<p>A professor has to have a minimum number of students per class, or the class gets cancelled. If case of cancellation, does the professor still get compensated the same as if he were teaching the class?</p>
<p>At most institutions that I’m familiar with, the professor will “owe” the institution a class in the next semester or year, unless it’s truly a one-time fluke. Deans of Faculty tend to get picky when it comes to keeping teaching loads equitable.</p>
<p>LTS:</p>
<p>It really depends on the institution. At places like HYP, there is no minimum number of students required to teach a class. In fact, many, many classes have only one or two students. Some of these classes are independent studies, some are regular classes in less popular majors. When I was a graduate student, one department had so few students that they were outnumbered by the faculty. At such places, the faculty is not compensated by the number of classes they teach; their salary is fixed according to age and length of service; they may also get some bonus on account of their publication and administrative service. At state universities, it is more likely that classes with too few students will be cancelled.</p>
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<p>Poorly, so the legend goes (one probably circulated by professors themselves).</p>
<p>I do hear what seem fabulous salaries at some of the top universities, and the professors that consult on the side can do quite well.</p>
<p>Not that that was the question you really asked. :D</p>
<p>In many colleges, there are two tiers of faculty:</p>
<p>track 1) full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty </p>
<p>track 2) adjunct faculty (part-time, contingent faculty)</p>
<p>If a class is slated to be taught by an adjunct faculty member and the enrollment is very low, it is likely to get cancelled and the adjunct is is out of a job.</p>
<p>If a class is slated to be taught by a fulltime faculty member, and the enrollment turns out to be very low, it may well be cancelled and the fulltime faculty member may be reassigned to teach a different class (typically that different class was originally assigned to an adjunct, but since the adjunct is the “low person on the totem pole,” the adjunct would get bumped.)</p>
<p>EDIT: The use of adjuncts is growing, especially at public universities and struggling private colleges that need to balance their budgets. </p>
<p>Adjunct faculty can be a real budget stretcher, because adjunct faculty usually do not get benefits and their salaries are a small fraction of the cost allocated to a full-time faculty member. And because they are hired on a contingent basis, they give the college a lot of flexibility to deal with shifting enrollments.</p>
<p>Adjunct faculty also may offer some useful “real-world” perspectives, especially in professional schools. E.g., a professional full-time reporter/editor, architect, business executive, or school superintendent might teach as an adjunct in a school of journalism, design, b-school, or ed school, respectively.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies; I cannot decide if I should be worried, or even if I asked the right question. </p>
<p>D signed up for a 500 level class this fall (I’m not real clear on what that is exactly), anyway, at the time, the professor told her that if he didn’t have enough students, he would convert it to independent study (I don’t exactly know what that is either).</p>
<p>She got an A in his summer class (but D says summer sessions are easy A’s). However, this fall, he did not have the required five students, and, he said, because she didn’t have the background in this field, she wasn’t far enough along for him to be able to offer her independent study. And without the five minimum students he was not going to be allowed to teach the class. </p>
<p>So D asked him how much time he needed, if she could find three more people (there is already a graduate student registered). He told her 48 hours, and that the candidates had to be very smart and have at least a 3.0 gpa or they wouldn’t really be able to perform well in his class. She said his exact words were “they have to be as smart as you”. </p>
<p>D next got on the phone, called lots of people and managed to get three more people registered. She says they’re all very excited about the class; she took them over to meet the professor; he’s excited as well, and everything is terrific. </p>
<p>At first I thought, terrific. She loves the material, she went proactive and pulled the class together. </p>
<p>But then, I started thinking - why should the burden be on the student to pound the phone to put the class together? And how is it possible that a student is qualified for a 500 level class, but NOT qualified for independent study? And with 8,000 or so undergraduates in this college, why weren’t more than two students interested in taking the class? And why would three people suddenly decide at the last minute it’s a great idea to register for another class, especially a difficult one? (This is anthro-something, if it matters.)</p>
<p>And what happens if the three students who D convinced to register decide they do not like the class, after all, and drop it? Does that mean the professor has to cancel the class?</p>
<p>D doesn’t need the class for graduation. She needs two more of her classes this fall, and more more in the spring, to graduate in May with both degrees. She’s taking these extra classes because they’re very interesting, and because she wants to fortify her grad school applications. (If she wanted to, she could graduate this December.)</p>
<p>Ordinarily I don’t trouble myself with what D does with her classes, however, if this class does not hold together and the professor has to cancel it, D then drops below 12 credit hours, which in turn will invalidate her merit scholarships, which she has been able to carry over into this fifth year, and, I need to be able to see the financial horizon. But D assured me that if - in the highly unlikely event that the three people she convinced to take the class should drop - because it would impact her credit hour minimum - the university would hold the professor to his commitment. </p>
<p>Should I be concerned? Or am I imagining problems that do not exist?</p>
<p>To throw in my $0.02 - I’m a non-tenure track, regular rank faculty member, which means that I have a term contract but can make a career out of it. I have a 9-month salary to which certain conditions are attached, as well as certain expectations. The number of students in a regular class has never been an issue, though admittedly I teach core courses versus, say, graduate courses where the enrollment might be lower. The only time the number of students comes into play for me is if I choose to teach summer school to supplement my 9-month salary, in which case I get paid by the student up to a certain number of students, at which it is capped.</p>
<p>That having been said, if the course your D is signed up for is required in the course of obtaining a degree, the school should ensure that it is taught at a regular interval such that the students in whichever department are properly able o earn the requisite credits. If it is an elective class, that is not the case, but then there should be other electives available before “drop-add” is officially over. Certainly, except in very dire circumstances, a class will not be cancelled after the drop-add period is over…</p>
<p>At research institutes, talking about sciences and engineering, the tenure track faculty do very well. A real two tiered system where the non-tenure track tend to be on an entirely different pay scale earning, perhaps. a FOURTH, of what a full professor makes.</p>
<p>These are also, often, the best teachers as they are professional teachers, not researchers who are forced to take time out from their research to teach a class. Plus, you can usually fire them if they do a bad job (assuming that they are not dating the rain maker in the department…)</p>