Likins authorizes contracts for part-time instructors

UA President Peter Likins lifted a ban yesterday on the hiring of adjunct professors for next semester.

The move - which comes more than two weeks before the end of a university-wide hiring freeze - means that departments will be able to offer contracts to part-time instructors needed to teach courses in the spring.

A memo issued yesterday by Provost George Davis stated that instructors can be hired as long as it is consistent with individual departments' plans for saving money.

The departments submitted plans several weeks ago outlining ways they could save money to counter $13.9 million in state-mandated budget cuts. Several deans have said their plans do not include some adjunct professors.

The hiring freeze on other university employees remains in effect until at least Dec. 1.

Part-time faculty have their contracts renewed every semester and are hired on an as-needed basis by individual departments, said Cathy Nicholson, director of employee relations for University of Arizona human resources. Many faculty members are professionals in their field who also teach a class at the UA.

"Typically, these are people who don't make a living working for us," Likins said last month.

But in some departments, they bear the brunt of the teaching load. In the media arts department, students have a 70 percent chance of getting a class taught by a non-tenure track faculty member.