Trade-Offs of Using Adjuncts

Abstract

Today's department chairs are attempting to “do more with less,” in response to budget cuts, disappearing faculty lines, legislators and administrators who think faculty have it too easy, and an increasingly diverse student population which wants classes offered at non-traditional times. In such times, hiring adjunct professors to help cope seems to be the best way to respond to these demands. Too often, though, the crunch of time does not allow for careful weighing of the advantages and disadvantages of hiring adjuncts. In this article, I lay out some of the tradeoffs of the apparently simple act of finding “someone to cover the course.” Concerns about the tradeoffs in the use of part-time and adjunct faculty are not new to the American Political Science Association. In 1997, APSA was one of 10 academic associations that accepted the invitation of the American Historical Association to convene in Washington, D.C., to discuss the “growing use of part-time and adjunct faculty.” In my comments, I will rely heavily upon their articulation of the tradeoffs of using adjuncts as well as the Department Chair Online Resource Center sponsored by the American Council on Education. [Note: APSA has subsequently joined with other associations to form the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) to explore issues related to academic employment of adjuncts. See www.academicworkforce.org].