Accessibility of professors is something that is often essential to students at the university level. Office hours are sometimes crucial, and at times required, to being successful in the college classroom. What some students don’t realize, however, is that some of their professors are not full-time professors.
Some students take a class with an adjunct, or part-time, professor. They may not have an office, or they may share an office with another instructor, which can make face-to-face communication a challenge.
“Sometimes it can be a problem,” Parman Reynolds, Part-time Instructor of Economics, said. “I share an office with another instructor in the business school, but teach classes in Amarillo instead, so that’s not a very convenient situation”
WT also provides shared offices at the Amarillo center, Reynolds said, but he said most of his students prefer to meet in the classroom before or after class. Reynolds is the president of Reynolds Engineering Associates, LLC, and he sometimes meets with students at his office there when necessary.
Adjunct professors at WT are hired on a semester-by-semester basis, so someone who is hired for the first time to teach part-time may or may not get hired again in the future.
Melissa Timmons, Instructor of Mathematics, began working for WT as a part-time instructor in 2008. She chose to start as part-time because the flexibility of hours allowed her to be home with her children.
“I wanted to be able to spend time with [my children] while they were little,” Timmons said, “and enjoy that time with them and not worry about having to be at work all day.”
Timmons did not express any frustrations with being a part-time professor other than not being able to find her place in the department right away.
“I was part of the faculty, but being part-time, I didn’t have as many responsibilities, so trying to figure out where I fit in was difficult,” Timmons said. “Talking with my department head, I was able to figure that out and know what was expected of me and what I needed to do.”
In an article from The Washington Post titled, “Adjunct professors fight for crumbs on campus,” Coleman McCarthy refers to adjunct professors as “the stoop laborers of higher education.” The American Association of University Professors reported that part-timers make up 50 percent of higher education faculty nationwide.
According to AAUP, the average salary for a three-credit-hour course is $2,700. For a part-time instructor that teaches four courses in each the fall and spring semester, the average annual salary is $21,600, which is below the national poverty line for a family of four. In a classroom down the hall, a professor with tenure could be making a three-figure salary.
In addition to the communication struggles that can stem from not always having a private office and the gap in full- and part-time salaries, adjunct professors are not allowed the same benefits as full-time employees.
“A PTI (part-time instructor) that teaches one course a semester is not eligible for full-time employee benefits, such as retirement, health care, tenure, etc.,” Reynolds said. “You may or may not get hired again depending on the departmental needs and how many full-time folks are available to teach.”
Reynolds added that he is able to get discounted flu shots, however.
“It takes an extra effort to remain a part of the faculty community when you both teach night classes and teach classes which aren’t held at Canyon,” Reynolds said. “I find that faculty involvement is rewarding, so I make an effort to travel to Canyon and attend faculty meetings whenever I can.”