More than 50 percent of VCU professors
are hired as adjunct professors,
instructors who work part time under
a semester contract, and the university
is aiming to increase this number of
adjuncts, said Zachary Goodell, associate
director of the Center for Teaching
Excellence.
Departments always need a core of
tenured professors – teachers with six or
more years of experience – to maintain
and establish a permanent faculty
identity, Goodell said. However, as many
of the tenured faculty retire, they are
being replaced by adjuncts or collateral
professors.
According to the VCU Web site, a
collateral (non-tenure) appointment is
a full-time appointment to the faculty
for a specified term that does not lead
to tenure.
“(Adjunct) teachers are preferred. They
can be maneuvered a little bit easier (and
be) let go and re-hired when (the schools)
have a better economic situation,” Goodell
said.
Because tenured professors have job
security and are under indefinite contracts,
the school offers retirement packages to
encourage them to retire, Goodell said.
While economic reasons are a major
factor affecting employment conditions
of part-time faculty, maneuverability and
expertise also play a part, Goodell said.
Practitioners currently working in the field
can offer real-life experience to students
when teaching as adjuncts.
Martha Wall-Whitfield has been an
adjunct professor at the School of Education
for two years. She said she began
teaching at VCU on a trial basis.
“The more I got into administrative
work, the more I realized that my love
is in the classroom,” Wall-Whitfield said.
“So I thought I would like to try teaching
at the college level.”
Wall-Whitfield said her experience
has been positive, and working with
future teachers has been a rewarding
experience. She hopes to become a fulltime
professor one day.
Lee Thatch, a mass communications
major and senior, said although she has
had good and bad experiences with both
adjunct professors and full-time professors,
she prefers a full-time professor.
“The big disadvantage of an adjunct
teacher is the fact that they don’t have a
permanent office on the campus where
students are,” Thatch said. “If all you have
to rely on is phone numbers or e-mails,
the chances of reaching your teacher for
any help before class are very slim.”
Wall-Whitfield also said the inability
to meet with students regularly is one
downfall of being an adjunct that often
causes her to feel disconnected from the
school.