Colleges more often hiring part-timers - Tim Barker, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Part-timers such have long been fixtures on college campuses. But cash-strapped schools are increasingly turning to such adjuncts — generally defined as instructors paid on a class-by-class basis — while looking for ways to educate record numbers of students. And while most agree that adjuncts make fine teachers, some critics say the trend is hurting students by depriving them of the mentoring and stability provided by professional faculty. It doesn't help, they say, that the rise in adjuncts coincides with ever-rising higher education costs. "Students are paying more and getting less," said Howard Bunsis, secretary treasurer of the American Association of University Professors. A look at nine of the region's top institutions shows that adjunct hiring soared from 2002 to 2011, with the ranks of these part-timers increasing by 10 percent to 50 percent at most of the schools. The University of Missouri-Columbia, for example, saw a 48.4 percent increase, while the University of Missouri-St. Louis recorded a 55.8 percent jump.