Early on Monday mornings, in my classroom at Babson College, I shepherd 30 undergraduates into the room with a smile and a “How are you?” or a “Good morning.” From my seat, I have a clear view down a corridor to another classroom, where I can sometimes glimpse a colleague from my department offering the same perfunctory greetings. While we have a lot in common – PhDs from respected institutions, years spent writing and publishing, a passion for teaching – there is something that divides us: He is a tenure-track professor and I am an adjunct lecturer.
In the world of academia, the distinction between these job titles is a huge one. Tenure-track professors are hired by universities to do a combination of teaching and research and to help their departments develop. Pending a major review of their performance after five or six years – when they try to win tenure, which pretty much guarantees a job for life – tenure-track professors are essentially full-time members of the faculty. Their positions usually come with a range of benefits like health insurance and periodic semester-long sabbaticals.
On the other side of this divide, adjunct faculty members (whose positions are sometimes described by other labels such as “lecturer,” “contingent faculty,” or “instructor”) are exclusively teachers. They generally work on a system of semester-to-semester contracts, rarely enjoy benefits, and often are considered part time, regardless of the amount of teaching they do.