Adjunct faculty fill openings
By Lauren Hanvey
Staff Reporter

Each semester TCU hires new adjunct faculty to fill the specific needs of different colleges and departments. This semester there are 28 new faculty, 26 of which are adjunct.

The number of new adjuncts that each college or department hires every semester depends on which classes are being offered, what full-time teachers are on leave and enrollment trends, said Becky Roach, assistant to the vice chancellor for academic affairs. This spring, 15 colleges and departments received new faculty.

This semester’s numbers are not anything unusual, Roach said. Adjuncts are hired every semester while most full-time faculty are only hired in the fall, Roach said.

“We normally have anywhere from 20 to 30 new adjunct faculty every semester,” she said.

The School of Education tops the list this semester with nine new adjuncts. It is common for the school to need extra faculty in the spring to supervise student teachers, said Samuel Deitz, dean of the School of Education. However, this semester the school was especially low on supervisors, he said.

“In the last three years we have increased in the number of students that have chosen (the School of Education) at TCU by about 100,” he said.

That number is a 25 percent increase from years past, he said. There are quite a few seniors trying to graduate who need to finish their student teaching this spring, Deitz said. Most of the new adjunct faculty are just for supervising student teachers, he said.

The design merchandising and textiles department also has quite a few adjuncts this semester, said Paula Work, administrative assistant. There are six total, but only one of them has never worked for TCU before, she said. There has been higher student enrollment in the program recently, Work said.

“We just have so many interior design students that we couldn’t accommodate them all,” Work said.

The military science department has hired one of only two new full-time faculty at TCU this semester. The other is in the kinesiology department. Maj. Kristin Kremer, an assistant professor of military science, said she transferred to TCU from Fort Lee in Virginia.

Kremer replaced John Nepute as executive officer in TCU’s Army ROTC program, said Col. James House, a professor of military science. Nepute went on to become a lieutenant colonel at the Pentagon, House said. All of the department’s faculty are reassigned by the military every two to four years, he said.

“(Kremer) is very intelligent, very articulate, very hard working,” House said.
Kremer said she has been in the U.S. Army for 12 years, but that this is her first official teaching assignment.

“I love it so far,” she said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to mold our future leaders.”
Lauren Hanvey

l.e.hanvey@tcu.edu