The University of La Verne is a prestigious private college known for its small class sizes and low student-professor ratio. La Verne prides itself on the relationships professors form with their students and the one-on-one time that students receive.

But what if those professors aren’t around all the time? ULV, along with several other colleges, has been hiring an increasing number of part-time faculty to teach. We are unsure if this is based on budgetary considerations, if it is just a coincidence.

Whenever students have questions or concerns, it is comforting to know that their professor can be reached in their office during certain hours.

But what about those professors who cannot? How do we contact them?

Sure we can send an e-mail or pick up the phone, but these part-time professors do in fact may have other jobs, families and priorities that they must tend to and do not always respond in time.

Sometimes we can ask our fellow students or other professors for help but that does not always help. It is not the part-time professor’s fault and we do not blame them for having a life, but what else are we expected to do when we need help?

We all have hectic schedules consisting of school, work and internships and it would be nice to know that we can count on our professors to be there for us when we need them. Why can’t we have full-time professors with regular office schedules?

Is it that difficult to find someone willing to work five days or less a week or is it just too expensive?

Whatever the case may be, we feel that the students should be taken into consideration when it comes to hiring part-time professors.

The departments themselves are also affected due to the multiple part-time professors employed. Not only do they lack communication but they also often lack organization and a common goal.

What’s more, other positions not filled within the University cause a strain to the school’s effectiveness.

When staff positions are left vacant for long periods of time, others are forced to pick up the slack and results in these workers doing double the work for the same amount of pay. These positions should be filled in a timely manner so that the departments do not lose their momentum.

These vacant staff positions strain communication between students and the departments. Students who want to know more information from departments must be able to find help. These divisions and other offices have a hard time giving answers whenever there is a missing staff member.

Management needs to be more efficient in the form of seeing the need for more full-time faculty and better staffed departments.

A university cannot run without a full staff and a sufficient amount of faculty members. Straining staff members when there is a shortage is not the best way of saving a buck – if that is the reasoning behind leaving vacancies open for long periods of time.

Let’s keep the University running to the best of its ability by having a happy and complete staff. This will keep communication flowing easily and evenly distribute the workload.