Daily Skiff

Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Bou-Nacklie Morris Drummer teaches a political science class Tuesday. Drummer is one of the 325 adjunct professors currently at TCU. Drummer has also taught at Tarrant County college since 2003.

Universities across the country are employing more part-time professors than ever before. Whether hiring for cost or capability, it is evident the trend toward having fewer full-time faculty members is on the rise.

TCU tops comparable private Texas universities like Southern Methodist University, Baylor University, Trinity University and Southwestern University, employing 325 adjunct professors in 2006, according to university reports.

Many say the reasons for the number of adjuncts are simple: economics and expertise.

When hiring a full-time professor, a university is making a long-term investment in its teaching staff through salary and benefits, but with so many advanced degreed and plugged-in professionals in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, departments across campus have the opportunity to offer their students professionals without the professor price tag.

Craig Smith, associate director for higher education of the American Federation of Teachers in Washington, D.C., said there has been "a huge explosion" in the number of part-time faculty in higher education over the past few years.

Numbers over time

"About 30 years ago the vast majority of faculty, about 75 percent, was full time," Smith said. "Now less than half of faculty is full-time."

According to the most current Digest of Education Statistics released by the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences, in 2005, 57 percent of instructional and research faculty in private, nonprofit, four-year institutions are considered full-time.

In 2006, 60 percent of TCU's instructional faculty was employed full-time with the remaining faculty holding part-time status, according to the university's common data set.

The common data set is an index of data collected through a collaborative effort between publishers and the educational community to increase accuracy of information provided to students about universities, as well as to decrease the burden on data providers.

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