After years of struggle, there’s a sweet satisfaction to achieving professional excellence. And once you have a secure perch on the career ladder, you may look around and realize there is a benefit to sharing what you’ve learned along the way.
Toiling full time in advertising agencies, law firms, radio and TV stations, and corporate offices, many Chicago-area professionals are heading to college classrooms after hours to teach graduate or undergraduate courses in subjects that relate to their day-job expertise.
The ivory towers of academia are strengthened by these part-time professors, say many college administrators. “When material is presented by people who live it and know it, students see it as more than just theory,” observes John Popoli, vice president and academic dean of The Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, which employs only part-time executives and professionals to teach its students seeking a master’s degree in business administration.
Often burdened by tuition loans, students are anxious to see a direct connection between the classroom and the real world–and a real paycheck.
“Even more than when I was in law school (in the late 1980s), today’s students are looking at what’s practical and what’s applicable,” says Tom Donnelly, a supervisor at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office and a part-time instructor at Loyola University Law School.
In the trial courses he teaches, Donnelly says he weaves in examples of how cases that classes read about impact his work life and will also impact the students if they later become trial attorneys.
Part-time professors are also particularly well-suited to mentoring students and helping them in their job searches. “I’m in the wrong business, I should be in the employment business,” jokes Jane Canepa, owner of The Eventors, a special-events management and marketing firm in Chicago. She has helped many of her former undergraduate students at Columbia College find internships or full-time jobs at her company or through her connections.
Although he never secured an interview for one of his students, Mike Farrell says he helps guide the marketing students he teaches at St. Xavier University, Chicago, in their job search. “Students approach me about whom to send a letter to, or how to get an interview,” relates Farrell, who works full time as region category planner for Kraft Foods Inc.
The benefits for the students are clear, but what do the teachers get out of it? The reason most adjunct professors trudge off to a class after a day on the job, they say, is that teaching has become a labor of love–love for the subject and love for interacting with students.
Additionally, adjunct professors earn salaries, and the teaching post helps add luster to their resumes and defines them as experts in their fields.
Good managers must also be good teachers on the job, notes John Challenger, executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm, and classroom teaching helps to improve skills.
Typically, companies enthusiastically support their employees’ outside teaching efforts, adds Challenger, especially recently because the labor market has been tight. By teaching, managers may spot talented students who would fit into their companies, he notes.
The Lake Forest Graduate School of Management says that it starts its teachers at $2,200 per course (most courses last 10 weeks and meet 3.5 hours per week) and pay can increase to $4,300 per course for experienced adjunct professors. Pay also varies at Columbia College, says Dr. Lya Dym Rosenblum, dean of the graduate program, but averages about $2,000 for a semester course.
George Matthews, vice president for academic affairs at St. Xavier University, says pay for adjuncts ranges from $1,500 to about $2,000 for a semester course, with higher rates for graduate-level courses and time-intensive courses.
The substantial time required for preparation and interacting with students outside of class whittles the per-hour fee down to a minimum, report adjunct teachers.
The first time he teaches a particular course, says Donnelly, he usually spends about five hours in preparation time for each hour of class time.
Finding the time required to teach even one course is difficult for busy workers.
Phil Corse, vice president of marketing consulting services for the Chicago firm of Herbst Lazar Bell Inc., says that when he first began teaching one evening a week some 10 years ago, “it was a hardship.” With young children at home, “the last thing you want to do is go to a class from 6:30 to 9:30.”
Despite the hassle, Corse was hooked, and today teaches at both the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and The Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
“I found out I really loved it. Teaching forces you to really know your material. In business, you can sometimes wing it, but when you’re in front of a class and they’re asking questions you really have to know what you’re talking about.”
Helping inquisitive students learn the ropes brings a unique satisfaction that can’t be found elsewhere, contends Barry Keefe, news director at the Chicago radio station WTMX, who also teaches news writing one afternoon a week at Columbia College.
And, teaching is one of the best ways to learn and to keep current, contends Donnelly. “There’s a kind of synergy between my teaching and my work,” he says. “That’s because I am reviewing materials to teach that I also use in my everyday practice.”
Teachers’ input also helps keep a curriculum fresh. Many adjunct professors approach universities with an idea for a course, says Dipak Jain, associate dean of academic affairs at Kellogg. After reviewing the proposal and interviewing the teaching candidate, Kellogg might begin offering the course as a five-week “mini course,” and then expand it into a 10-week course.
Subject matter plays a part in determining whether part-time professors are on a school’s staff. Business and management programs, law schools, and other career-oriented programs are the most likely to employ adjunct faculty.
Whether a graduate business program uses adjuncts depends on its overall philosophy, observes Peter Syverson of the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington. “If a school is interested in having faculty conduct original research, they’re going to rely on full-time professors. If they want to emphasize a nuts-and-bolts approach for their students, they’ll use adjuncts.”
