The Academic Career: Choosing the Community College Path

Ellen Lansky (PhD 1996) found her first job in the community college system through a chance meeting at a bar: “A friend who taught at Minneapolis Community College told me that the dean was looking for English instructors and that I should call her. The next morning, I did; that afternoon I went in for an interview.” Lansky walked out with the opportunity to teach developmental writing and business writing. “I was not specially trained for either course, but I was game,” she recalls.

Today, with over three decades of teaching experience at community colleges, Lansky is a full-time unlimited instructor in the English Department at Inver Hills. “I’ve never regretted that choice,” she notes. Her work on literature and addiction has appeared in several anthologies, including Southern Comforts: Drinking & the US South (2020). Also a fiction writer, Lansky’s most recent novel is Suburban Heathens (Brighthorse). She graciously answered our questions via email. 

What is most fulfilling about teaching in community colleges?

I work with students from a range of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities. For example, in a current section of “Writing and Research Skills,” I have 16-year-old high school juniors who aren’t sure they can do the work, self-described perimenopausal women who are pursuing a degree in nursing, people for whom English is a second or third language, and high achieving recent high school graduates. It’s everything, everywhere, all at once—each class period. What surprised me is the way that such a diverse group of students can become a reasonably cohesive group of learners and teachers.

What else surprised you about your position?

One aspect of the role is that an English instructor is expected to be a “generalist” and able to teach anything from developmental writing to Brit Lit I. I was happy to have taken the “chocolate milkshake” (Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare) as a grad student at the U. 

What advice would you give current graduate students preparing for the academic job market? 

My advice for current grad students is the advice I got when I was an undergrad and a graduate student: there are no jobs. Of course, when I was a senior in college applying to grad programs, I thought I’d be the exception. Later on, I revised my vision of a future self in a tenured position at a small liberal arts college like the one from which I’d graduated. In fact, when I finished my PhD and was looking more seriously for a full-time, permanent job, an interesting development was that if I wanted to take a one-year position to be a Visiting Adjunct Assistant Professor at UW-Eau Claire, not only would I have to commute, but I’d have to take a significant pay cut as well. I decided to focus my efforts on a full-time unlimited position in the metro area community college system, and I’ve never regretted that choice. 

Were there English professors who significantly nurtured your development? 

Yes: Ed Savage, Shirley Garner, Robin Brown, Art Geffen, Kent Bales, Ed Griffin, and Marty Roth.