Valid and Invalid Combinations of Roles for Adjuncts (Per-Course Instructors)
The major IU policy source on 'invalid job combinations' is this document. This resource details the WHAT and, for the curious, the WHY.
"Adjunct" here means someone who is hired to teach a particular course. They are usually the "instructor of record."
What
Who can be an adjunct: (everyone needs to have a graduate degree with at least 18 credit hours in the topic being taught.)
- An IU salaried employee. 1-3 credits should be approved by their staff supervisor; 4-6 credits also need approval by OAA.
- An IU full time faculty member. They should notify chairs about 1-3 credits; 4-6 credits also need approval by OAA.
- A non-IU employee (not an employee in any capacity). Total credit hours across ALL IU campuses is 9 credits per fall or spring term and 6 credits per (entire) summer term.
There is no such thing as an 'overload' for adjuncts. If a school wishes to hire someone for 12 credits, they can hire the person as a visiting lecturer (full time, with benefits).
- Someone who is an adjunct for another university such as Ivy Tech, Purdue, or Butler, can be hired for up to 9 credit hours at IU campuses.
- Someone who is a full-time faculty member at another university may have ethical issues with their home university if they teach for IU during the regular academic year.
- A graduate student who has an SAA / AC3 appointment--they teach as part of their AC3 role--they do not become an AC2. If qualified, they may teach up to 9 credit hours (27 standard hours; they need permission from OAA for their combination of 'hourly' (non-teaching) work and teaching to be 21-30 hours per week.).
Graduate SAAs are the ONLY IU people who may do both 'hourly' and teaching work.
- SAAs can ALSO be hourly workers, outside of their SAA appointment. Because they already receive insurance, they are not limited (in aggregate) to 30 hours per week.
- Caution! During summer, some units will 'term' the SAA appointment and hire the same person as an AC2. This will terminate the SAA insurance!
Who cannot be an adjunct:
- An IU hourly employee, either full or part time.
- Someone who has an H1B visa based on some organization OTHER THAN IU, e.g. Regenstrief or Lilly. Work authorization is employer-specific.
- Any IU faculty or salaried staff, for more than 6 credit hours per semester (except under VERY unusual and critical circumstances.)
- Someone who does something other than teaching. A paid adjunct (AC2) position cannot be used for research or administrative tasks.
Why
The rules over who can and cannot be an adjunct are mainly based on federal rules regarding salaried or hourly employees (exemption from overtime), on health insurance eligibility, and on immigration/work eligibility. Therefore, most rules cannot be waived.
FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) rules mandate a minimum hourly wage, and also a minimum salary for 'exempt' (non-hourly) employees. There is a special exemption to the salary requirement for 'teaching' (and another for 'medicine' and they mean specifically doctors.). There is NO special exemption for research or administrative work. Therefore, AC2 status cannot be used for non-teaching work.
Affordable Care Act (ACA) rules say that anyone who works 30 or more hours a week must receive health insurance. This means that AC2 work for IU cannot total more than 29 hours (1 credit = 3 'standard hours' for this calculation, therefore, 9 credit hours or less). SAAs/AC3s already receive health insurance, so they can work more than 30 hours when combining an AC3/SAA appointment with other hourly work.
What Can / Can't They Do?
An adjunct can also work as an ACNP (academic no pay) because one position is paid (adjunct) while the other is not (ACNP). An ACNP can be combined with any job. Example: A school wants to hire an ACNP as an adjunct (title). It is okay to do that because the ACNP is unpaid and the adjunct position is just the title they are using. It's not two separate jobs. If there were two separate jobs, then it would be an invalid job combination.
AC1 faculty can serve as adjuncts, they just cannot be hired as adjunct on top of their AC1 appointment. To do this, use the Create Additional Pay eDoc to pay as an overload and state the adjunct title/code in the admin post section.
Adjuncts cannot serve on search committees because they can't be paid for service (only teaching).
Adjuncts cannot be hired to do administrative work because they can only be paid to teach.
Special caution: Even if qualified, no one who is enrolled at IU should teach other students in their own program. This introduces conflicts of interest and privacy concerns.
Created 8/25/2022; reviewed and revised 2/2026. Questions regarding visa issues, contact OIA; regarding work/position status (e.g. does the person have another IU job?) contact the school HRBP; possible solutions with co-teaching or teaching-supporting work, contact ude[dot]ui[at]rhdaca. If someone is potentially working for two units in incompatible positions, please work it out amongst the units according to student needs and criticality of the positions.