Adjunct Faculty are all faculty whose employment is based on semester-by-semester pay, regardless of the number of hours that semester's employment entails.
This may include hourly instructors who are teaching a courseload comparable to that of a full-time salaried instructor. The distinction is that Adjunct Faculty are paid for teaching, prepping, and grading the courses they teach for the semester, and any service work performed is above and beyond the pay for their coursework and for which they are paid an hourly rate. While many Adjunct Faculty have made service contributions to NYFA, they may be practitioners in their field first and teachers second.
Adjunct Faculty are paid for specific classes and duties for a given semester and will need to report their work hours each week unless their pay level for this contract makes them exempt for the semester (see below).
Salaried Faculty are faculty who are paid a set salary. These are faculty who have committed to NYFA to make employment here their primary employment. While they continue to create artistically, they are teachers first, and have committed to a certain number of hours of teaching
per semester. They are required to do service work for the institution each semester, and each week.
Salaried Faculty have a salary that is based on a certain number of class hours taught per semester. For most, that number is 270 hours across a 15-week semester. This averages 18 hours of teaching per week, although scheduling may create weeks with more than 18, which would be offset by weeks with fewer.
Salaried Faculty’s salary is calculated to include the prep and grading for those courses. That prep and grading ranges from 90 to 180 hours per semester, depending on the nature of the classes involved, which averages 6 to 12 hours per week across a 15 week semester. If a Salaried Faculty member’s teaching load is high one week, they will often save much of their grading and prep for a week where it is low, so these two categories are often used to balance one another in an uneven schedule.
Salaried Faculty will be required to do 3 hours per week of Office Hours. These should be scheduled at times when their students are not in other classes. These can be done on campus or via Zoom, and should be listed on class syllabi or, in the case of an unevenly distributed teaching load where office hours may vary week to week, available for students and updated. This would be a time where the teacher can be found at a desk or keeps a Zoom Meeting Room open, and is available to meet with students who stop by or who schedule time with them. When no one has stopped by, Faculty can be doing anything else that demands their time, but once someone stops by, that student becomes their focus.
In addition to Teaching, Prep & Grading, and Office Hours, Salaried Faculty are expected to do Service to the Institution. This can be service to their department, to NYFA, and to the NYFA community through clubs. This should average 10 hours per week, and by default at least half of that should be to the Faculty’s home department - although different balances may be agreed upon between the Chair and the individual member of the Faculty. Teachers with higher prep loads than 9 hours per week are expected to do fewer than 10 hours of service per week.
Salaried Faculty Requirements
Teaching: 270 hours per semester, averaging 18 hours per week
Prep & Grading: Varies based on types of classes, between 6-12 hours per week
Office Hours: 3 hours per week
Service: 10 hours per week, lower if prep level is above 9 hours per week
For distinctions between salaried, hourly or contract employees on the Los Angeles Campus please click here.
For distinctions between salaried, hourly or contract employees on the New York Campus please click here.
For distinctions between salaried, hourly or contract employees on the Miami Campus please click here.
Employees who are “Exempt” are Overtime Exempt. This means that they do not need to report their specific hours or get pre-approval on Overtime if they need to work overtime in a given day or week. This includes most Salaried Faculty, but also may include Adjunct Faculty in a specific semester depending on their workload.
NYFA understands the commitment it asks from faculty during the semester and the value they bring to students in the classroom. To balance work and personal life, Salaried Faculty will have paid recess between semesters. This means faculty will be relieved from having to be available to come on to campus during these periods. This time will be for faculty to unwind, travel, be with their family, or move forward with their social/spiritual causes.
In anticipation of the upcoming semester, faculty can use the week in between the terms to complete their grades (still within 72 hours) and prepare for the next semester remotely.
The current schedule creates up to 7 weeks of break weeks between semesters as paid recess time. While no on-campus work will be required during these weeks, teachers may need to use some of this time to complete grading, preparation, or other non-teaching work related to the classes they teach.
Because this recess system will guarantee instructors up to 7 weeks of time away from school, full time salaried faculty do not accrue additional vacation time. Already accrued vacation days (accrued prior to the Fall 2021 implementation of this system) will still be available for faculty to use or will be paid out at the end of the instructor's employment.
However, NYFA understands that on rare occasions Salaried Faculty might need to take time off during the semester for personal reasons. To accommodate that, NYFA grants 5 paid personal days each year in addition to the built-in weeks of recess time. These personal days will reset each calendar year and are not paid out at the end of an instructor's employment.
Salaried Faculty accrue 4 sick days each year as well. These sick days reset at the beginning of each calendar year. Sick days are not paid out at the end of an instructor's employment.
With regards to sick days and paid personal days, please keep in mind that existing policies about faculty subs remain in place. This is important to make sure they have enough classes to maintain their full-time status.