Adjuncts supplement faculty in teaching USU courses
Adjuncts are non-faculty who teach for Utah State University on an irregular basis.
Craig Petersen, vice president for Student Services, said adjuncts teach a variety of courses.
“In some cases, it’s a person teaching a piano lesson, in other cases it’s a person teaching two regular classes,” he said. “It’s like mixing apples and oranges.”
Kyle Hyde, assistant director of Analysis, Assessment and Accreditation, said 790 faculty members were employed by USU in Fall 2001.
Petersen said 380 of those were adjuncts.
Caryn Beck-Dudley, dean for the College of Business, said adjuncts are hired on a per-class basis. Every year each college at USU must petition for money to open more sections of high-demand classes. Money comes from an emergency fund in the Provost’s Office, she said.
“The adjuncts are volunteers and [teach] because they’re good Samaritans and like being associated with students,” Beck-Dudley said.
In the College of Business, all adjuncts are professionally qualified and academically trained and are usually downtown businessmen or businesswomen, she said. All of them have master’s degrees, and a few have doctorate degrees.
With recent budget cuts, adjuncts are significantly cheaper as each is paid $2,500 to $4,000 per class each semester, depending on the college, Beck-Dudley said.
She said having adjuncts helps the students get real-life experience, but each adjunct is under direction of the professor who normally teaches the class or the department head. It is important the student learn the material necessary to succeed in the program, and if there are complaints, the person is usually not hired the next semester, she said.
Most adjuncts have done an excellent job, Beck-Dudley said.
Finding qualified applicants to teach in the college is becoming more difficult, because most people with a degree in business can get high-paying jobs anywhere else, Beck-Dudley said. Last year, the College of Business was able to hire eight full-time faculty members. Each had been offered at least three other jobs, she said.
-gmk@cc.usu.edu