Teaching possibilities for me

[cookderosa]

Jennifer, do you know if they have a certain number of years required before someone can be a full-timer, or anything else about transitioning from adjunct to FT? It seems like hardly anyone is a full-timer with all online classes, they probably have to teach some in-person.

That's a good question. I can only answer based on my own school's behavior, but when I started, our funding only allowed for 1 full-timer (me) as an admin (different contract) and everyone that taught was adjunct. I was also required to teach sections I couldn't find teachers for. That program launched in 1992 with 8 students and they got approval to hire their first full time faculty member in 2012 when the number had increased to about 200 students in our program. The ENTIRE pool of adjuncts wanted it btw, and the guy that got it was well rounded and deserved it. He could teach several courses well, so I'm sure that was a factor. There are entire depts on that campus that are fully adjunct and will be forever because the program can't support full timers. Full timers are regulated by the unions, so their benefits requirements are expensive whereas adjunct are straight pay.
I think that while being an adjunct isn't going to guarantee you that you'll EVER get promoted to full time, I would also say that probably 99.99% of full timers were adjuncts before being hired full time, so if full time is your goal, it's certainly a way to get in on the ground floor.

Here's something else- arts and sciences (college transfer / gen eds) are going to have the highest number of full timers whereas career / technical are going to have the fewest. You can figure out who is what if the college doesn't have a directory online. Just go into a schedule and pull up the dept course registration for your dept. Say it's Biology. It will list all the sections you can register for. Start looking at names and counting. If someone has 5 sections, they are full time. If it says "staff" that will probably be an adjunct. If you see 1-2 sections, they are for sure adjunct. If you can find the dept chair, see if they have to teach too- if they do, they are stretched for money and may be under a lot of pressure to maintain costs (thus hiring more adjunct). Also, if the registration catalog has archives, go back and see if the same names teach the same sections each year. For instance, does Bob Smith always teach the MWF 9am section each Spring? If so, you don't stand a chance unless he quits. There are all kinds of things you can find out if you poke around...