By Gloria Heller

The first phase of the Part-timers' Office hours Project is hereby concluded and the Faculty Association thanks all those who participated. The goal of the project is to persuade the District to expand paid office hours to all part-timers on our campus. SMC Faculty Association's Hourly Committee has presented the Negotiating Team with "testimonials" from some of the 76 part-timers who received paid office hours during the current academic year. Printed here is a sampling of these statements in which instructors speak about the value of these Many Office Minutes (aka "MOM").

By Maureen Gunson
English 22/English

  As an English instructor, my goal is to touch the life of every student in my care and to inspire each one to have confidence in his abilities. Besides the traditional methods of teaching in the classroom, one-on-one student-teacher conferencing is most beneficial to fulfilling my goals to help each student to feel secure with the writing process, to give him confidence as a writer, and to help him develop his writing skills to produce writing that he will proud of and that is acceptable in an academic context.

Consequently, student-teacher conferencing (time spent in office hours or away from the classroom setting) is vital in establishing  the  threads   of  communication  that challenges the  alienation that can  develop in the classroom setting. On a one-to-one level of evaluation a student becomes more open to asking questions and less afraid of the classroom setting and 21A/B Instructor peer pressure. Conferencing, most importantly, helps to build a student-teacher partnership allowing the student to become more trusting and progressively more able to help himself by studying his own strengths and weaknesses. This critiquing method allows the student time to discuss how improvement can take place and helps the student to think independently, critically, and innovatively.

As a part-time instructor, I have always had office hours for my students as a means to create a positive atmosphere of learning. I currently spend approximately 44 hours a semester having student-teacher conferencing. With the new paid office hour, I make it mandatory (or part of the point system) that every student make at least one 10 minute conference with the instructor. However, in my English 22 class, each student has approximately 80 minutes of conference time during the semester. In my English 21a or English 21b classes, each student has approximately 35 minutes of conference time during the semester.

I have noted that the confidence and grades of my students have been enhanced by having regular office hours away from the classroom setting, thus opening the lines of communication and establishing a partnership for students to succeed.