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[tutor]

Please discuss the advantages of a non TT assistant professor position over a TT position.

[categorical]

What's the purpose of this question exactly?  The advantages are pretty obvious.  For one, you don't have to worry about all the problems related to having a disposable income.

[educator1]

Not having to kiss the A$$'s of the senior faculty so that they will vote for your tenure application (which the Dean or President will unilaterally deny).
Seriously, read the Tenure Track thread. These folks have it tough!

[merce]

Not having to kiss the A$$'s of the senior faculty so that they will vote for your tenure application (which the Dean or President will unilaterally deny).
Seriously, read the Tenure Track thread. These folks have it tough!

We get to kiss A$$ and grovel and promise to do this and that and the other in order to weedle a contract renewal every year until the clock is up and they kick us out no matter how great we are.

Ah, yes, the joy.

Seriously, there are advantages right? Please remind me what they are.

1. Less committee work in my case.

[totoro]

I'm a non-tenure track full professor. It's no different to being on tenure track actually as I'm hoping to get one of the tenure track jobs so I have to be nice to everyone. (terms used loosely here as I'm in Australia). And this is the highest salary I've ever earned so for the moment income isn't an issue.

[rear_view_mirror]

Since now PhD's are a dime a dozen, I can't think of a single advantage. But way back when I started teaching, you could get an adjunct gig without so much education. Now I have a track record and a few friends.
But that's an advantage only in the same sense as it's an advantage to live on junk food rather than healthy food because it saves you money. I would prefer to have had more education, for lots of reasons.
I wonder whether one day soon the supply of teachers will be so great that we'll start to see the same kind of back-stabbing in the adjunct field.
This is only my experience of course.

[rear_view_mirror]

Damn, I misread the question. Sorry. Too late and tired for posting.

[reener06]

Um, let's see...oh yeah, my car, valued by the county at $875, but nowhere near that, is about to die. I can't afford repairs or another, so I'll get out the half-broken bike or take shank's mare and bike/walk to campus to get *free* exercise and I don't have to join a gym. That's an advantage. Oh, and I'm helping save the earth.

What else? The annoying emails from 165 students can't be it; the fact that I only get to teach introductory classes semester in and out can't be it. Hmm...how about hoping, praying and begging they give me another 4 classes next semester? Or how about thinking I'm crazy when they do give me the four classes? Or grading ad nauseam? Or fighting students over 2 points on exams they failed and the 2 points won't make any difference, but I give it to them so I get good evals so they give me another four courses? Or the lack of an office, much less a phone? Or maintaining 2 email accounts, both filled with useless admin emails that do not apply to me?

Ok, I'll stop now. Why is the OP asking this question?

[totoro]

Um, let's see...oh yeah, my car, valued by the county at $875, but nowhere near that, is about to die. I can't afford repairs or another, so I'll get out the half-broken bike or take shank's mare and bike/walk to campus to get *free* exercise and I don't have to join a gym. That's an advantage. Oh, and I'm helping save the earth.

What else? The annoying emails from 165 students can't be it; the fact that I only get to teach introductory classes semester in and out can't be it. Hmm...how about hoping, praying and begging they give me another 4 classes next semester? Or how about thinking I'm crazy when they do give me the four classes? Or grading ad nauseam? Or fighting students over 2 points on exams they failed and the 2 points won't make any difference, but I give it to them so I get good evals so they give me another four courses? Or the lack of an office, much less a phone? Or maintaining 2 email accounts, both filled with useless admin emails that do not apply to me?

Ok, I'll stop now. Why is the OP asking this question?

We need more info from the OP but obviously they're not talking about a badly paid adjunct position. They said non-TT assistant professor. Maybe it's some school that doesn't have a tenure track or a "clinical position" or fixed contract like I have.

[rear_view_mirror]

Um, let's see...oh yeah, my car, valued by the county at $875, but nowhere near that, is about to die. I can't afford repairs or another, so I'll get out the half-broken bike or take shank's mare and bike/walk to campus to get *free* exercise and I don't have to join a gym. That's an advantage. Oh, and I'm helping save the earth.

What else? The annoying emails from 165 students can't be it; the fact that I only get to teach introductory classes semester in and out can't be it. Hmm...how about hoping, praying and begging they give me another 4 classes next semester? Or how about thinking I'm crazy when they do give me the four classes? Or grading ad nauseam? Or fighting students over 2 points on exams they failed and the 2 points won't make any difference, but I give it to them so I get good evals so they give me another four courses? Or the lack of an office, much less a phone? Or maintaining 2 email accounts, both filled with useless admin emails that do not apply to me?

Ok, I'll stop now. Why is the OP asking this question?

We need more info from the OP but obviously they're not talking about a badly paid adjunct position. They said non-TT assistant professor. Maybe it's some school that doesn't have a tenure track or a "clinical position" or fixed contract like I have.

Nevertheless, this question annoys some readers and I think I know why. For years certain administrators have made statements such as "this type of academic job is preferred by teachers who are interested in a smaller commitment of time" and similar insights into the inner thoughts of professionals.
It sounds better than "we prefer to pay a good share of our work force crap, it that is an option."

[merce]

I do think non-TT assistant professorships pay less at institutions that have TT positions.
And the only places I know of without TT at all pay less than places with TT positions.

So, even if we move away from talking adjuncting and return to the OPs specifications I think we are still talking about a financial disparity.

I thought we'd try to be positive here so I didn't want to mention the negatives but in my own position I make about 10-15K less than TT asst. profs hired in my year. And I have none of the financial trimmings either: moving expenses, library budget, summer money, start-up funds, travel funds, etc.


The worst element of being non-TT is you do not have security. 
At a lot of places, including my own, a non-TT assistant professorship has a time limit on it (otherwise it would have to be TT and include the financial perks mentioned above and job security with potential for sort-of-permanence). I believe this is because of state mandates or some other sort of legal or accreditation issue.
We get either a 3 or 5 year cap on our stay and then must find other employment.

another positive:

you can apply for other TT positions with full support of your department because they know they aren't giving you the security of TT and cannot expect you to give them the commitment they won't give you

[totoro]

you can apply for other TT positions with full support of your department because they know they aren't giving you the security of TT and cannot expect you to give them the commitment they won't give you

I would say that is the main advantage. If the job is somewhere you don't really want to be. I was TT and tenured somewhere I didn't want to be and applying for other jobs was getting me nowhere. I ended up quitting. My current non-TT position here has none of the additional moneys for travel etc. and lower retirement contributions than TT people here but the same salary (which is good). I really want a job here though :) Though I am also looking at a grant that would give me a longer term non-TT research position here (my current position has some teaching but is mostly research). So some non-TT positions are research only of course. The advantage of those is you don't have to teach if that isn't what you want to do. non-TT positions are much more diverse than TT ones.

[jonesey]

I'll bite:

Very little committee/service work.  I teach 16 hours a week and have to be on campus for 35; that gives me 19 hours to sit around in my office surfing the internet when I'm not in the classroom.  I have no other obligations other than the occasional tutoring/writing lab session.  (I am involved in committees, but they are in no way like the workloads TT faculty have). 

[palla]

For me the advantages are that I teach and go home. I don't have to go to many meetings, deal with committee work, or advise students.  In return, I have no promises that I will be given a contract next year and get more intro classes than the TT folk.  For my situation, it works and I like it.  If something happens and there are not classes for me next year, I will survive with no hard feelings.  But it completely depends on your situation.

[mozman]

My institution is soft money, even for those on tenure track and tenured (if tenured with no grants, you keep your job but not your salary).

There is very little functional difference between being TT faculty and being non-TT faculty.  Both get paid according to the same scale.  Both have similar offices and lab facilities (according to grant support).

Differences I can see:

Non-TT don't have to teach unless they want to (though many do, at least guest lecturing)

Non-TT don;t have to serve on committees (though many do)

Non-TT are out immediately if they lose grant support.  TT might get a pass for a quarter or 2, with salary going down each timepoint until they lose their job.

TT have a limit for the amount of time they can spend as assistant or associate prof (Up or out).  Non-TT could be associate forever.