Care and Feeding Instructions for Your Adjunct Faculty

Care and Feeding Instructions for Your Adjunct Faculty

Thomas Sputo, Ph.D., P.E.[1]

Abstract

In light of shrinking budgets, it is a fact of life that many colleges and universities must rely on adjunct faculty to carry a portion of the teaching responsibilities. Oftentimes, the use of adjunct faculty is seen as a stopgap measure, until “more suitable” tenure-track faculty can be hired. This does not need to be the case, however. Adjuncts can serve the very useful function of diversifying the faculty and providing a very different perspective on the profession and the world in general. In order to most effectively utilize adjunct faculty, full-time faculty and administrators must understand that what adjunct faculty considers to be important is often diametrically opposed to what motivates tenure-track and tenured faculty. The more that administrators understand the motivations and needs of adjunct faculty, the more useful service they will receive from the typical adjunct.

Introduction

The author developed the title of this paper from one of the classic cultural phenomena of the mid-1970’s, the “Pet Rock.” (Figure 1.) The Pet Rock was (and still is) the epitome of the near-perfect low maintenance pet. The Pet Rock resided in a cardboard cage, requiring neither food nor water. There was no litter to change, no trips to the vet for shots, and (especially when compared to pet goldfish), no heart-wrenching disposal of the late beloved pet upon its inevitable demise. Care and feeding of a Pet Rock was simple. Just let it be. But while the demands of a Pet Rock were low, so were its rewards to its owner. Compared to the ever-loving presence and utility of the family cat or dog, Pet Rocks are one-dimensional and unchanging.

Figure 1. Pet Rocks

Now compare the Pet Rock to one of the favorite kitschy gifts of the late 1970’s, the “Chia Pet.” (Figure 2.) For anyone who does not remember, a Chia Pet is a fired clay figurine, usually shaped in the form of an animal. The sheep was a favorite. On it’s own, it just sat there, a clay figurine. But when soaked with water, and coated with seeds, the Chia Pet grew a luxuriant coat of green “hair.” While this is not much, compared to a Pet Rock this is real progress! But progress comes with a price. The Chia Pet owner must keep his or her pet suitably moist, lest its hair die. However, minimal attention (applying water) yields a moderate reward (a bit of greenery to brighten up the kitchen window sill.)

Figure 2. Chia Pets

Depending upon individual disposition and treatment by full-time faculty and administrators, adjunct faculty can be shaped to be either “Pet Rocks” or “Chia Pets.” While having a Chia Pet is not as satisfying as having a real pet Cat (read – full time faculty), the Chia Pet requires a lot less resources than the real cat.

But the Chia Pet does require some “Care and Feeding”, lest it revert to its bare clay figurine self. Hence, the reason for this paper. How do administrators, especially department chairs, keep their adjunct faculty happy, productive, and ready to come back?

Who are Engineering Adjunct Faculty?

In order to better understand adjunct faculty and their needs and aspirations, it is necessary to recognize that there is more than one variety of adjunct faculty member. Gappa and Leslie (1993) suggest that part-time faculty may be described by four categories: career enders; aspiring academics; freelancers; and specialists. The characteristics and interests of each are markedly different. Adjunct engineering faculty most often fall into the categories of aspiring academic and specialist.

An aspiring academic is someone who has completed a doctorial degree, who wishes to pursue an academic career, and who is unable to find a tenure track or continuing appointment. This person sees an adjunct appointment as a way of continuing to gain academic experience, and build their resume.

As the title implies, the specialist has an active, usually full-time job. For these faculty, teaching may be a source of intellectual stimulation and excitement. It also provides a link to professionals with whom the specialist can further explore his or her field. Specialists can be a source of tremendous stimulation to both full-time faculty and students of a department. Developing a long-term relationship with specialists can be mutually beneficial to the specialist and the academic department.

The situation of the aspiring academic is probably more familiar to most full-time academics, therefore this paper will concentrate on the situation of the “specialist”, who will just be referred to as “adjunct faculty” for the remainder of this paper. Most long-term engineering adjunct faculty will fall into the “specialist” category.

Why Do Engineering Adjunct Faculty Do It?

This is the $64,000 question. For most adjunct faculty members, it sure isn’t the money! Recently, the author ran a rough calculation using a faculty workload model formerly used in the Civil and Coastal Engineering Department at the University of Florida. Factoring in the value of full-time faculty benefits, (health, disability, and life insurance, retirement benefits, etc.), the author was being paid approximately 45 cents on a dollar per course, compared to the average full-time assistant professor. It would have been too depressing to factor in the time spent on uncompensated things, like general student advisement (working with students who want to get career advice from a practicing engineer), assistance with curriculum development, and student “life-skills” counseling.

Well, if it isn’t for money, why do adjunct faculty take time out of their busy days to travel to the university to teach and counsel students? The reasons are varied, and may include:

A love of teaching and working with college-age students.
A desire to enhance the engineering profession through training aspiring young engineers.
A general desire to further the engineering profession.
Intellectual simulation of the university environment.
Being close to the “cutting edge” of current engineering research.
The prestige of being associated with an institute of higher learning.
Being able to pursue teaching as a “hobby”, without having to worry about the tyranny of “tenure and promotion” review. No “publish or perish” nightmares, just have fun teaching!

What Are Engineering Adjunct Faculty Good At?

One of the most readily apparent things that differentiate the skills of adjunct and full-time faculty is their general range of professional knowledge.

In order to gain tenure and promotion, a full-time faculty member must demonstrate recognition as an acknowledged expert in a clearly defined field. Given the increasing complexity of the world, and the explosion of information, by default expertise must be in a very narrowly defined realm. Therefore, taken to the extreme, a tenured faculty member “knows more and more about less and less, until he or she knows everything about nothing.”

For the typical practicing engineer, limiting oneself to a few tightly defined areas of expertise is usually a career detriment. Usually, practicing engineers are more generalist than specialist, typically knowing enough about a wide variety of topics to get by. As generalists, a practicing engineer can be said to “know less and less about more and more, until he or she knows nothing about everything.”

While these are sweeping generalizations, the point is clear. Practicing engineers who teach as adjunct faculty can bring the breadth of engineering practice to the students (and faculty) in a way that full-time faculty cannot readily do. Lyons (2001) notes that adjunct faculty have the potential to:

“Leverage their rich backgrounds to teach specialized courses for which there is a growing demand from students.
Energize your curricula with their passion for their chosen fields – often exceeding that of full time faculty
Foster in student minds richer, more current linkages to the world outside.
Provide linkages to a wide array of community resources that might otherwise be impossible to cultivate.”

With this in mind, what might be the best teaching utilization of adjunct faculty? This will vary, depending on the skills of individuals, and the needs of departments, but can include

Teaching courses in applied areas of engineering design (read - low potential for research funding, therefore little faculty interest), such as Building HVAC Design or Urban Stormwater Design.
Teaching design courses in specialized areas (often at the graduate level) where no full time faculty have the expertise, but where the adjunct has developed expertise over years of practice in that area.
Teaching broad based design courses, particularly Capstone Design courses, where the adjunct’s breadth of knowledge and experience is exactly what is needed.
Teaching business practice oriented courses, such as ethics, engineering construction law, and professional practice courses, where the adjunct’s daily exposure to the issues involved brings a dimension to the course that full time faculty cannot match.

What Do Students Think of Engineering Adjunct Faculty?

With very few exceptions, the duties of adjunct faculty are limited to teaching. Since there is no research component to most adjuncts’ employment, adjuncts fall well below the radar screen of the Dean, and usually the Department Chair also. Therefore, the only meaningful feedback often comes from the students that are being instructed.

Student perceptions of adjuncts run the gamut. The author’s conversations with students over the years have led him to believe that student perceptions of adjunct faculty pretty much parallel their perceptions of full time faculty; that is from terrible to excellent. The author’s personal perception is that of being accepted, especially by undergraduates, as being no different from their full time professors.

Student’s major complaint about adjunct faculty is their lack of accessibility, relative to full time faculty. Unfortunately, in today’s 24/7 world, if you are not always immediately available, you are perceived to be completely unavailable. The author, like most adjunct faculty, keeps some nominal on-campus office hours, but is not on campus all day, every day. While the author provides students with his office phone number, and e-mail address, few undergraduate students take advantage of those avenues of communication. Interestingly enough, the author has found the opposite of graduate students, often receiving multiple e-mails from graduate students in a single day.

What Do Engineering Adjunct Faculty Want and Need?

Most adjunct engineering faculty are experienced professionals at their full time jobs. They are accustomed to performing a completely professional job, and being provided with, or at least having reasonable access to, the tools needed to accomplish their tasks. Considering these daily work-related expectations, it would be unreasonable to expect that they would need and want less in their part-time occupation.

There are many things that administrators can do to make their adjuncts feel like “Chia Pets”, and less like “Pet Rocks”. For sake of simplicity, the author will break them down into “nuts-and-bolts” and “professional” issues.

Nuts-and-Bolts Issues

Even if the adjunct faculty member is a graduate of your program, do not assume that he or she is completely cognizant of how things are done, or who to see to get things done. Every adjunct should have a full-time faculty member assigned as an advocate and resource. Preferably, this full-time faculty member should be one of the more senior faculty, with the hope that they will have more influence (or “swing”) to get things done, since the adjunct definitely has “no swing” when needing assistance.
Every adjunct faculty member should have reasonable access to office space to hold office hours with reasonable privacy. This can best be accomplished by setting aside office space specifically for adjunct and part-time faculty. This can be shared space, since all part-time faculty will not be using the office at the same time. Provisions must be made, however, for secure storage of materials by each adjunct faculty member. This can be accomplished through locked desk or filing cabinet drawers. Additionally, the office should have access to telephone lines, and have at least one computer available for adjunct faculty use.
With the increased reliance on technology in instruction, access to educational software, which is taken for granted by full-time faculty, is difficult or impossible for adjunct faculty who often perform their class preparation away from on-campus computing resources. Methods of providing ready access to educational software, which is not found in the adjunct’s usual work environment, needs to be investigated.
Dissemination of information is critical. It is vital to include adjunct faculty on college and departmental e-mail lists. Most organizations use e-mail for informing members of routine business matters, and universities are no different. Missing a grading deadline, or not knowing of a vital departmental directive can be devastating. Let your adjunct faculty in on the information stream.
Provide access to basic campus services, such as the library (including interlibrary loan, if possible), instructional equipment services (multimedia), photocopying, clerical services, and parking.
Understand that what engineering adjuncts do takes them away from their full-time employment. Each adjunct will have preferred teaching times, and times when it will be absolutely impossible to meet class. Therefore is may be necessary to adjust course schedules to reasonably accommodate their needs.

Professional Issues

Any group functions best when all members of that group feel that they are valued, contributing members. Since financial resources to support services to adjunct faculty are generally very limited (or non-existent), non-financial perks are often what it takes to promote a feeling of teamwork and enthusiasm in adjunct faculty (and avoid that Pet Rock feeling).

Once departments find dependable adjunct faculty, they should strive to develop long-term relationships with those persons. While institutional rules may prevent offering any written commitment beyond a semester-by-semester basis, developing a tacit understanding that a continued relationship is valued works wonders with moral and enthusiasm.
To the extent possible, and to the extent that the adjunct faculty member desires, they should be included in department professional and social events. Due to their differing professional and life experiences, adjunct faculty can bring a healthy outside perspective to your program.
For long-term adjuncts, “promotion” in job title should be considered to allow them to keep pace with their full-time counterparts. Since most adjuncts are paid on a per-course basis, it costs nothing, but can be an esteem builder.

Example of Adjunct Faculty Policy

The University of South Florida has in-place a written policy regarding support for adjunct faculty. It is reproduced here as an excellent example of how adjunct faculty can be supported.

The department chair or regional campus dean, as appropriate, will be responsible for providing the following support and services to all adjunct faculty:

An open meeting with all adjunct faculty regarding administration, student services, and University regulations.
Providing a previous syllabus for any course for which the adjunct faculty member is responsible when requested or deemed appropriate.
Advising adjunct faculty of the requirement that all courses be evaluated by students on eight common items related to teaching effectiveness using the State University System Student Assessment of Instruction the results of which are published for public inspection.
Providing the name and mailing address of all adjuncts, or a copy of the letter of offer, to The Center for Teaching Enhancement which will notify each adjunct of the instructional resources, services, and workshops available to them.
Providing ongoing advice regarding classroom or student management procedures.
Providing general administrative support for photocopying, course evaluations, grading.
Processing payroll authorizations and other paperwork as needed.
Arranging evaluations, in-class observations by the faculty evaluation committee.
Assigning an academic liaison from the regular faculty.
Providing assistance to faculty seeking improvement of their teaching skills.

Regular Faculty

Regular faculty will be assigned to serve as an academic liaison, whenever possible, to each adjunct faculty by the department chair. In the event the department does not have a sufficient number of faculty to perform this function, the department chair, or designee, will be responsible. The assignment will be included as part of the "annual assignment" under Service. The academic liaison will serve as an advisor and first point of contact for problems or requests. The functions of the academic liaison will include: