Adjunct faculty and lecturers are paid far less than tenure-track professors, according to a recent study, but neither the study nor the university considers the pay gap harmful.

The study, produced by James Monks, an economist at the University of Richmond, Va., said, on average, full-time tenure track faculty were paid roughly $3,000 more per class than full-time non-tenure track instructors, which include adjunct professors, lecturers and clinical faculty. Tenure track part-time instructors also made about $3,000 more per course, on average, than their non-tenure track counterparts. These numbers do not include benefits, which vary from campus to campus and from tenure-track to non-tenure-track.

The large differences in pay don't necessarily pose a problem, according to Monks.

"I'm not trying to make any judgment on (whether non-tenured teachers should be paid more)," Monks said. "From an institutional perspective, it's good to have a low-cost teaching source. From a faculty perspective, it may not be as good."

While Provost Madeline Wake didn't share average salaries for part-time faculty due to different pay in different fields, she said tenure-track faculty are paid more because their responsibilities stretch beyond teaching. They also do research, act as advisers, write for and edit academic journals and participate on faculty committees.

Many part-timers, as well, have another job but are willing to fill a need at the university. For example, Wake said, a nurse who specializes in pain management could teach a class on the subject.

Even with the gap in pay, the study found most part-time, non-tenured instructors were able to make nearly as much as an average associate professor.

"The stories you hear are those unfortunate adjunct professors and part-timers who are having a hard go of it," Monks said. "While there are a fair number of those, there are a lot of others not in that boat."

Some instructors, he said, teach for enjoyment or to supplement income from a regular job.

"There's no one kind of profile for part-time instructors," Monks said.

For example, Sister Marie Colette Roy, a sister of St. Francis of Assisi and lecturer, has taught English classes at Marquette for six years. A few years before that, she was on a tenure track for many years at Cardinal Stritch University. She said she is happy to be teaching and doesn't mind not being on a tenure track.

"I love to practice my profession," she said.

Other lecturers are hoping to get onto a tenure track one day. Gregory Simons, a doctoral student and lecturer in psychology, is on a teaching fellowship at the university and wants to be a professor after he receives his doctorate.

He also works 15 to 20 hours a week as a researcher at a medical college to help him get by. "Between the two jobs, I can pay the bills," he said.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 3 2005.