California State University campuses have reduced the number of lecturers they employ by 18 percent since a year ago, the system's faculty union reported on Thursday.
The decrease of 2,270 lecturers from May 2009 to this month reflects efforts by the system's 23 campuses to compensate for large cuts in state support by cutting the more-temporary lecture positions. By contrast, the number of tenured faculty fell by less than 2 percent.
The three campuses with the largest percentage declines in lecturer positions, according to the California Faculty Association, were East Bay, 36 percent; Stanislaus, 29 percent; and Sacramento, 25 percent.
A spokesman for Cal State said the union's numbers appeared to be fairly accurate. The spokesman, Erik Fallis, said that state budget cuts necessitated the loss of lecturers, and that the system would be dedicating $76.5-million in federal stimulus money to support about 12,000 new courses this year.
Comments
1. physicsprof - May 21, 2010 at 09:01 am
Wasn't the falling ratio of tenure-track faculty to adjuncts always used as the indication of a wrong direction the higher education was heading? Ironically, that statistics is improving now.
2. chameleo - May 21, 2010 at 12:50 pm
If we get rid of all the lecturers and all-but-one of the TT faculty, then we will have a ratio of : infinity!
Beat that, Harvard!
3. categorical - May 23, 2010 at 12:11 pm
"Wasn't the falling ratio of tenure-track faculty to adjuncts always used as the indication of a wrong direction the higher education was heading? Ironically, that statistics is improving now."
And purely ironic it is. The situation only improves when more tenure-line jobs are created. Somebody has to teach the extra 12,000 new courses.