What does adjunct professor mean?
 

How does it differ from part time lecturer/instructor in general?

Funny, I asked the same thing the other day as my sister is one.

From what I was told it means a professor who has not been tenured.

That's a whole nother stuff.

I believe that means when you have your job made permanent.

?????????????????

Just a more prestigous word for part-time instructor, similar to sanitation engineer. Not tenure track either. Wouldn't be applied to a full-time non-tenure track instructor.

I took an out-of-town computer contract back in 1999/2000. Between flying home on weekends and having living expenses in both places, I looked for a night job to reduce costs.

While I did my full-time computer consulting job during the day, I taught a computer class at night at the local technical college as an "adjunct" professor.

Like everyone else said, it means "part-time", "untenured", and additionally to add to the previous posts, "no benefits".

I paid my rent with the money I got teaching.

Oooh... professor G! ;) Now we're groovin' babee!

The pattern of professors has changed a lot over the last 20 yrs. Back in the 80's most classes were taught be full time professors, not so anymore. My school was around 80% of classes taught by full time faculty in the late 80's. Now 25% of classes are taught by full time faculty (double the number of students and half the number of full time faculty compared to the late 80's) and 75% taught by adjuncts.
PBS did a documentary on this last year. One of the adjuncts in my department was featured. Up until this year we had 1 full time and 14-15 part time instructors. Now we have 2 full time.

Are there really that many people qualified to teach those classes that schools don't care about teacher retention?

Can they all groove like G?

There are three basic levels of academic appointments at an institution of higher education: The highest is professor, the next level down is associate professor, and the basic/entry level is assistant professor. There are also adjuncts and instructors at the very bottom. An adjunct professor is someone who does not have a permanent position at the academic institution; this may be someone with a job outside the academic institution teaching courses in a specialized field; or it may refer to persons hired to teach courses on contractual basis (frequently renewable contracts); it is generally a part-time position with a teaching load below the minimum required to earn benefits (health care, life insurance, etc.), although the number of courses taught can vary from a single course to a full-time load (or even an overload).

An adjunct is generally not required to participate in the administrative responsibilities at the institution often expected of other full-time professors, nor do they generally have research responsibilities. The pay for these positions is usually nominal, even though adjuncts typically hold a Ph.D., but most adjuncts also hold concurrent positions at several institutions or in industry.

Adjuncts provide flexibility to the faculty, acting as additional teaching resources to be called up as necessary; however, their teaching load is variable: classes can be transferred from adjuncts to full-time professors, classes with low enrollment can be summarily canceled and the teaching schedule from one semester to the next can be unpredictable (furthermore, if the university makes a good faith offer to an adjunct professor of teaching during the following semester depending on enrollment, the adjunct generally cannot file for unemployment during the break). In some cases, an adjunct may hold one of the standard ranks in another department, and be recognized with adjunct rank for making significant contributions to the department in question. Thus, e.g., one could be a "Associate Professor of Physics and Adjunct Professor of Chemistry."

If you're being taught by adjunct faculty, ask the admissions office if you can pay adjunct tuition rates.

I dunno--I had an adjunct victorian lit professor that was an assistant and protege of TS Elliot. Had a poly. sci. adjunct that prosecuted Jim Bakker (on loan from West Point, actually) and had an adjunct for a 'personal finance' class that was Exec. VP of Jaguar Division when ford first took over. I would have paid more.

Adjuncts are often better than "regular" faculty--they just refuse to play the academic/political games that are often required to move up the chain. Or they just have neither the time nor the inclination to do so. There is a lot of jealousy in academia, and if you are too good or more recognized nationally than your colleagues you will never get ahead in some small-minded academic communities.

I'm speaking from personal experience...

Good one!

Unlike tenured professors, adjunct professors still need to perform to keep their jobs. No benefits either, although their children often get faculty tuition rates which can be quite helpful.

My FIL was a full-time h.s. math teacher (recently retired) but has been an adjunct at a couple of local colleges for several years. My wife attended one of the colleges he taught at and got a real good break on tuition.

My wife is considering teaching a bit. The pay really stinks for these part time positions. Those tuition perks keep getting better now college costs are going up. That'd be a great way to get Garrett through school on the cheap!

Stand on the corner with a sign: "Will teach for cheap tuition."

Wish that were still true around here. They even took that benefit away from full professors a few years ago.