NYU is frequently criticized for its hiring of adjunct teaching staff over
full-time tenure track professors. The university has significantly fewer full-time staff than other universities of the same
size. Adjuncts are preferred over full-time teaching staff because of the lower cost, and the fact that the university does not
have to provide them benefits. The threat of a strike by the adjunct professors in the spring of 2004 resulted in a tentative
agreement offering adjuncts some benefits and wage increases over a multi-year period.As a result of the large adjunct-to-tenure-track staff ratio at NYU, research is not a serious priority in many schools at the
university.