Like many businesses across the country, institutions of higher education have been increasing the use of part-time and/or temporary staff. Nationally, adjuncts teach between 30%-50% of all credit courses and between 95%-100% of noncredit courses. At community colleges, adjuncts composed 60% of all faculty as of 1991, up from 56% in 1984 and 42%…

The English Department at the Allegheny Campus of the Community College of Allegheny County, in Pennsylvania, has implemented standards for recruiting, training, and providing development opportunities for part-time faculty. To ensure high quality instruction and a continuity of standards between full- and part-time faculty, the same criteria for…

This Directory details unionization activities among college and university faculty in 1995 in the United States and Canada. It indicates that the number of professors represented by academic unions has increased 1.65 percent from the previous year, with 434 bargaining agents on 1,022 public sector campuses and 70 bargaining agents on 98 private…

Developed by a fulltime faculty member at Pima Community College (PCC) in Tucson, Arizona, this booklet is intended to provide concepts and techniques to help Associate Faculty develop the most interesting and useful teaching practices possible. Chapter 1 discusses the importance of education, the purposes of the booklet, and reasons for teaching;…

Describing an effort to improve conditions for adjunct faculty in the communications division at Johnson County Community College (JCCC), in Kansas, this paper outlines steps taken and provides materials generated by the effort. Following a brief abstract of the project, two sample essays written by full-time faculty with experience as adjuncts…

In 1990, a study was conducted of Pima Community College (PCC) associate (i.e., part-time) faculty and department heads to determine current practices and perceptions regarding the utilization of part-time faculty. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,500 faculty members and 65 department heads. Highlighted findings, based on a 51% response rate from…

This paper details the history of part-time faculty use in the California Community Colleges (CCCs). The status and use of part-time faculty hired on temporary assignments in the CCCs has been a long-standing and growing concern of the Academic Senate. In 1960, the ratio of full-time faculty to full-time students in the public junior colleges was…

The 1998 General Assembly directed the Council of Higher Education to study policies regarding the use of adjunct faculty at Virginia's colleges and universities. The study aimed to examine course loads and benefits and how these issues relate to faculty with joint appointments at several public institutions. Virginia's public higher education…

This survey, distributed to adjunct faculty at Johnson County Community College (JCCC) in December 1997, attempts to: (1) determine the relative importance to adjunct faculty of salary and certain benefits; (2) identify the optimum times for staff development; and (3) develop a profile of JCCC's adjunct faculty. A total of 159 completed responses…

A Canadian survey revealed two significantly different part-time college faculty groups: those with full-time nonacademic jobs ("Classics," 34.5%) and those with only part-time employment ("Contemporaries," 65.5%). The groups have different reasons for teaching part-time, structure of work needs, and motivations.…

Identifies several policies affecting part-time, temporary, hourly rated, community college faculty in need of review and revision, including the "temporary" classification of part timers, the number of "temporary" faculty employed, hiring and evaluation policies, compensation, and part-time faculty involvement in the faculty…

Based on an extensive survey of the numbers, salaries, and benefits of part-time and non-tenure-track faculty in ten academic disciplines, a November 2000 report from the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) clarified how colleges and universities depend on contingent labor and how inadequately many of these faculty are supported. A group of…

In this article, the author discusses three distinct challenges that demand solutions if traditional universities are to successfully confront the economic realities of distance learning: (1) Many traditional universities are not willing to draw useful lessons from the more advantageous financial and IT models of for-profit or other nontraditional…

A study was conducted by students in two sections of a writing course at the Midlothian Campus of Virginia's John Tyler Community College to determine the characteristics of the college's adjunct faculty and their satisfaction with contract conditions, working conditions, and opportunities for professional development. Students developed a…

Cost-saving considerations, the threat of declining enrollments, and efforts by community colleges to be responsive to their communities have created a temporary staff maintained on a relatively permanent and continuing basis. Between 1975 and 1983, roughly two new part-time positions were created for every new full-time position. Rather than…