USC weighs cutting adjunct faculty to reduce spending amid coronavirus

The University of South Carolina is considering reducing the number of adjunct professors to tighten its financial belt amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We wanted to protect the core functions of the university, but in these unprecedented times…we had to expand our efforts (to reduce spending) beyond just the traditional administrative areas,” USC President Robert Caslen said during a Friday board of trustees meeting.

“I want to stress these recommendations are preliminary,” Caslen said. “Ultimately I’ll make the final recommendations to this board.”

Adjunct professors are hired on a temporary basis and are non-tenure track employees. Sometimes they are working professionals, USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in a text message.

USC will not be doing away with adjunct professors, “just to reduce reliance on them,” Stensland said. “We’ll likely always (have them) on some level.”

The recommendation to cut adjunct professors came from EAB, a consulting group geared toward helping colleges and universities. Reducing the number of adjuncts could save the university between $1 million and $1.5 million, according to documents EAB presented at the board meeting.

To make up for the classes not taught by adjunct professors, tenure-track professors could be asked to teach more classes, said David Attis, EAB’s managing director of research, who spoke over video chat at the board meeting.

EAB presented several other recommendations for USC to cut costs and boost revenue. One of those is consolidating small colleges to cut down on administrative spending, something EAB projects could save USC between $1.2 to $2.6 million.

Often, when colleges need to raise money, they look to raise tuition. But since USC already froze tuition for the 2021-2022 school year, the school needs to cut elsewhere to balance its budget, Caslen said.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a bite out of USC’s budget, the school “has a solid financial position..despite the challenges we have faced over the last 9 months,” USC Controller Mandy Kibler said at the board meeting.