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Adjunct faculty use increases By Jillanne Johnson TCU’s academic departments are using adjunct professors at nearly twice the rate they were 10 years ago, leading some to question the role these faculty members have at the university. Student enrollment has steadily increased over the past decade, and adjunct professors have been employed to accommodate continued small class sizes. According to the Fall 2000 TCU Factbook, 17 out of approximately 40 departments on campus relied more on adjunct professors in fall 2000 than five years ago. “We started adding faculty about three years ago, but also the enrollment started going up,” said William Koehler, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. According to the Factbook, enrollment has increased by 1,000 students in the past 10 years. Koehler said adjunct faculty are hired to fill in places where there are vacancies in the departments and offer students more flexibility in scheduling. They are contracted to teach one or more courses for a given semester with no obligation by the university to continue employment, he said. Patrick Nuss, an adjunct professor in e-business, said he sees the benefit of both regular faculty and adjunct faculty. “Full-time faculty know about TCU, but I have the business knowledge that can supplement that,” he said. “I think (faculty) can teach me the procedures of the university. I can bring practical applications of the business world to students.” Adjunct professors who do work in the field in which they teach also have the advantage of providing contacts for students, Nuss said. “Most adjuncts teach and yet have a full-time life,” Koehler said. “Teaching is secondary.” However, maintaining outside jobs also means that they are not available for departmental meetings and events, said Ronald Watson, chairman of the art and art history department. “There is an added demand on the full-time faculty because adjuncts are not there to fulfill departmental duties,” Watson said. Yet he said one of the biggest advantages of hiring adjunct professors is allowing for more classes to be taught. He said his department has had to turn away a lot of freshmen because they haven’t had enough resources for everyone who wants to take the classes. “We’d like to be offering more classes for non-majors, focusing on the general student,” Watson said. Ideally, only about 10 percent of classes would be taught by adjunct faculty, Koehler said. Full-time faculty also have more vested interest in the future of the university because they have a long-term commitment, he said. Faculty are the governing body of the university and full-time faculty members have a sense of loyalty.“Some universities have 30 to 50 percent of their undergraduate classes taught by adjuncts,” Koehler said. “That may be fine for the public (schools) but not for TCU.” Koehler said that to move to the next level that Chancellor Michael Ferrari keeps talking about, the university will have to hire more full-time faculty. Jillanne Johnson News Editor Jaime Walker and Skiff staff member Reagan Duplisea contributed to this story.
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