It’s our second mailbag! The mailbag is where folks ask us questions about the wherefores and what-have-yous of history and we try to answer them. If you like our mailbag articles, let us know and submit questions for future articles. We’re especially eager to hear from students wanting to know more about the nuts and bolts of doing history.
Reading our first column on the meaning of “contingency,” you may have found yourself thinking “Isn’t there another meaning of the term?” There sure is, and it’s part of this edition of the mailbag.
What are the different levels of professors/instructors and what do they mean? What does it mean if a professor is or isn’t tenured?
This stuff is often opaque to students, so let’s break this down, starting with the basic traditional model, what’s called the tenure track.1
Someone with a terminal degree (usually a PhD if they’re teaching history) is hired as an Assistant Professor. They then teach for a certain number of years (five is pretty common) before they’re reviewed for tenure. They’ll be reviewed based on criteria and requirements established by their department—good student evaluations, serving on committees, getting a certain number of things published, etc. If they’ve met those requirements, they’re usually granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor. (If they’re not granted tenure, they’re basically fired.) Folks often exaggerate the benefits of tenure—it does not mean, for instance, they’re free to commit murder without getting fired—but it does mean they now have more job security and can pretty much count on staying at that college or university until they retire.
Now, you might notice that some professors aren’t an Assistant Professor or an Associate Professor but simply “Professor.” This means they’re what’s called a Full Professor. After a certain number of years as an Associate Professor, someone can apply to be promoted to Full Professor. The process is fairly similar to being reviewed for tenure, except if their application is denied they’re still an Associate Professor. The promotion often comes with a raise. Usually a professor cannot be the head of their department unless they’re a Full Professor. But many Associate Professors don’t bother with this process and retire Associate Professors.
Okay, that’s the tenure track. A growing number of faculty are not tenure-track. They are collectively referred to as “contingent faculty” because their employment is more precarious and more dependent on decisions made semester-to-semester and year-to-year. (We make a special effort to bring on contingent faculty as contributors for the site: another inspiration for our name.)
There is, for example, the Visiting Assistant Professor (you may hear folks use the monosyllabic acronym “VAP,” rhymes with tap/sap/cap). They may teach teach the same number of courses and receive the same sort of salary as an Assistant Professor, even the same sort of funding for research and conference travel; or they may teach more, be paid less, and receive little research and conference funding. The main defining feature of the VAP is that their position is only guaranteed for a set number of years, usually between 1 and 3.
Then there is the Instructor. The Instructor may or may not have a PhD and may or may not work full-time at that institution.
A Full-Time Instructor either teaches the same number of courses as an Assistant Professor or more. They may be paid around the same salary an Assistant Professor makes their first year, but unlike the Assistant Professor they probably don’t get a raise very often. Because they can’t get tenure they have less job security; their position can always be cut from the budget. And because they’re not expected to do any research (usually a requirement for tenure, which they’re not eligible for) they probably receive little funding for research and conference travel.
An Adjunct Instructor does not teach full-time at the institution. Whereas a Full-Time Instructor may have an annual contract to teach, say, four classes a semester, an Adjunct Instructor probably has a semesterly contract to teach one or two classes. Usually they cannot teach more than two or three classes a semester, since that would make them a full-time employee and therefore eligible for benefits. An Adjunct Instructor may have an MA rather than a PhD, they may still be in grad school, or they may well have a PhD.
Adjuncts are usually paid less per course than a Full-Time Instructor or a Professor, the median pay per course being around $2,700, though depending on the institution it could be as little as $1,000 or as much as $5,000. If someone is adjuncting as their career (rather than, say, teaching a class or two to supplement their main income) they are probably teaching at multiple institutions, teaching one or two classes each at two or three colleges.
There are exceptions to everything I’ve said and other variations and permutations, but this covers most of it.
Oh and there’s controversy over whether you should call someone who is teaching a college class “Professor” if they do not have that title within the department—that is, if they’re a non-tenure-track instructor. I think you should if they have a PhD. Others think you should not; indeed, your instructor may not want you to call them a professor. I’d still say refer to them as “Professor” unless they correct you. Alternatively, if they have a PhD it’s always a safe bet to refer to them as “Dr.”