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November 21, 2007, 01:34 PM ET
Tenure-Track Professors: An Endangered Species?
According to federal figures analyzed by the American Association of University Professors, tenured and tenure-track professors may soon become an endangered species on college and university campuses in the United States, The New York Times reports.
The reporter, Alan Finder, notes that …
Three decades ago, adjuncts — both part-timers and full-timers not on a tenure track — represented only 43 percent of professors, according to the professors association, which has studied data reported to the federal Education Department. Currently, the association says, they account for nearly 70 percent of professors at colleges and universities, both public and private.
The reasons? Budget cutbacks, “administrators’ desire for more flexibility in hiring, firing and changing course offerings, and the growth of community colleges and regional public universities focused on teaching basics and preparing students for jobs,” Finder writes.
The trend is setting off alarm bells about educational quality across the academic community. Finder notes that studies by Ronald G. Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, have found that public universities that employ a lot of adjunct faculty members have lower graduation rates.
The good news is that some universities are taking steps to counter the trend, he writes:
Rutgers University agreed in a labor settlement in August to add 100 tenure or tenure-track positions. Across the country, faculty unions are organizing part-timers. And the American Federation of Teachers is pushing legislation in 11 states to mandate that 75 percent of classes be taught by tenured or tenure-track teachers.
Boston University, The City University of New York, The University of Kentucky and The University of Michigan have also announced plans to up their tenure-track faculty ranks.
Categories: Faculty-hiring
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