ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – New Mexico’s higher education institutions are relying heavily on part-time or adjunct instructors who take on large course loads to make a middle-class living.
But the colleges say hiring part-timers gives them flexibility to keep up with student needs and to hire professionals who are up-to-date in their fields, according to the Albuquerque Journal in a copyright story Monday.
At the University of New Mexico, tenured and tenure-track faculty made up 38.9 percent of the total faculty in 2006, the latest year available.
Temporary faculty at UNM comprised 27.9 percent, but that figure does not include graduate teaching assistants or lecturers hired on a permanent basis to teach.
Christine Rack, a part-time sociology instructor at UNM who holds a doctorate, is paid $3,500 for each course she teaches. She said she survives on $21,000 a year.
“It’s really a heck of a lot of work for very little money,” she said.
Rack thinks part-time instructors should be paid like real employees.
