About 2,300 part-time instructors at New York University would receive pay raises, and, for the first time, health benefits, pension contributions, and some job security under their tentative first contract with the university.

Details of the contract, which was approved by negotiators for the university and the adjunct instructors' union last month, were made public last week. Union leaders have scheduled informational meetings on the contract for this week and have urged members to ratify the six-year pact, which would become effective in September.

The agreement between the adjuncts' union -- Local 7902 of the United Auto Workers -- and the university ended more than a year and a half of bargaining and narrowly averted a walkout by adjunct faculty members (The Chronicle, April 30).

The pay and benefits outlined in the contract will help the institution attract some of the top part-time instructors, a university spokesman said on Sunday. Union officials could not be reached for comment.

According to a summary of the contract on the union's Web site, the pay scale would vary for different types of adjunct instructors. In the first year, part-time instructors teaching lecture courses would earn at least $90 for each hour of class time. Adjuncts earning $75 or more per hour would get a pay increase of $15 per hour.

Part-time instructors who teach studio courses would get a minimum of $65 per hour, and those providing individual instruction would get $55 per hour. Adjuncts in noncredit courses would get $50 per hour. The pay scales would increase in each year of the contract.

Adjuncts who have taught for six consecutive semesters, not including summer terms, would be informed in May what courses they would teach the following academic year. NYU could change teaching assignments for those adjuncts only if enrollment was low, a class was canceled, or the curriculum was changed. Those instructors would receive severance pay if their contracts were not renewed for any other reason, and they could appeal nonrenewals.

The new health benefits, which would apply to all adjuncts, would be based on hours of teaching. The university would pay half the cost of individual health coverage for adjuncts who taught at least 84 hours in a school year or at least 150 hours of individual instruction, not counting summer terms. NYU would pay three-quarters of the cost for adjuncts who taught 126 hours per year or 225 individual-instruction hours. Family members would also be eligible for health coverage.

Starting in 2008, NYU would contribute 5 percent of an adjunct's salary to a pension fund for instructors who have taught for two or more years.

John Beckman, the university's spokesman, said on Sunday that NYU had given more than what other institutions provide for adjunct faculty members.

"From our standpoint, both sides should and do feel positive about this contract," Mr. Beckman said. "Our initial offer was already considerably above the prevailing wage for unionized part-time faculty, and the final negotiation is above that."

The final contract will help NYU attract the best and brightest adjunct faculty members with real-world experience, Mr. Beckman said. "Being in New York City, we're very lucky for being able to attract part-time faculty who are at the very top of their profession," he said. "This is a generous contract, but that was a conscious decision on our part."