Provost Hai-Lung Dai has launched an initiative to ensure that adjunct faculty have the tools and resources to support them as educators at Temple. The initial goals include strengthening adjunct instructors’ connections to the scholarly community, and increasing access to teaching and evaluation resources as well as those tools that will enhance academic outcomes.

Working with the Office of Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs and the Department of Human Resources, the provost has established the following goals:

• Conduct informal meetings to promote dialogue;
• Assess current school/college resources and identify next steps to improve adjunct faculty members’ experience;
• Provide tools such as a revised handbook and an adjunct faculty resource page that highlights links to technology and teaching support through the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), Writing Center and Computer Services.

Provost Dai also recently announced that the minimum salary level for adjunct professors in the undergraduate schools is increasing from $1,200 to $1,300 per credit hour.

An important step in this initiative began last month with the first in a series of informal meetings to promote discussion about the rewards and challenges of being an adjunct faculty member. These meetings will resume in the fall.

“Our adjunct faculty are an important part of our workforce. These conversations have been incredibly informative in identifying how we can best improve the adjunct experience,” said Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs Diane C. Maleson. “We want to foster relationships with our colleagues, administrators and all of our professors.”

Adjunct professors represent a cross-section of professionals whose commitment to teaching varies from one course to several, some teaching exclusively while others continue working in their respective fields and in the classroom. Maleson said the feedback from these conversations will be used to develop opportunities for adjunct faculty to engage with full-time faculty and staff and connect to myriad teaching and assessment tools.

“Adjunct faculty members are integral to our educational community and highly valued by students, full-time faculty and administrators,” said Sharon Boyle, associate vice president of human resources. “This outreach will cultivate a stronger experience for the adjunct faculty members and ultimately the entire university.”

–Brandon Lausch