Tenured and tenure-track faculty at the nation's colleges and universities are becoming increasingly rare, according to federal statistics interpreted by the American Association of University Professors.
The association reported that non-tenure-track positions make up about 70 percent of all faculty positions in the country and that about half of all faculty teach courses on a part-time basis.
Though the number of academic positions at the country's universities and colleges has more than doubled in the last 30 years - meaning that the number of tenure and tenure-track positions has grown - the infiltration of non-tenure-track faculty has sparked opposition from some and rallied others to give a voice to non-tenure-track faculty who sit at the bottom of the proverbial totem pole and say they are often treated accordingly.
The association, which researches the problems associated with increased reliance on contingent faculty, said that the dependency on part- and full-time, non-tenure-track positions may have negative consequences on higher education, including a decrease in academic freedom, academic quality and professional standards.
The association also points out that non-tenure-track faculty do not receive equal salary compensation and other support necessary to provide quality instruction.
UT President William Powers said the trend began decades ago and that a number of factors have contributed to its continuation. Included among them are the need for flexibility in hiring, the demand for teachers in non-research-based courses and, most importantly, an attempt to reduce expenses.
"Frankly, it's to try to deliver education at a reasonable cost," Powers said. "I think it's one of the ways we've kept costs down at major research universities."
Powers said it is important for the bulk of courses to be taught by tenured faculty but that hiring lecturers also provides more flexibility because 30 years after hiring a tenure-track professor, his or her field may not be as important or popular.
Lecturers are also good for courses that may not require a professor who does research, he said, adding that many lecturers at UT are involved in research, and adjunct professors who come in from their field to teach part-time are often effective in law school seminars and other focused upper-division courses.
"I think adjuncts add to the richness of what students can learn, especially in certain specialized advanced courses in their field," Powers said.
"In journalism, they may want someone who doesn't do research but can teach certain kinds of practical journalism kinds of courses," he said. "They are important courses, but they don't fit into a research agenda."
In fall 2006, about 50 percent of UT's teaching faculty were tenured, 17 percent on tenure-track and 32 percent on non-tenure- track, according to the Office of Information Management and Analysis. Non-tenure track includes adjunct professors who often hold other jobs and teach specialized seminars and have one-year contracts, and lecturers who teach full-time and also typically have one-year contracts.
Powers said he does not see the numbers of tenured and non-tenure-track at UT to be "unhealthy" but that it is something to which the University plays close attention. UT has an excellent population of lecturer and adjunct professors, Powers said, and, in many cases, lecturers are some of the most popular faculty among students.
Compared to smaller colleges and universities, UT has a higher rate of tenured professors, who still make up 50 percent of the teaching faculty.
A long-time lecturer who declined to give his name or specifics of his position due to fear of retribution or losing his job said that non-tenure-track faculty receive one-third to one-fourth the salary of tenured faculty and are often denied a voice in faculty meetings and committees.
"It's as if we are second-class citizens," he said.
Faculty Council Chair Doug Burger said that tenured and non-tenured faculty teaching in the same units creates a tiered system and that he sees unfairness in the way academic departments are run.
"The governance of departments are vested in the tenure-track faculty," Burger said. "I don't think it's a healthy situation when three-fourths of the people in the department are doing almost all the teaching - the lecturers - and yet the governance of the department and control of the curriculum is controlled by one-fourth of the
department."
A majority of broadcast journalism courses are taught by lecturers or adjunct professors. Broadcast journalism senior Frances Sanchez said that having professors with current experience in the industry is better than a professor who has been out of the field and has not seen the changes in technology and the way people use the
media.
"A tenured professor who has been at the University for a long period of time may not be able to witness the change in the industry firsthand because they're not in the field anymore," Sanchez said. "Adjunct professors are teaching the class as they're witnessing the changes. If you have a prof who learned one set of skills and they haven't been a journalist for five or 10 years, they've missed out on a lot of that. If you have an adjunct professor, they have a fresher mind in terms of what's needed right now."
Be the first to comment on this article!