This Guide is designed to support the work of institutional cross-functional teams charged with strengthening adjunct faculty professional learning and institutional engagement. Each section shares key learnings from ATD's work with six Leader Colleges, including accomplishments in the form of new programs, services, or policies that can serve as…

Community colleges are facing tough challenges, and engaging faculty members--both full-time and adjunct--in the hard work of meeting these challenges is critical. Colleges can reap major benefits from meaningful engagement with faculty, yet many institutions find it difficult to do. In partnership with Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges…

Non full-time faculty--whether adjunct, part-time or contingent--has become the lifeline of a vast majority of colleges and universities. They teach many of the foundation and core courses taken by first- and second-year students, teach professional courses in which their own life experiences are invaluable, and step in at short notice to fill-in…

The limited resources of most colleges and universities and the efforts of most higher education programs, including those in educational leadership, to comply with state and national standards mean that adjunct professors play a vital role in the success of an educational leadership program. This paper offers suggestions for maintaining the…

Addresses (1) shared understandings regarding the extent and pattern of increased reliance on part-time and adjunct faculty; (2) elements of quality undergraduate instruction affected; and (3) institutional advantages and disadvantages of such reliance. Suggests general guidelines for rectifying inappropriate reliance on part-time and adjunct…

Discusses the need to distinguish between the person filling the position and the position itself in examining all the issues and concerns surrounding the employment of non-tenure-line faculty, lecturers, instructors, and adjuncts. Concludes that educators must focus efforts upon the entire body of non-tenure-line faculty, striving to create…

When a practicing school business official teaches a college course, students can learn much about the real world of schools. Part-time or adjunct teaching at a college or university provides the official with a chance to refresh and extend his or her knowledge in the field. Offers suggestions for getting started, what to expect, and tips for…

In a personal narrative reflecting on 27 years of teaching, an adjunct faculty member realizes that she knows quite a bit firsthand about the adjunct. Judith Gappa and David Leslie, in their 1993 book, "The Invisible Faculty," state that budgets are balanced and classes assigned on the assumption that 20 to 50% of all undergraduate…

Part-time faculty, once a rare breed among teachers, are stepping into an increasingly critical role in higher education. Just as traditional colleges are relying on adjunct faculty to a degree unheard of just a decade ago, non-traditional programs are coming to rely on the flexibility, broader skills sets, and "real-world" knowledge that that…

Designed for new adjunct faculty at Reading Area Community College (RACC), this handbook provides an orientation to the college's policies, procedures, and services applying to the credit instructional program. Part 1 presents the history and philosophy of the college; discusses its mission, goals and, accreditation; and includes an organizational…

This book is a self-study instructional guide designed to explain how to deliver a course. The guide includes four modules: (1) Introduction to Classroom Instruction; (2) Fundamentals of Learning; (3) Methods of Delivering Instruction; and (4) Administration, Evaluation, and Feedback. Each module includes a case that presents a problem or…

At Valencia Community College's Osceola Campus, adjunct instructors make up over 75% of the teaching force. Adjunct faculty are given several challenges: to contribute to every aspect of campus life; to affect major instructional instruction; and to be aware of the constraints created by college policy and a regard for instructional excellence.…

Maine's York County Technical College (YCTC) undertook a project to develop a handbook for adjunct faculty that provided information on campus procedures, available resources, and general teaching techniques. The discussion began with a review of related literature to determine the value of adjunct faculty to two-year colleges, the value of…

Proposes a framework for examining academic careers and illustrates how it can help categorize findings from various research studies. It then discusses how modifications in graduate education and employment practices may affect different aspects of academic careers, giving particular attention to use of part-time and adjunct faculty. (MSE)

Describing the various forms evaluation can take, this book delineates problems in evaluating writing faculty and sets the stage for reconsidering the entire process to produce a fair, equitable, and appropriate system. The book discusses evaluation through real-life examples: evaluation of writing faculty by literature faculty, student…