Aug 09, 2013 02:03 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

As universities lean increasingly on adjunct professors to save money and benefits, Obamacare could soon apply restrictions to it, the Huffington Post reported.

Under the President's health care system, part-time faculty members would be limited to 30 hours per week before being entitled to health insurance benefits from the school. Only about one-quarter of colleges and universities have adopted such a plan.

These results come from a survey done by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. However, several colleges have added restrictions to the amount of hours a part-time faculty member can work, to go into effect this fall.

"We were kind of happy that there was this moratorium imposed," said Maria Maisto, president of the adjunct advocacy group New Faculty Majority (NFM), "but it's only going to be useful if the colleges engage with adjunct faculty and talk to them and understand the nature of adjunct faculty work."

Most adjunct professors work without benefits and average $2,900 per course, about one-fourth the amount the average tenured professor would make, according to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

According to the Chronicle for Higher Education, it is not particularly easy to calculate how many hours each adjunct professor works per week. Since the pay rate is per course and hourly, it is not possible to determine how much time outside the course an adjunct devotes to the school. However, about half the schools surveyed said they did not plan to change their use of adjunct faculty.

Most schools that use adjunct professors are public institutions, which are often underfunded to begin with. Some of those colleges are impatiently waiting for advice from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on how to handle adjunct hours.

Maisto said this is no excuse because "one of the responsibilities is for [college] leaders to make the case to legislators for funding higher education."

For example, the University of Akron has not made a decision on changing its adjunct policy and is waiting for advice from the IRS. Of the school's teaching faculty, 56 percent are adjuncts. By their own calculations, they would spend about $4 million covering about 400 of these instructors.

Although adjunct professors do not have a formal union or tenures to protect their employment, groups like SEIU and NFM are stepping up as mouthpieces.

Maisto said it is important for her group and for others to be persistent because "we don't have any illusion they'll do it without any pushing."

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