Engineering and construction students aren’t having to wait until their first job to have a one-on-one relationship with an industry practitioner. More practitioners are coming to them–in class. As budgets tighten, research burdens mount and teaching gaps emerge in often specialized subjects, more industry experts are going back to school as part-time "adjunct" professors. But some schools find that greatness in the field or boardroom does not always mean finesse in the classroom.

There are no overall statistics on the number of adjuncts teaching at the college level, but they are becoming more necessary. "Our enrollment has doubled in the last two years, to 400 undergraduate students and 67 grads, but the state cut our budget 5% last year and 10% this year," says Janusz Supernak, chairman of San Diego State University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept. "We can still encourage research and teach courses while generating some money at the department level through part-time teachers." Visa problems for foreign grad students also add to teaching gaps at some schools.