By Some may think that having two jobs is tough, but Elizabeth Hoffman makes it look easy.
Hoffman has been a lecturer in the English department at Cal State Long Beach for about 25 years, and has been the California Faculty Association associate vice president for lecturers for four terms.
She was also elected to the American Association of University Professors’ National Council, which helps protect the rights of faculty and other higher education professionals across the nation.
For her, it doesn’t seem like such a difficult assignment because of the passion she has for both organizations.
“I’ve been lucky to be able to teach here and to be part of an institution, which as their goal, prepares students for the future,” Hoffman said. “I think the CFA has been part of building a faculty to do that job.”
As an English lecturer, she teaches advanced composition explorations and children’s writing, where she teaches her students, who aspire to become school teachers, how children learn to write in elementary school.
She also teaches University 100 where she places emphasis on a reading supplement called “Be True to Your Medieval University Tradition.”
Her favorite quotation reads: “You should make the most of this time and place in your life, for never again will you inhabit an environment so challenging yet so nurturing, so rigorous yet so forgiving.”
Hoffman said this sums up her philosophy for teaching, the university as a whole, and the union she is a part of.
Prior to becoming a CFA associate vice president, Hoffman was a local campus representative for many years before being elected to serve as a statewide delegate and then eventually being elected as a statewide officer. Before the CFA was founded in 1983, Hoffman was active in a union called Academic Professionals of California.
Hoffman said that both positions reinforce each other. Being a statewide officer of the union contributes to building a strong faculty for the California State University system.
“I always have to think how it contributes to the students and that is how having both jobs makes it work for me,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said what’s wonderful about higher education is that you are brought back by the feeling of students and there is an overriding concern about their welfare, which helps solve a lot of problems.
“Student success is very time-consuming and that takes resources,” Hoffman said. “The most important thing for faculty to have is enough resources to do it.”
What the faculty does inside the classroom and also outside of the classroom – such as advising, mentoring, helping students get internships, assisting students with their research, and writing letters of recommendations – are also important.
Hoffman said she believes there is a dire need for more permanent faculty members, adding that 60 percent of the current faculty is temporary.
“It’s a culmination of faculty and students working together,” Hoffman said. “The student is out there moving on with their life and doing big things and needing faculty to still help them.”
Hoffman said that students are not an interruption; students are what college is all about. When her students want to meet her outside of class she is more then willing help them.
She also emphasized how important the exchange of ideas, especially in a university setting, should be encouraged. Teachers are going to challenge students to think about subjects in different ways, and do it in a way that gets students to think with an open mind.
“It may be a little disorienting sometimes. You might even get angry. If you don’t get angry a couple times in the university, we aren’t doing our job,” Hoffman said. “When someone makes you angry they make you think and re-examine your beliefs.”
Hoffman’s children graduated from the CSU system and she thinks residents of California are fortunate to have the CSU because it builds a strong faculty and a strong workforce.
“We have to keep education exciting and make people want to keep coming, and preserve that environment that keeps it exciting and the passion there,” Hoffman said.
