Part-time but Who I Am
By
Dr. Joseph M. Hathaway, Provost, South Georgia College Entry Program
and
Dr. Carl B. McDonald, Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs 

            While full-time faculty are the backbone of a college’s academic programs, there is no denying that part-time instructors with a love of teaching are essential to virtually every college, particularly when a college is experiencing significant enrollment growth.  At South Georgia College, where enrollment for the current semester is higher than ever before, part-time instructors play an important role and are in great demand.

            Brenda Whitley, a top-notch high school English teacher from Fitzgerald, is probably the senior part-time instructor on the Douglas campus.  She is a very valuable English composition teacher who undoubtedly has taught over 1,000 SGC students.

            Jim Knowles of Douglas, a retired teacher and principal, loves music.  Everyone who knows him realizes that.  His music appreciation course is one of the most popular in the SGC curriculum, and it is rare that students would be in the presence of someone with such vast experience as a professional musician, instrumental teacher, music arranger, and even instrument repairman.  Does he love teaching music appreciation?  People who know him would say that music is probably somehow in his DNA.

            Wyatt Adamson travels to Douglas from Waycross twice each week to teach his art appreciation course.  A retired public school teacher, Wyatt is an artist who wants to instill his love of art in his students.  He, Ms. Whitley, and Mr. Knowles are three part-time instructors who represent the seventeen current part-time instructors on the Douglas campus.  These dedicated teachers complement the outstanding instruction provided by the forty-six full-time instructors who work with students every day.

            The South Georgia College Entry Program on the campus of Valdosta State University has always depended on first-rate part-time instructors to carry out its mission of providing learning support and core curriculum instruction to students who eventually transfer to VSU and other four-year schools.  Here are some of their stories:

Wyonne Templin walked into a chain store on a mission. She was searching for a person and an answer. Spotting a young man, she went over to him and asked, “Why haven’t you been in class this week? We’ve missed you.”

Wyonne (pronounced WHY OWN) is one of the twenty-five part-time faculty at the South Georgia College Entry Program in Valdosta. She is a retired high school math teacher who still wants to help young people by doing what she does best – teach math.

Mike Paine has been a Valdosta business man for many years. About eight years ago he came to the Entry Program and said, “I think I’d like to teach.” Mike has an M.A. in English from the University of South Carolina.

As a young student, Paine studied in Italy where he developed a love for the classics. Now he has the opportunity to share his knowledge of Virgil and Edmund Spencer with the young minds of South Georgia.    

Chuk Holzworth is a newcomer to Valdosta. He decided to find a safer region after a hurricane destroyed his Florida home. Holzworth wanted to teach at the college level. But even though he held a superintendent of schools certificate, he found that he needed to take a couple more courses to be qualified, so he enrolled at Valdosta State for the necessary graduate courses.

Now Holzworth teaches American Government and Georgia State Politics by bringing government into the class room. Some of his guests have included John Fretti, Valdosta Mayor; Ashley Paulk, Lowndes County Sheriff; and Amy Carter, Georgia State Representative.

The SGCEP faculty has a small group of full-time faculty members; they share one thing in common. All of them began as part-time faculty with the program. Dr. Glen Maul was the first faculty member hired. He came to the program in 1998 and has seen it grow from 36 students to over 400.     

Retention of faculty is not only due to love of teaching, but also to great collegiality. Cathy Gilbert, an English instructor, is frequently organizing faculty events such as a lunch honoring Dr. Seuss for which all the food had to be in the colors of “green eggs and ham.”

            Excellent part-time faculty have been and continue to be a part of the growth of South Georgia College’s programs on the Douglas campus and in Valdosta.  The college is always in need of qualified and dedicated part-time faculty.  In order to attract the best faculty possible, SGC is paying part-time teaching stipends that are competitive with all regions of the country.   If you are interested in teaching part-time and have a master’s degree with at least 18 graduate semester hours in an academic discipline, contact South Georgia College at 912.260.4203 or the Valdosta Entry Program at 229.293.6247.