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“Just a couple of facts [to] make [this] abundantly
clear. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics,
between 2001 and 2003 only 54 percent of the faculty hired were
appointed to full-time positions, and 35 percent of all full-time
appointees were not in tenured or tenure-track positions.”
As college teachers, most of us know that the profession is
changing, but we aren’t always as up on the details as we should be. The
changes occurring today have implications for everyone who teaches. Just
a couple of facts make that abundantly clear. According to the National
Center for Educational Statistics, between 2001 and 2003 only 54 percent
of the faculty hired were appointed to full-time positions, and 35
percent of all full-time appointees were not in tenured or tenure-track
positions.
A very well-documented recent book (reference below) highlights these
changes by describing three different kinds of faculty appointments.
What these appointments are called at the local institution does vary a
great deal, but virtually all colleges and universities employ faculty
who teach in each of these categories.
The first and easiest to understand is the traditional tenure-track
appointment. Because there has been such an influx of new faculty
entering higher education (primarily as retirement replacements), new
tenure-track appointees have been surveyed and interviewed at length.
Much is known about their experiences as beginners in the academic
community. Taken together, research indicates that new tenure-track
appointees are concerned about three aspects of their jobs: 1) the lack
of comprehensive, clear and rational guidelines and procedures for the
tenure process, 2) their sense of a lack of community at their
institutions and among their colleagues, and 3) the difficulty of
balancing the demands of their personal and professional lives. A
significant number of new faculty are not finding these traditional
appointments as attractive as former faculty did.
In 1978, 58 percent of all faculty were in tenure-track positions. Now,
32 percent of all full-time faculty have contract-renewable appointments
and 46 percent of all faculty members teach part-time. These full-time
non-tenure-track positions increased by 88 percent between 1975 and
1998. Institutions use these more flexible positions in a variety of
ways. In some fields and professional programs they are used to hire
experts who have lots of experience but may not have the academic
qualifications for a tenure-track position. Some institutions have
responded to concerns about the number of part-time teachers by
converting formerly part-time positions into full-time jobs.
For some professionals, this kind of appointment represents a viable
career alternative. However, the ways that faculty are treated in these
positions depends very much on the institution. In most places, salaries
are lower than for those holding tenure-track appointments and teaching
loads are heavier. But at some institutions, these positions are
permanent (with multi-year contracts), promotions are possible, and full
fringe benefits accompany the positions. Faculty holding these positions
may have voting privileges and be eligible for professional development
opportunities. In other places, faculty in these positions are
marginalized by both the institution and their faculty colleagues.
Finally, institutions appoint some faculty to fixed-term positions. Here
the work is mostly part-time, for a specific time period, like a
semester or year, and these contracts come with no guarantee of renewal.
The percentage of faculty in these positions depends both on the type of
institution and the academic discipline. Thirty-seven percent of faculty
with fixed-term contracts teach only one course, although 16 percent
teach more than three classes. Most receive less than $3,000 per course
and no benefits for their teaching services. Most teach with virtually
no institutional support. There is little or no office space, equipment,
or support services available to them. There are few professional
development opportunities provided. Seventy-one percent of part-timers
do have jobs outside academe, and their college teaching, on average,
provides about 27 percent of their total income.
Our goal here is to provide information. Clearly, there are political
issues relevant to each type of appointment. But regardless of your
position and view of other kinds of appointments, it is wise to have the
larger picture and to understand (especially for those of us who’ve been
around awhile) that faculty appointments are not all the same, not equal
and not like they used to be.
Editor’s note: The book below is a great reference on the changing
nature of faculty work. It covers all aspects of academic work (not just
the part of our jobs that relates to teaching) and ends with a
compelling list of recommendations for coping with these many and
significant changes. Reference: Gappa, J. M., Austin, A. E., and Trice,
A. G. Rethinking Faculty Work: Higher Education’s Strategic Imperative.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. |
