Not interested in teaching at a two-year college? You may want to reconsider. In a recent issue of The Chronicle, more than a third of the full-time faculty positions advertised were at two-year institutions.
Despite a sluggish economy, community colleges in many states are experiencing record growth in enrollment, as the unemployed and underemployed seek additional training and degrees. In response to this influx of students, a surprising number of two-year colleges are hiring new faculty members, even in the face of cuts in state budgets.
As someone who's spent a good deal of time on both sides of the hiring table -- I've landed tenure-track jobs at community colleges in four state systems and served on at least a dozen search committees during the past 15 years -- I'll be the first to point out that teaching in the community-college environment isn't for everyone. Let's face it, there are some significant drawbacks -- or what many academic job-seekers might perceive as drawbacks. I'll try to outline a few of the more obvious ones here and, in my next column, talk about why you may actually want to work at a community college.
The greatest downside is undoubtedly the teaching load, with its corresponding lack of time and money for research. Most two-year colleges require a five-five load -- meaning five courses each semester -- and in some states it's even higher. (At several Florida colleges, for instance, the load is six courses a term.) Faculty members are also expected to serve on committees, keep regular office hours, and advise students.
None of that means you can't do research; you just have to find time, much of which will be outside the regular 40-hour-plus work week. Nor will your scholarly efforts be entirely unappreciated. Nearly all two-year colleges expect faculty members to engage in some sort of professional-development activities, which for most means attending conferences or in-house workshops. For you, professional development could include publishing and presenting.
You should also know that money for travel is severely limited at most two-year colleges. Some institutions support faculty travel better than others, of course, but, generally speaking you'll be lucky if you're able to attend more than one or two conferences a year, and those will probably be small local or regional gatherings. Depending on the college, you may be able to get grant money to attend one major national or international conference a year, or at least one every two or three years.
On the bright side, some faculty members find that the two-year college environment, where there is little if any pressure to publish, affords them the opportunity to pursue research interests outside their narrow academic fields. I know of one medieval scholar, for example, who for several years has been actively presenting papers at pop-culture conferences. That sort of "branching out" might be frowned upon at a research institution, but at a community college, it's all professional development.
A second drawback, for some, may be the quality of the students. Since most two-year colleges have open-door policies -- or entrance requirements so low as to constitute de facto open-door policies -- often their students aren't as well prepared for higher education as those at more selective institutions.
That's not to say all community-college students are underprepared. I've taught at both four-year and two-year colleges, and my experience has been that an average student is an average student. It's also true that a growing number of two-year colleges have thriving honors programs, with students who would be competitive anywhere but choose to start at a community college for personal or financial reasons.
Still, the typical two-year college does have a substantial number of weak or poorly prepared students who couldn't get into their state or regional universities. And it probably has fewer of the really top-notch students who, for some professors, make teaching worthwhile. That just comes with the territory.
OK. So maybe you can put up with the lack of research time and support, and the fact that many of your students are likely to need a great deal of extra help. But what about the pay?
Again, the news here isn't exactly good -- but it's not terrible, either. Two-year college faculty members tend to make substantially less over their careers than colleagues at four-year colleges, especially those at major research universities. And you rarely find, at two-year colleges, the kind of huge pay differentials that allow four-years institutions to offer higher starting salaries to those in hot fields, such as science or business administration. (But that's only a drawback for people in those high-demand fields; the rest of us might see it as only fair.)
On the other hand, starting salaries for community-college professors are comparable to those at most four-year colleges, especially in the humanities and social sciences -- although the salary gap tends to widen over the years. And, in most state systems, professors at two-year colleges have the same health insurance, retirement plans, and other benefits as their counterparts at four-year campuses.
In the end, the factor that probably keeps more qualified applicants out of the community-college pool than any other is lack of prestige -- whether real or perceived. Perhaps you're thinking to yourself, "I went to graduate school because I wanted to be a professor. Some of these schools don't even have academic ranks."
True enough. Some two-year colleges don't have ranks, but, to be fair, many others do. The real question for you is, Even at a two-year college that does have ranks, are you actually going to feel like a "real" professor? Are colleagues from four-year institutions going to take you seriously, regard you as a peer? How about your family? Your neighbors? Will they be impressed that you teach at East Podunk State Community College?
The answer is, if you care that much about status, perhaps you should be looking elsewhere.
That's not to say there's no prestige at all at two-year colleges. In many areas, these institutions are the heart and soul of the community, the local center for the arts and sciences and anything else smacking of sophistication. College faculty members, by extension, are often regarded as the most knowledgeable people around in their respective fields. They can also become well respected within the two-year-college community, a vast network of institutions and scholars with its own set of journals, professional conferences, and other events.
The bottom line, though, is that a teaching career at a two-year college is primarily about just that -- teaching. Not prestige. Not grant acquisition. Not scholarship. Just teaching.
And that's not a drawback. It's the best thing about the job.
