[game_edu] "Identifying a Good Game School"

[baylor wetzel]

Being able to coax a good professional to teach a class is a good
thing. But where i used to teach, we went from 17 full-time game
design faculty to 8. The remaining professors were allowed (well,
perhaps begged) to stay on as adjuncts (which many did). Pay dropped
from $50k-$60k+benefits for teaching 25 hrs/week (5 classes) to
$2k/class and no benefits. Morale dropped (in a program that had
fairly high morale) which started showing up in student performance.
The top teachers (in my opinion) left for other jobs

We were told that we were out of alignment with other schools in terms
of full-time/adjunct ratio. Other peer schools had much higher adjunct
ratios. But our program was also one of the few we knew of that was
growing (extremely rapidly). That trend has now stopped (although for
a variety of reasons, not just this)

Having full time staff also leads to a certain level of stability in
what's taught and a lot less frustration if you're the person
scheduling class offerings :)

So there are scenarios where using adjuncts is a downside. And i
suspect that those scenarios are more common. i'm familiar with
DePaul's program, which is pretty good in part because of their strong
relationship with Midway (among others, and thus the ability to
convince active pros to come talk) but not many schools have that
benefit

-b