By Beacon Staff
Nationwide, universities are hiring part-time, or adjunct, professors more often than full-time faculty.
A recent article in Academe magazine noted that adjunct professors are overburdened with work, meagerly paid and live without a full-time employee's benefits, such as health care and retirement.
According to the UP's Institutional Research Department, the university's full-time faculty has risen from 166 instructors in 2001 to 199 in 2007.
Part-time faculty members at the university have been less consistent throughout the years, varying from higher numbers in one year to lower figures the next. Currently, the university has 100 part-time instructors.
"There are two uses for adjunct instructors," said Robert Duff, a sociology professor and the chair of the Behavioral Sciences Department. "The first use is for someone with a specific knowledge that they can bring into the curriculum. There is a need for the second type to teach classes when the numbers of students enrolled are more than anticipated."
According to Duff, the two types of part-time professors should not be confused with each other.
"Some departments are overwhelmed with the growing number of students," Duff said. "It would be ideal to have enough full-time staff members, but these positions are costly."
Philosophy professor Jeffrey Gauthier agrees with Duff.
"Adjunct instructors are paid by the course while full time faculty members are paid on a salary," Gauthier said. "Adjuncts do piece work where the (income) is based on the outcome."
According to Gauthier, adjunct professors are limited to two courses a semester so the university doesn't have to offer them medical benefits.
"Because they don't make too much money, adjunct professors tend to teach at other institutions," Gauthier said. "Adjuncts are traveling to PSU or to PCC throughout the course of a day - they become second-class workers because they don't hang out at the university a lot."
Oleg Roderick and Craig Swinyard are both adjunct professors of mathematics at UP and share an office in Buckley Center. Roderick teaches two calculus courses while Swinyard teaches one. Both instructors are also seeking their Ph.D.s.
"An advantage to being an adjunct is that you are strictly part-time, which is good for pursuing your career," Roderick said. "It is difficult for people seeking full-time positions as instructors."
In addition to two calculus classes at UP, Roderick has one course at PSU and writes math text books for SAT Prep at an educational company. Roderick is seeking a Ph.D. in applied mathematics.
If he wasn't married, Swinyard said he would not be able to make it with $740 a month pay, about the average compensation part-time professors make teaching one course in Oregon.
Although other institutions like PSU might pay a little more, Swinyard chose UP for its small class sizes.
"Instead of 50 students, I have about half as many at UP," he said.
Swinyard is seeking a Ph.D. in mathematical education and hopes to be a full-time professor at UP. He thinks that the adjunct process is a necessary part of becoming a professor.
"There is a perception as students with adjuncts as less-equal professors," Swinyard said. "That is not the case. Adjuncts tend to be younger and may be able to connect and understand students because they are less removed from their college experience."
