How to Reduce Relying on Adjunct College Faculty
Create a more reliable experience for students
Inspired partly by your support of Higher Ed Success, I’m now nearing the completion of a book-length guide for academic department chairs. Additional information about its publication will appear soon here and on my coaching and consulting portal at SAGE LEADER.
In the meantime, I’m reprising some of my earlier posts, especially those that appeared before many of you subscribed. This post is still timely since the trend toward hiring more part-time faculty continues to accelerate.
Previously, I urged colleges to reduce relying on adjunct faculty to improve the educational experience for students and to mitigate the exploitation of adjuncts. Steps to do that follow here.
What Can Be Done?
Reducing reliance on adjunct college faculty will require at least some of the following measures
1. Improve compensation is the most important step toward addressing problems arising from excessive utilization of adjunct faculty. The current national average salary paid for teaching one section of a 3-credit-hour course is approximately $2,700 (with no benefits). Allowing for time devoted to classroom/online instruction, course preparation, evaluation of student projects/exams, and other work-related responsibilities, the average pay is equivalent to about $12.00 per hour—an outrageously low figure. No wonder the financial incentive to hire adjuncts rather than full-time faculty is so strong! We can and must do better.
At one institution, I experimented with paying adjunct faculty $6,800 minimum (more, depending on qualifications) per course section. This figure was roughly on par with what a full-time assistant professor would earn for teaching alone (excluding benefits). Big surprise! Faculty morale improved. Turnover dropped like a stone. Student evaluations of instruction rose. And we still produced a budget surplus, albeit not as much as with lower compensation rates (savings resulted from not paying for benefits or what an associate or full professor would earn). I considered the tradeoff to be worth it.
2. Plan further ahead for hiring and keep promises to the extent possible. Enrollment trends for specific courses in the recent past can help predict current and future needs. Keeping an eye on the rate of degree completion in particular subject areas also helps. With such data, it should be possible to plan with high confidence the number of adjunct-taught sections that will be needed a year in advance.
In rare cases when enrollment projections fell short and I had to cancel an adjunct section, we paid a 10% “kill fee” to the faculty member. It wasn’t much, but it helped soften the blow and communicated the feeling that we at least took the situation seriously. (By the way, consider what your institution does when a full-time faculty member’s course fails to enroll. Is that faculty member expected to teach a different course? Teach a one-course overload the next term? Fulfill other assigned duties? I doubt that the instructional cost of the canceled section is simply deducted from their salary.)
3. Remove the financial incentive for relying on adjunct faculty. Admittedly, this is the big hurdle. Saving money on instructional costs is the most significant reason why contingent faculty now comprise 75% of the college teaching force. Contrary to what many critics claim, institutions are not completely at fault for this development. Rising costs to maintain compliance with government and legal regulations, ballooning budgets for information/educational technology, massive increases in scholarly database subscriptions, and rising costs for constructing and managing student living and athletic facilities to compete with other colleges—all have led to a shift of resources from instruction to other areas.
Nevertheless, increasing reliance on contingent (including adjunct) faculty threatens the quality of instruction for students. It is now more difficult for students to find mentors with whom they can establish long-term relationships. Increased turnover among contingent faculty shreds the continuity of instructional methods and approaches. Contingent faculty find themselves unable to devote as much attention as needed to help students. And students will sense a lack of commitment to their education under such circumstances, despite the efforts of individual adjunct instructors.
While reversing this trend must be accomplished gradually, it is imperative to begin. One way is to calculate how many course sections would be required to equal a full-time position, and then begin to plan for that transformation one position at a time. Further, prohibit transitioning from current full-time positions to a series of adjunct appointments. Finally, when a full-time vacancy occurs, consider accepting applications from adjunct faculty as serious candidates (more on this later).
In a subsequent message, I’ll suggest some additional, detailed steps to help with the current situation by treating adjunct faculty with more respect.