For the purposes of this report, part-time faculty are defined as those whose appointment represents less that 0.75 full-time equivalent (FTE). The NCSU Faculty Handbook stipulates that faculty appointed for less than full-time responsibilities be designated "visiting faculty" (section III.F.1, p. 59). It should be understood, however, that not all visiting faculty are part-time; non-tenure-track appointees with full-time responsibilities are also appointed with visiting rank.
The following tables summarize the numbers and duties of part-time faculty at NCSU. Table 8.8 shows the distribution of total faculty FTEs among full-time and part-time appointments among the colleges in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and table 8.9 quantifies the participation in teaching by showing the distribution of student credit hours by full-time and part-time faculty by college in fall 1992.
1984 1988 1992
College Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time
------- --------------------- --------------------- ---------------------
Agriculture and Life Sciences 544 4.00 479 8.30 463 3.07
Design 42 4.70 43 4.78 42 10.00
Education and Psychology 83 2.90 87 5.60 103 7.86
Engineering 200 7.20 232 9.97 254 8.49
Forest Resources 82 1.00 62 0.69 64 2.68
Humanities and Social Sciences 372 28.85 397 52.26 315 45.04
Management -- -- -- -- 76 12.62
Physical and Mathematical Sciences 252 11.40 208 3.68 214 4.65
Textiles 43 1.10 41 1.75 45 2.75
Veterinary Medicine 89 1.60 90 0.90 99 0.40
Administration 26 1.50 7 0.00 24 0.50
Total 1,733 64.25 1,646 87.93 1,699 98.06
Percent 96.4% 3.6% 94.9% 5.1% 94.6% 5.4%
SCH delivered Percentage
College Full-time Part-time Total Full-time Part-time
------- ------------------------------ -----------------------
Agriculture and Life Sciences 25,510 1,967 27,477 93% 7%
Design 5,859 1,200 7,059 83% 17%
Education and Psychology 15,508 1,967 17,476 89% 11%
Engineering 38,147 4,293 42,440 90% 10%
Forest Resources 3,734 426 4,160 90% 10%
Humanities and Social Sciences 66,898 16,695 83,593 80% 20%
Management 14,775 6,006 20,781 71% 29%
Physical and Mathematical Sciences 52,698 6,390 59,088 89% 11%
Textiles 5,285 153 5,438 97% 3%
Veterinary Medicine 5,930 -- 5,930 100% 0%
Administration 1,058 444 1,502 70% 30%
Total 235,402 39,541 274,944 86% 14%
The data show a slight trend toward an increase in the proportion of the faculty that are part-time, with about 3.6 percent in 1984, 5.1 percent in 1988, and 5.4 percent in 1992. Although long-term data on student credit hours delivered is unavailable due to the manner of record keeping employed by the University in the past, it is reasonable to assume that the proportion of student credit hours delivered by part-time faculty has also increased; 14 percent of all student credit hours at NCSU were delivered by part-time faculty in fall 1992.
The Colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences, Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and Management account for over half of the student credit hours delivered by part-time faculty at NCSU. This situation may reflect special circumstances in departments in these colleges, namely that resources are not sufficient to appoint enough full-time faculty to provide the classroom teaching needed. In the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Departments of Foreign Languages and Communication have disproportionately large numbers of visiting faculty. The Department of Communication, for example, would require twenty-six permanent faculty to do the work that nineteen visiting faculty are doing currently. Both the Colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences and Management have acknowledged that their dependence on part-time faculty for classroom teaching is too high, and they indicate in their long-range plans the need to reduce that dependence.
Part-time faculty and other visiting faculty are generally appointed and salaried with funds from vacant permanent faculty positions and faculty academic release time associated with grants and contracts. The primary allocation of these funds is made to the colleges by the provost. Although it may be preferable to have funds adequate to meet teaching needs with full-time faculty, when resources are not available to appoint full-time faculty, reserving some funds for part-time appointments provides the University with the flexibility to meet changing needs.
It is important to note that the quality of actual classroom teaching by part-time faculty is good. However, part-time classroom teachers typically are not as involved in the full range of faculty responsibilities as are the permanent faculty, and potential problems can arise if the scope of responsibility is not clearly articulated and part-time faculty or even full-time visiting faculty teach more students for fewer dollars. Furthermore, when there is heavy use of part-time faculty, the resulting transient conditions impede continuity, and departments suffer from lack of involvement of these teachers in curriculum planning and evolution. There may also be problems with physical-resource allocation. Although department heads report that most part-time faculty have adequate office and phone access, there are departments in which part-time faculty have inadequate office space and little access to telephones or secretarial service. By the nature of their appointments, part-time faculty are not represented in University affairs. Part-time appointment does not convey voting membership on the general faculty, but full-time visiting faculty acquire voting membership after having been appointed for one year (Faculty Handbook, p. 109).
The NCSU Self-Study Survey of Faculty and the Department Heads' Questionnaire elicited specific responses on the faculty's perception of part-time faculty. The surveys of undergraduate and graduate students provided no information on this issue because they did not ask students to discriminate whether their teachers are part time or full time.
Category Level Agree Strongly agree Total
-------- ------------------- ----- -------------- -----
Rank Instructor/lecturer 41.4 6.9 48.3
Assistant professor 35.9 3.3 39.2
Associate professor 42.5 3.0 45.5
Professor 36.3 7.0 43.3
Race Nonwhite 41.7 8.3 50.0
White 38.3 4.9 43.2
Gender Female 40.4 3.0 43.0
Male 38.1 5.7 43.8
All -- 38.1 5.4 43.5
Approximately 44 percent of faculty surveyed feel that the number of courses taught by part-time faculty in their departments is reasonable (includes agree and strongly agree); 56 percent either disagree or did not respond. Nonwhite faculty are more likely to consider part-time involvement in teaching reasonable, but there does not appear to be a difference in perception by gender. Tenured faculty do not differ in their perceptions from the overall view, but instructors and lecturers are more in agreement that the number is reasonable, and assistant professors are less in agreement. Instructors and lecturers may perceive an increase in part-time appointments as a job-security threat, while assistant professors, in their quest for tenure, may prefer more help from part-time faculty to support the teaching function.
Responses to the Department Heads' Questionnaire indicate that many departments do not appoint part-time faculty at all. Other departments appoint part-time faculty only after full-time faculty and qualified graduate students are given their teaching assignments. Part-time faculty are appointed to teach undergraduate courses and some are appointed to teach graduate courses to expose students to practitioners with specialized expertise and experience not available from tenure-track faculty. Departments also sometimes appoint part-time faculty as temporary replacements for full-time faculty who are on leave, and to cover night classes. In some colleges, such as the College of Textiles, part-time faculty are appointed to participate in the research program rather than to engage in classroom teaching.
Although mechanisms exist for control, both faculty perception and actual data on appointment and student-credit-hour delivery indicate that NCSU has appropriately controlled its number of part-time faculty as well as is possible, given funding limitations [4.4.3.2].
Recommendation 8.8: NCSU should develop a set of guidelines specifically for deans and department heads that includes detailed procedures for determining the degree to which departmental needs may be acceptably met by part-time faculty.
Recommendation 8.9: NCSU should develop guidelines for use by colleges and departments to provide for more timely and equitable distribution of part-time teaching funds within the University.
The 1992-93 Self-Study Survey of Faculty asked respondents to agree, strongly agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statement: "12-C: Part-time faculty are well qualified to teach the courses they teach." The responses are indicated in table 8.11.
Category Level Agree Strongly agree Total
-------- ------------------- ----- -------------- -----
Rank Instructor/lecturer 41.4 34.5 75.9
Assistant professor 37.0 15.2 52.2
Associate professor 50.0 9.7 59.7
Professor 40.3 10.4 50.7
Race Nonwhite 33.3 11.1 44.4
White 43.2 14.3 57.5
Gender Female 42.4 24.2 66.6
Male 42.5 11.4 53.9
All -- 42.5 14.2 56.7
Approximately 57 percent of faculty surveyed perceive the qualifications of part-time faculty to be acceptable. Nonwhite faculty tend toward less agreement (44 percent) than white faculty, and female faculty tend toward more agreement (66 percent) than do male faculty. Rank does not have a major influence on perceptions. The variability may reflect differing opinions as to the reasons for appointing part-time faculty and argues for improved clarity in the guidelines for these appointments.
The 1992-93 Self-Study Survey of Faculty asked respondents to agree, strongly agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statement: "12-D: Policies/procedures for selecting and retaining part-time faculty are equitable." The responses are indicated in table 8.12.
Category Level Agree Strongly agree Total
-------- ------------------- ----- -------------- -----
Rank Instructor/lecturer 37.9 10.3 48.2
Assistant professor 21.7 3.3 25.0
Associate professor 28.4 5.2 33.6
Professor 33.8 7.0 40.8
Race Nonwhite 25.0 0.0 25.0
White 31.0 6.7 37.7
Gender Female 28.3 8.1 36.4
Male 31.1 5.7 36.8
All -- 30.2 6.3 36.5
Approximately 36 percent of faculty surveyed perceive that the selection and appointment policies are equitable. With only slightly more than a third of the faculty having this perception, it must be concluded that there is a need to address this concern. Nonwhite faculty perceive the policies less equitable (only 25 percent were in agreement; none agreeing strongly) than do white faculty, while gender does not seem to have an affect. Compared to the other ranks, assistant professors are less apt to agree that policies are equitable, and instructors and lecturers are more apt to agree. The variability in the responses indicates rather wide differences in views with regard to equitability of selection and appointment policies, which indicates a need for improved documentation of policies.
Recommendation 8.10: NCSU should develop and publish clearly identified guidelines to be used by departments in establishing terms of appointment of part-time faculty.
These guidelines, published either in the Faculty Handbook or in a separate and widely distributed document, should specifically include qualifications of part-time faculty; orientation, supervision, and evaluation procedures; and responsibilities and procedures for reasonable access to students for purposes of academic assistance.
Each part-time faculty member typically has a mentor or a senior faculty member who observes teaching methodology and reviews grading practices. At semester's end, they are evaluated by their students and senior faculty. These evaluations are taken into consideration when deciding whether to reappoint [4.4.3.5].
General guidelines for performance reviews of all faculty members, including part-time faculty, are stated in the NCSU Faculty Handbook (pp. 42-43) [4.4.3.4; 4.4.10.2; 4.4.10.3].
Category Level Agree Strongly agree Total
-------- ------------------- ----- -------------- -----
Rank Instructor/lecturer 34.5 41.4 75.9
Assistant professor 31.5 20.7 52.2
Associate professor 47.8 9.7 57.5
Professor 42.3 9.5 51.8
Race Nonwhite 36.1 8.3 44.4
White 41.2 16.0 57.2
Gender Female 37.4 27.3 64.7
Male 41.7 12.4 54.1
All -- 40.4 15.6 56.0
A majority (56 percent) of the faculty responding to the survey felt that part-time faculty are effective teachers. Fewer nonwhite than white faculty, and more female than male faculty agree that part-time faculty are effective teachers. The responses by academic rank indicate that agreement at the levels of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor is about the same as the overall agreement, while the level of agreement is 75 percent among instructors and lecturers.
Department heads report that part-time faculty are generally provided office space with a telephone. They are required to post office hours and to include office hours and office phone numbers in syllabi. Office hours are also kept in each department's main office for easy accessibility [4.4.3.6].
