Main Responsibilities of a Faculty Member at Chandler Gilberty Community College
Robert's main responsibilities at Chandler-Gilbert Community College include a "pretty heavy" teaching load of five courses per semester, encompassing curriculum development and grading, but a significant aspect of Robert's career has been adapting to evolving student needs, learning "how to connect with a different generation" since the 1990s and noting the impact of the pandemic on student learning.
Curriculum Development, Teaching, Student Motivation, Higher Education, Intergenerational Communication
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
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Traits
Robert Soza
Faculty
Chandler Gilberty Community College
Arizona State University
UC Berkeley, Dept. of Ethnic Studies, PhD
Humanities, English, Writing & Education
Education
Education
HSI Grad, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Transfer Student
Video Highlights
1. High teaching load: Robert teaches 5 courses per semester, often involving curriculum development and grading.
2. Adapting to different generations: Robert emphasizes the evolution of student demographics and the need to connect with younger generations, particularly post-pandemic.
3. Prioritizing instruction over committee work: Robert advises early-career academics to focus on teaching, which is the core mission of community colleges, and to be selective about committee involvement.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
The obvious responsibility is teaching. As a community college faculty member, our teaching load is pretty heavy. We're doing five courses a semester, and generally, my teaching schedule involves one or two preps. I'm teaching a composition course and maybe a literature course. Curriculum development and grading are important parts of it.
The other main responsibility is to some extent. I don't know how prepared I was for this, and I think this has changed. When I started teaching college in the nineties, I wasn't much older than my students, so rapport was easier. I could make a Led Zeppelin joke and people would laugh.
Now, almost 25 years into the 2000s, my students are 25 years younger than me. They are a very different breed than I am. Over the course of my career, one thing that has really changed is learning how to connect with a different generation, to motivate and support them, and to really help them be successful.
Young people are sometimes characterized as being sensitive, and I don't think that's entirely true. They are certainly different, with different values and different upbringings. They experience different things. Especially coming through the pandemic, having spent two years cloistered in their rooms on cameras, has presented some interesting responsibilities as a teacher.
Instruction and working with students is the fun part. I think my primary responsibilities include mundane tasks like committee work and working on college projects; those are important as well. As I progressed in my career, I've spent more time focusing on instruction and doing the necessary committee work.
Perhaps the advice I would give someone early in their academic career is not to be afraid to say no to committees and service if teaching is what you truly love. At a community college, that's what we're here to do, so really focus on the instruction aspect.
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