<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=15ABCg_1GvbTFig00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=15ABCg_1GvbTFig00" width="1875" height="1246" ><figcaption>Henry Echeverria, Department Chair/Associate Professor of Theater-Lighting and Sound, explains how to properly attach masonite in his stagecraft class during Scene Shop hours. As a full-time professor, he has the opportunity to provide mentorship, hands-on projects, and curriculum stability. Addison Adams | Sun News Daily</figcaption></figure>Utah Tech University is working to add full-time faculty to help create greater opportunities for students to receive mentorship and engage more deeply with their coursework, President Shane Smeed said. Numbers for full-time faculty teaching courses at Utah Tech were the lowest in the state last year at 40%, Smeed said on the 435 Podcast in 2025. For the Fall 2026 semester, 46.8% of credit hours are being taught by full-time faculty, Smeed said. The 6.8% increase in a year already reflects those efforts.While part-time instructors bring their own value and experience to the classroom, their availability for additional discussions with students may vary. Adding more full-time faculty will ensure students have opportunities to interact with their professors outside the classroom. “[Having part-time instructors] does make it difficult for students to actually come and connect with a part-time faculty member,” said Roger Hale, faculty senate president and professor of music.The continuity for the university is important as it affects the faculty and the students. Hale said a full-time faculty member is usually connected with the department chair and their full-time colleagues just a little bit better than the part-timers. This is because part-time instructors only come for an hour or two at a time, and that could even just be for a night class. To combat the problem currently, full-time faculty might take on an overload, teaching more classes than their contracts require. This can happen when there are not enough instructors to cover the courses. Taking on these additional classes helps students but can leave faculty with less time to prepare lessons and support students. This can also contribute to burnout among faculty.“A full-time faculty member that maxes out over what their contract is, is basically taking the role of what a part-time faculty member would be doing,” Hale said. There are currently 281 full-time faculty members and 314 part-time instructors at the university, Hale said. Increasing the number of full-time faculty could provide students with more opportunities to build relationships with their instructors.“If [full-time faculty are] here with benefits, they’re going to stick around longer,” Hale said. “Part-time faculty, it’s a little more difficult to keep them around, you know, because it’s just basically a part-time job.”Even though the part-time instructor numbers are high, the retention rate and reliability are not. “It’s just a lot more reliable to have somebody that can come and have the full benefit package and live here,” Hale said. Administrators recognize the need to add more full-time faculty and have developed a three-year plan to do so.Smeed said the school received $500,000 in ongoing funds for full-time faculty from the Utah State Legislature during the 2026 General Session. This is a part of the Strategic Reinvestment Plan that they created as part of House Bill 265.“The request we’ll be making in the 2027 General Session of the Utah State Legislature is for $800,000 for fiscal year 2028, which spans July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2028,” Smeed said.The combined $1.3 million will be used to fund 18 full-time faculty positions, Smeed said. There have also been other ideas on how to increase full-time faculty from the Faculty Senate.“You take several part-time faculty, if you can convert those into full-time lines, it would make it so you’re not using more money,” Hale said. Utah Tech’s plan is to keep increasing full-time faculty numbers while also keeping part-time instructors.Utah Tech offers classes such as EMT, theater and biotechnology that are very specific and require real hands-on experience. Part-time instructors are able to give that because of their own experiences, Provost Michelle Sabick said.“There are certain skill sets that they can bring into the classroom that sometimes full-time faculty aren’t able to do in the same way,” Sabick said.Smeed said the top priority is ensuring that any changes to faculty staffing support course availability, appropriate class sizes and the quality of instruction.“We’re striving for continuity and quality in the classroom, kind of regardless of who’s delivering the content,” Sabick said. “And part of the continuity is by having people that have experience teaching and they come back and teach over and over, whether they’re part-time or full-time.”“We will take a strategic, sustained approach to faculty staffing,” Smeed said. “Monitoring student completion rates will be the best way to measure success.”</div></body>

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Utah Tech University is working to add full-time faculty to help create greater opportunities for students to receive mentorship and engage more deeply with their coursework, President Shane Smeed said. Numbers for full-time faculty teaching courses at Utah Tech were the lowest in the state last year at 40%, Smeed...

Utah Tech Works to Increase Full-Time Faculty

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Utah Tech University is working to add full-time faculty to help create greater opportunities for students to receive mentorship and engage more deeply wit

Utah Tech Works to Increase Full-Time Faculty

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