We may still be two weeks out from the beginning of spring-semester classes at KU, but we’re back to full time now at Heard on the Hill. Things were a bit hit-or-miss the past few weeks, but now it’s back to regularly scheduled programming.

First up: At colleges across the country, more and more courses are being taught by adjunct faculty, or instructors who aren’t on the tenure track. In November the Chronicle of Higher Education reported about 70 percent of faculty across the country are adjuncts (at four-year institutions specifically, the number was 64 percent).

So amidst that trend, the Chronicle has launched what it calls the “Adjunct Project,” an effort to collect information on the pay and working conditions of non-tenure-track faculty. It was started about a year ago by an instructor in Georgia, and now the Chronicle is aiming to increase participation.

Such information can be tough to come by for people looking for adjunct jobs, the Chronicle reports.

It could provide a glimpse of where KU ranks among other universities in its pay to adjuncts — except right now, it looks like only one KU instructor, in the sociology department, has submitted his or her information. For what it’s worth, that person is apparently paid more than the average adjunct instructor in sociology, but I think we’d need a sample size quite a bit larger to draw any meaningful conclusions.

But if you’re a KU instructor interested in adding to the data, the Adjunct Project site makes it pretty easy to do so. Do that, and perhaps in time we can report back with some information that means something.

If you’re not an adjunct instructor but you’re still in the information-sharing mood, have I got an idea for you: Submit a KU news tip to merickson@ljworld.com.