David Nunez

The sounds of shuffling students and moving desks take over the classroom at Pierce College. Katelyn Cunningham, an adjunct professor, sits at her desk. Her eyes swinging like pendulums scanning a computer monitor, quick fingers fly along the keyboard reminiscing of a pianist. Looking for a classroom for midterm make ups, a task that sounds easier than it looks, Cunningham struggles remembering the program Pierce uses for email, what are her login credentials, and who to contact for a room reservation.

This situation is anything but uncommon for Cunningham. She along with 51 percent of faculty on college campuses in the U.S. are adjunct faculty who operate with a lack of  preparation time, a heavy workload, and frequent commutes between two or more schools. Over reliance on adjunct faculty causes low rates of retention, transfer to two- to four-year schools and graduation rates.

Although adjuncts have less student contact outside of class and they lack office space, and it is difficult to identify who is full-time and who is part-time at college institutions. Soyer Sorza, a pre-vet major student at Pierce College, was under the assumption Professor Cunningham was a full-time English professor due to her “modern and relatable teaching material.” Soyer isn’t alone with not knowing the position of their professors.

Carmen Maria Machado tells of her favorite instructor while in undergraduate school and how his class was the catalyst to her career. “My stories would come back to me with his notes crammed between lines and creeping up the margins… These critiques treated my stories as serious things, as pieces of art worthy of real criticism.”

Machado goes onto write about her finding out ten years later that her favorite professor was an adjunct professor. ”What I didn’t know at the time—and what I wouldn’t figure out for the better part of the next decade—was that Harvey was an adjunct… As an undergraduate, I never heard the term.” Machado write about this in her 2015 New Yorker article titled, “O Adjunct! My Adjunct.”  

Professor Cunningham at times has her English students dissect and look at articles that talk about adjunct professors. She says, “Raising awareness and having an open discussion about the topic is a good thing because better prepared and equipped teachers translate into successful students.

This is an idea also shared by Adrianna Kezar, a professor at USC Rossier School of Education; Kezar has collected most of the research at The Delphi Project. When you visit its website you are greeted to a mission statement that reads, “The Delphi Project is dedicated to enhance awareness about the changing faculty trends using research and data to better support faculty…”

Ken Starkman, the dean of technology and engineering division at Fullerton College, says he knows that adjunct faculty are a big piece of his division. “We rely so much on adjunct faculty, they are a big big piece of who we are and what we do every day.” He also says they add a lot of value due to their fresh knowledge of what is going on in their discipline. “Many adjunct faculty are out working during the day, and then they come and teach so they are very fresh in their content and discipline.” Administration are aware of the challenges adjuncts face which could mean a better line of communication for Cunningham and all other freeway flyers in the future.