Eight months after forming a union, adjunct professors at New Jersey Institute of Technology have negotiated higher pay and an internal path to potentially becoming full-time professors.

The new contract, approved this week by union membership, includes raising the current $1,300 per credit minimum pay to $1,500. Compensation will rise to a minimum of $1,550 per credit in the fall, a nearly 20 percent raise and $750 increase for teaching a three-credit course.

The raises comes as adjuncts, also known as part-time professors or lectures, nationwide are fighting to improve low pay, meager benefits and little job security at major universities.

"This is historic," said Jeff Reaves, an adjunct professor of engineering at NJIT in Newark. "For the first time NJIT adjunct faculty have the same protections as many of the rest of our NJIT fellow workers."

The plight of part-time professors

The deal makes NJIT's adjunct professors the second-highest paid in the state behind those at Rutgers University, according to the union.

In addition to the raises, the two-year contract creates an internal process for adjuncts to apply for full-time lecturer positions, establishes a grievance process and starts a professional development fund to reimburse expenses for adjunct faculty who travel and attend conferences or seminars.

"Our adjunct faculty contribute greatly to the strength of our academic programs and to the student experience at NJIT," the university said in a statement. "We are very pleased to have reached an agreement."

Adjuncts professors used to be considered stop-gaps when colleges were short on teachers or courses were overcrowded. But the number of adjuncts at colleges and universities has risen in recent decades as administrators looked to save money by eliminating higher-paid, full-time professor positions.

With little-to-no job security, adjuncts on many campuses have struggled to unionize even as as stories of part-time professors living in poverty have made headlines.

NJIT's new 340-member bargaining unit formed in May as part of the Rutgers American Association of University Professors - American Federation of Teachers, which represents faculty at Rutgers.

"The adjunct workforce at NJIT has been waiting a long time to have their voices heard by the administration," Crystal Hamai, an NJIT adjunct professor, said at the time.

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.