Adjunct Compensation Plan
Executive Summary
January 2006


In the Spring of 2005, Assistant Provost Katherine Black was asked by President Walter Harrison and Provost Donna Randall to provide oversight of adjunct and part-time faculty issues and to appoint an advisory committee to assist her in that responsibility.  The Advisory Committee on Adjunct and Part-time Faculty was formed, comprised of representatives from the Provost’s Office, Finance, full-time faculty, and adjunct faculty.  The Committee members are Katherine Black, Assistant Provost and Chair of the Committee; Chuck Colarulli, Associate Provost; Arosha Jayawickrema, Associate Vice-President for Finance; Bharat Kolluri, Professor in the Barney School of Business; Donald Jones, Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the Faculty’s Senate’s Committee on Part-time Faculty; and Ralph Fierro, Adjunct Faculty Member.

The Committee’s first charge was to design a multi-year plan to increase the salaries of adjunct and part-time faculty.  The Committee began its work by determining an appropriate comparison group, defined as the institutions with which the University of Hartford competes for adjunct faculty.  Unlike full-time faculty, where the University of Hartford competes nationally, the University competes for adjunct faculty more locally.  To identify our competitors, the Committee sought input from the chairs, as these are the individuals who typically hire adjunct faculty.  

Based on the chairs’ feedback, Capital Community College, Central Connecticut State University, Manchester Community College, Quinnipiac University, and University of Connecticut were identified as our top five competitors.  These institutions were willing to share their adjunct compensation rates, and in some cases, it was requested that the rates be kept confidential.  Direct comparisons between the University of Hartford’s rates and our competitors’ rates were difficult as some institutions reported flat rates and others reported minimum rates.  However, it was clear that we were below market.  In addition, it was found that most of the institutions vary their rates based on seniority (defined by the total number of credits taught), and some vary their rates by the degree held (non-terminal versus terminal).    

Using the adjunct faculty compensation at these five institutions as benchmarks, the Committee recommended a two-part plan.  First, the Committee recommended gradually increasing the minimum compensation across all adjunct faculty over three years, to $900 per credit hour in the Spring of 2006, to $950 per credit hour in 2006-07, and to $1,000 per credit hour in 2007-08.  According to our calculations, these increases would affect approximately 48% of adjunct faculty in the first year, 74% of adjunct faculty in the second year, and 77% in the third year.

Second, in addition to raising the minimum, the Committee recommended an additional allocation of funds, beginning in 2006-07, to account for market conditions among the disciplines.  The amount distributed to each college would be based on the average adjunct salary in the college (which reflects market conditions) and the college’s proportion of the total number of credit hours taught by adjunct faculty at the University.  Additional allocations above the funds used to raise the minimum would be distributed according to the collegiate deans’ discretion.  The Committee recommended that the deans use such variables as seniority and degree as potential criteria for the distribution of funds, which would be in line with several of our closest competitors.

After the initial allocation to raise the minimum to $900 per credit hour in the Spring of 2006, the Committee recommended that each year, the total funds allocated for this adjunct compensation plan be split: 2/3 of the funds would be used to bring up the minimum across all adjunct faculty and 1/3 of the funds would be used to address market conditions in the various disciplines.  

In summary, the recommendations outlined above were designed to close the gap in the adjunct compensation rates between the University of Hartford and its competitors in a fiscally responsible manner.  The Committee recommended that the issue of adjunct and part-time faculty compensation be re-visited in 2007-08 to reassess where the University stands in relation to its competition.