More students mean more adjuncts at colleges nationwide

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Doug Strahler is only 24 years old. Yet the Syracuse University alumnus has two big responsibilities. He co-owns a graphic and Web design company and teaches once a week at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications – his alma mater. \n“Some students may not like adjuncts and would prefer a professor with a doctorate degree,” Strahler said. “I just say give them a chance. They are there teaching for a reason, and it is usually because they have a specialty in the field they are teaching.” \nAdjunct faculty members are generally individuals who have a full-time job outside of the university, but they teach a course or two within their expertise. They are more cost-effective than full-time, tenure-track professors and do not perform academic research in addition to their teaching duties. SU has decided it prefers the term “non-tenure track faculty” for its adjunct members. \n“These individuals continue full-time employment elsewhere, but bring professional expertise in a field to the classroom,” said Kal Alston, associate provost of academic administration at Syracuse.\nSyracuse currently has 900 tenured faculty members and about 550 adjunct teachers. \nAlston said using skilled professionals to teach in their field of expertise “has a lot of positive effects.” She added that tapping into the pool of professionals also helps to meet the needs of the students. \nEach year the student population fluctuates, creating an unanticipated demand for faculty to instruct a larger student body. \n“A few years ago, we had more students than we had expected, so we had to increase the instructional (side) in a quick manner,” Alston said. She said the tenured population generally doesn’t grow from year to year, so the need for teachers has to be supplemented by part-time faculty. \nSophomore Courtney Pew also took a class instructed by an adjunct who owned a graphics company. \n“I found that to be beneficial to our class because he provided us with the insight as to what employers look for in potential candidates,” she said. \nPew said the inside view will help her become more marketable in the work force. \nDespite the recent surge in adjunct professors, the need for full-time tenured faculty is not going away either. \n“We aren’t trying to replace the tenure-track positions,” Alston said. “It is more about balancing the use of both tenured and non-tenured positions to better the curriculum as a whole.”