed to remove or limit barriers to access within the broader learning environment.” Rob continues, “Services are approved for students on a case-by-case basis via our ADA access services available at: https://www.nl.edu/librarylearningsupport/adaaccommodations/.” The second resource—that may be unbeknownst to adjuncts—is that Library & Learning Support writing specialists offer a “Drop-off Essay Review service to help students’ master their writing skills.” Learn more at nl.edu/librarylearningsupport/tutoring/dropoffessay/.

Rob proposes some tips to get students engaged in using the library. “Talk to a librarian and learning support specialist about options for supporting students,” he says. “We can integrate specific modules into D2L courses (writing, citing, locating and evaluating materials, using scholarly resources) and meet with students in class and individually.” You can contact the specialists at lls@nl.edu or visit www.nl.edu/librarylearningsupport. If they are not already, adjuncts should also be aware of the databases NLU offers. Through these databases, students can access full-text academic e-books, journals, and videos. The Library and Learning Support team can provide links to these resources as well as instruction in multiple modalities: online, in-person, phone, and e-mail.           

Although he’s a leader in the library, Rob selects some terms to step out of the shelves and into the classroom. “Teaching occasionally helps me to stay connected to students,” Rob explains. “I recently taught an undergraduate library research course and a doctoral course” in Higher Education Leadership and Governance. “The library course focused on locating and evaluating information—an important communication skill students need to be academically and professionally prepared.”

With so many books to choose from, thank you, Rob, for sharing your story! â€‹

The Adjunct Faculty Council Overview and Two Surveys for You

By Sharon McNeely, Ph.D., Chair

The Adjunct Faculty Council is an elected group of people.   Our mission is to represent the professional interests of the adjunct faculty at NLU.  We try to enhance the adjunct faculty role at NLU through active participation in shared governance, and to advise the Provost and President on matters that concern the adjuncts at NLU.   There are four adjuncts elected from each college to serve three-year terms, and one adjunct who liaisons with the library. We meet monthly to present status reports, discuss issues brought to us, advise administration on concerns, and continue to enhance the adjuncts’ work at NLU.   This year our major goal is to try to enhance communication to adjuncts from all levels within NLU.  We have a brief survey for you to complete concerning programs communicating with you. Please take that at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/nluadjunct1

We are pleased that administration has provided us with a full-time Adjunct Faculty Manager, Raquel Garcia.  She is an important addition for all adjuncts.  She updates the onboarding and continuing professional development for adjuncts through our e-nuggets system, deal with ongoing adjunct credentialing issues, and keep adjuncts informed through her Adjunct Bulletin.

We are working to address issues that adjuncts have brought to us about class scheduling, developing online courses, and communication with administrators. We are striving to try to make sure that adjuncts are aware of policies and procedures, and feel that they are a valued part of NLU.   We want to hear from you about your issues and concerns.  Please feel free to email any of your representatives to the AC, Your AC members are:  Terry Costello, Barb Gomez, Nicole Hansen-Reyes, Nancy Hekkema, Sharon McNeely, Kristen Mitchell, Joy St. Pierre, Elizabeth Schaefer, and Deborah Shefren. If you prefer, you may use our anonymous SurveyMonkey link:  

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/nluadjunct2

to provide feedback, ask questions, etc. 

We welcome your input.

Recent Adjunct Faculty Business

By Sharon McNeely, Chair

The Faculty Adjunct Council has worked hard this year to try to further enhance communication with adjuncts and help adjuncts feel valued.  Here are some quick highlights of what we have been doing:

• Have explored options for furthering communication with administration.  Administration now has regular talk times with adjuncts through breakfasts, coffees, allocated times at Connections meetings, etc.  Administration has also provided us a direct link to deal with issues through Raquel Garcia, the Adjunct Faculty Manager.
• Have asked Deans and program chairs to notify adjuncts of meetings, and provide a Zoom link, or other way for adjuncts to attend meetings, and get minutes of those meetings. We know not all program leaders have responded to this request and we continue to work on this.
• Have learned more about the upcoming re-accreditation process for NLU, and tried to involve adjuncts in the work, as well as find out what adjuncts need to do to prepare to meet the standards.
• Have learned more about the upcoming changes for the addition of the new Undergraduate College.  We continue to get updates and are preparing for elections of adjuncts to our council when this is finalized.
• Have learned more about the importance of the Noel Levitz survey and added some questions specific to adjuncts for the survey.
• Have learned more about student issues and adjunct responsibilities to meet student needs.
• Have routinely attended meetings of the various faculty committees, trying to represent needs of adjuncts at those meetings.
• Have attended the Connections meetings and the Faculty Association, representing the adjuncts at those events.  As a side note, we hope to see many more adjuncts at the next Connections event.
• Have begun work to reorganize our Charter into a Constitution to better function within the systems at NLU, and better serve adjuncts.