You should receive a written appointment letter from your department/program or school/college which lists your work assignment, pay, and number of credit-hours if you’ve been hired for a teaching assignment. You should get the appointment letter at least two weeks before classes start for the semester. If this deadline is missed, you are entitled to a late notification payment of $250. If your letter is so late that you must start working without being officially hired, or if you don’t receive the late notification payment, please contact TAUP.

Adjuncts who are explicitly hired as Artist-in-Residence faculty are paid hourly. The minimum hourly rate is $49 per hour.

If a course you were scheduled to teach is cancelled or reassigned within two weeks of the start of the semester, or during add/drop, you’re entitled to a late cancellation payment of 10% of the course pay. If you don’t receive the late cancellation payment, please contact TAUP.

Student Plan
As long as you’re still a student, you can continue to use Temple’s student insurance plans. These plans include the same medical, dental, vision, and prescription coverage available to other Temple students. Like other Temple students, you can enroll in single coverage, one-dependent coverage, two-dependent coverage, or family coverage. You pay the full cost of the health insurance plan, currently $495.38 per month for the cheapest single coverage plan, $990.76 per month for the cheapest one-dependent coverage plan, $1,486.14 per month for the cheapest 2-dependent coverage plan, and $1,981.52 for the cheapest family coverage plan.

Adjunct Plan
As a gradjunct, you also have the option to buy into a health insurance plan that includes the same general medical coverage available to other Temple faculty. Like other Temple faculty, you can enroll in either single or family coverage. For adjuncts, this plan does not include dental or vision coverage. Currently, this plan does not include prescription coverage, but this coverage will be added starting on July 1st, 2025. Unless you qualify for a subsidy as described below, you pay the full cost of the health insurance plan, currently $645.22 per month for single coverage and $1,730.47 per month for family coverage.

If you choose the employee health insurance plan, you’re teaching one course of 2 credits or more or working 10 hours a week, AND you have previously taught at least 2 credit-hours or worked at least 10 hours per week as an adjunct in one of the three previous semesters (including summer), you receive a subsidy of 25% of the cost of single coverage only. Your cost would be approximately $483.92 per month for single coverage and $1,569.17 per month for family coverage.

If you chooose the employee health plan, you’re teaching two courses of 2 credits or more or working 20 hours a week, AND you have previously taught two courses of 2 credits or more or worked at least 20 hours per week as an adjunct in one of the three previous semesters (including summer), you receive a subsidy of 50% of the cost of single coverage only. Your cost would be approximately $322.61 per month for single coverage and $1,407.86 per month for family coverage.

The subsidy requirements mean that you will not receive a health insurance subsidy for the employee health insurance plan until at least your second semester as an adjunct.

By law, you become eligible to join TAUP once you are currently teaching at least 2 credit-hours or worked at least 10 hours per week as an adjunct AND you have previously taught at least 2 credit-hours or worked at least 10 hours per week as an adjunct in one of the three previous semesters (including summer). For example, if you started as a gradjunct in Fall and are rehired for Spring, you’re eligible to join as soon as your Spring assignment begins! If you start in Spring, you will be eligible to join as soon as you start an assignment for Summer, the following Fall, or even the following Spring.

If you have taught at least one semester in each of the last four years as an adjunct, then if you’re rehired you should either receive a multi-semester contract or a written explanation of why one wasn’t offered to you. (Hopefully you’ll have graduated before this applies to you, but you might still be teaching at Temple!)

Temple adjuncts are not restricted from outside employment. This includes work for TU Japan and TU Rome, which are separate employers even though they’re affiliated with Temple University.

Most gradjuncts are hired as Adjunct Instructors. The minimum pay for this rank is $2,250 per credit-hour ($6,750 for a 3 credit-hour course). Your school/college has a document listing the qualifications and pay rates for higher ranks (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor). In most cases, higher ranks require a terminal degree. If you believe you meet your school/college’s qualifications for a higher rank, you can ask to be placed at that rank at initial hire, or through a promotion process in later semesters. TAUP can provide more information on the adjunct promotion process on request.

Adjuncts report to the chair of their department unless supervision has been officially delegated to someone else, such as a program head. In your work as an adjunct, you do not report to your degree advisor or committee.

Most adjunct faculty workload is counted by credit-hour, similar to TA instructors of record. Adjunct faculty may teach up to 8 credit-hours per semester. A few adjunct faculty have hourly work assignments. They may work up to 20 hours per week.

As a faculty member, you may be assigned to supervise undergraduate and/or graduate workers. If you supervise TUGSA-represented graduate workers, be sure that you’re following any requirements in the TUGSA collective bargaining agreement. Here are some specifics to watch out for:

• Don’t tell any graduate student how to fill out their Direct Academic Benefit (DAB) form. If they have questions about this form, direct them to contact TUGSA at union@tugsa.org.
• Don’t assign more work than a TA/RA is contracted for. At most, this will be 20 hours per week. For some TAs/RAs on partial appointments, the limit may be 10 or 15 hours per week.
• Don’t impose academic consequences for work issues, or work consequences for academic issues. For example, an issue with work quality as a TA should not be handled by issuing a poor grade. If you have a work-related issue with a TA/RA that you supervise, speak to your chair for further direction and encourage the TA/RA to contact TUGSA for representation. You may be asked to provide an evaluation of your supervisees for their annual review. You can provide a written one, but you should not participate in the grad review meetings. That is considered a conflict of interest.