For Whom the Bell Tolls

I’m not sure why I stopped to look.  The bulletin board in the Verdant Fields Community College faculty workroom is in an awkward location next to the door, so it’s easy to miss.  Whatever the reason, one item grabbed my attention.

It was a notice that Chuck Barnes, a longtime adjunct sociology instructor and evening coordinator for the part-time faculty support center, had died last week.  He passed away of a heart attack in his living room recliner, his Golden Retriever dozing at his feet.  He was 74 years old.

I’d had a long standing though casual friendship with Chuck over the years, stopping by the support center after my Thursday evening classes to hang out, drink coffee, and swap stories.  Chuck, a grizzled retired cop, had a lot of them.  He never disappointed.  Our Thursday night talks were one of the highlights of my week.

Returning for classes this fall, I learned that the college had ended the evening coordinator program and that the faculty support center would henceforth close at 7:00.  Chuck, whose department had declined to offer him any classes the previous year after over forty years of teaching, was abruptly and unceremoniously “retired.”

It wasn’t because he was a substandard employee.  Far from it; he had the universal esteem of his colleagues.  It wasn’t that he was a bad teacher; generations of students remember him fondly.  It did not matter.  He no longer fit the administration’s agenda, and so he was gone.  

Discussing Chuck’s passing with Amanda, the support center’s administrative assistant, I learned that he had been depressed over having had lost his position.  Chuck loved the give and take of the classroom, and being deprived of it was hard for him.  Losing his job as coordinator hit him just as badly.  It might have been nice to have someone to lean on, but his wife had died three years ago.  His son and daughter-in-law would check in on him from time to time, but most days his dog was his main company.  He had hobbies.  He was a motorcycle aficionado, but that is hardly sufficient to fill the days.  He was pleased with his new Cadillac, but where would he go?

Finding out about Chuck’s death made me think again of Margaret Mary Vojtko.  Vojtko, the subject of my last post, was the Duquesne adjunct professor who died in dire poverty after having had her teaching schedule cut back.  I know the all rationales for adjunct schedule cutbacks.  Enrollment is down.  We’re dealing with budget cuts.  The state legislature and the Board of Regents want more sections taught by tenured professors, though they won’t vote for any new tenure-track hires.  Yes, I understand.  But it’s funny that we haven’t seen any administration positions cut.  In fact, VFCC is hiring additional administrators.

Chuck’s dying was a premonition of things to come.  It has not been a banner week for The Scholar.  Daniel, my department chair, informed me by email yesterday that after seven years of teaching the maximum allowed three sections of my course each semester that I would be pulled back to two for the spring.  There was a vague promise (if you can call it that) that if enrollment allowed he would offer me a third, but I’m not hanging my hat on it.  Later in the afternoon I got a heads-up, again by email, from my department chair at Snowflake College that my spring schedule may be further cut there as well.

Living where I do I don’t have a lot of teaching employment options.  It’s Snowflake and VFCC or I’m on the breadline.  Like Chuck, teaching for me is the finest, noblest thing I have ever done.  Like Chuck, I am better than good at it.  Like Chuck, I’m facing career oblivion through no fault of my own.  I’ve been planning for an early retirement for a long time, but that assumes I’ll have a job in the meantime.  For the first time since I began my career I am genuinely worried for my future, not just in the classroom but for my life itself.  I think Chuck passed away because he had lost his purpose in this world.   For me this would be the worst possible thing I could ever face.

  

Amanda informed me that there would be memorial service for Chuck next month.  The police department will provide an honor guard.  I’m sure the service will be well-attended by the many people whose lives he touched.

I wonder if any of VFCC’s administrators will be there.

© 2015 The Unassuming Scholar