Adjunct faculty in demand

At Utah's fastest growing campuses, adjunct faculty have become quite a commodity.

Lynn Taylor, who teaches junior high school English all day, has been teaching three hours of English at Salt Lake Community College night classes for the past nine years. This year, she says her second job has expanded to include not only another hour of classes, but more students than ever before, sometimes reaching 30 students per class.

"There are just so many students," she said. "They really needed the help and I wanted to do it. I really think there is value in learning to write well." With Lynn Taylor's status as a published author, she feels that her students get to see real life opportunities for writing.

Evening and weekend classes are popular for the community college, this year with even more enrollment surges in those class times than in the past.

"We've filled our online courses right up to the gills," said SLCC spokesman Joy Tlou. He said the option has become very popular for students also working full-time jobs. "All our classes are more full than they've ever been."

Recent budget cuts prompted the elimination of more than 900 full-time positions in higher education this year — 202 of them regular faculty positions — but enrollment numbers continue to grow as economic conditions push more people back to school. In order to educate the masses, many schools, including SLCC and Utah Valley University, have had to tap into available community resources and hire teachers from various fields of expertise, much like Lynn Taylor.

"It's difficult because full-time faculty bring a level of service and continuity to the institution that I think is really valuable and yet adjunct faculty serve a great purpose in that a lot of them are right out of industry, and a lot of our students love the fact that their teachers spend all day out in the business world and then come on campus and teach it," said Deneece G. Huftalin, vice president of student services at SLCC. "A nice mix is great. We just need to be sure that mix is always a healthy one."

This semester's actual enrollment numbers won't be available until after the third week of school, but SLCC officials believe they're dealing with at least 15 to 18 percent more students than the same time one year ago. The influx led to a number of challenges, including the need for an open recruitment call for temporary workers who can help advise and direct students during the busy times. Other issues have been solved by offering an expanded selection of afternoon and weekend courses, Huftalin said, as well as more core class times for core requirements.