Cardinal Points

Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: News

Music Department Chair Jo Ellen Miano sits in her office Thursday. The music department has 10 adjunct faculty members and five full-time professors.

With full-time faculty overload and students losing one-on-one time with instructors, Plattsburgh State strives to find a solution for over 40 percent of its faculty filled with adjuncts.

Although Provost Robert Golden said that no more than 30 percent of PSUC's classes are being taught by adjuncts, having such a high number of part time faculty members is negatively impacting both the part-time and full-time faculty members as well as the students.

"My own view is that I would like to see us get to a situation where we have fewer than even 20 percent of our courses taught

by adjuncts," said Golden, admitting that depending on SUNY budgets that number may be difficult to reach

Golden said one of the reasons the adjunct percentage is so high is because some of the part-time faculty have particular expertise and background experience in certain fields that cannot be replicated by the full-time faculty.

Aside from these individual cases, the major reason for the high number of part-time faculty members is due to a lack of finances.

"Over the past 20 years in SUNY and other higher education systems our budgets have decreased," Golden said. "We get less and less money from the state so a lot of schools have gone on to using part time faculty because it's cheaper."

Although Golden said part-time faculties are good instructors and dedicated to their jobs, the high percentage does have negative impacts, mostly on the full-time faculty.

"Student evaluations of part-time faculty indicate that they are rated just as highly by students as full time, so in that case students aren't losing by having part-time instructors," said Golden.

"However, the use of part-time faculty puts an enormous strain on the remaining full-time faculty in the departments to do academic advising, to do the internal departmental curriculum and other work."

With 14 of PSUC's departments having over 50 percent adjunct faculty, a lot of department chairs are concerned about how it negatively affects both the students and faculty alike.

According to the campus's human resources, both Canadian studies and the music department have 75 percent adjuncts, while the educational leadership and the field experience departments have over 85 percent.

Continued...

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