Despite California community college counseling faculty having unique roles on their campuses due to their faculty status and their proximity to students, there is a lack of research related to the experiences of counseling faculty and how they can be supported by local and statewide leaders to best meet the needs of the diverse student…

Last summer, the National Education Association (NEA) developed a New Business Item to explore retrenchment: "The NEA shall make a statistical study on the effect of significant faculty retrenchment at community colleges on future faculty cuts" (NBI 78, 2022). ASA Research (ASA) conducted exploratory research in an attempt to identify…

Adjunct faculty have become the new majority faculty on campuses across the country. There are two theories why adjunct faculty are so relied upon: cost or contingency. Some institutions may employ adjunct faculty for cost-savings reasons. In contrast, other institutions may depend on the contingent, temporary nature of the employment contracts to…

Since the 1970s, higher education has become increasingly reliant upon adjunct faculty to fill gaps in class instruction, but institutions tend to offer adjuncts subpar professional support as compared to their full-time counterparts. To ensure students' academic success, it is vital that adjuncts are provided resources, points of engagement that…

The hiring of faculty is at the heart of developing and maintaining programs, as well as the success and achievement of students, in all educational systems, and the California Community College System is no exception. While hiring practices may vary in terms of specifics in the 72 community college districts in California, basic principles and…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore higher education faculty and staff perspectives on sustainability initiatives within their respective institutions. Subjects of this study were faculty and staff members from three rural two year institutions of higher education in Arkansas. Data was gathered using an electronically delivered…

The nature of the American academic workforce has fundamentally shifted over the past several decades. Whereas full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty were once the norm, more than two-thirds of the professoriate in non-profit postsecondary education is now comprised of non-tenure-track faculty. New hires across all institutional types are now…

The American community college has posed, for a period of time, some distinctively unique concerns pertaining to legal issues. However, the most pressing legal issues facing community colleges now are those regarding personnel. The diversity of programs community colleges offer require that personnel (specifically faculty) come to the institution…

In today's job market, middle and high skills jobs--jobs that require some education and training beyond high school--comprise the majority of job openings and typically provide the best wages and opportunities for advancement. And almost every day, there is an article or news story discussing the "skills mismatch" phenomenon, the…

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. With a duration of eighteen months, this recession was almost double the length of the average post-World War II economic downturn. Although the worst recession since the Great Depression is now technically over, this analysis…

The US economic downturn has resulted in many professionals, job seekers, and high school graduates heading back to school to develop new skills, but fewer of these students can afford a conventional four-year college education today. Community and technical colleges typically charge tuition fees that are less than half of those at public…

The public higher education systems have received significant budget cuts in the 2009-10 fiscal year, with the University of California (UC) receiving $813 million less than in 2007-08, California State University (CSU) receiving $625 million less, and the community college system receiving $812 million less. It is important to understand the…

This report describes recent hiring and retirement patterns as well as tenure-related changes and actions taken by public and private not-for-profit postsecondary institutions that offered an associate's or higher degree in fall 2003 and participated in federal Title IV student aid programs. The 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty…

With the average age of faculty members exceeding 55, it is expected that "large numbers of community college faculty may retire at virtually the same time and in the near future" (Gahn & Twombly, 2001, p. 260). In the wake of their exodus, it is a reasonable assumption that community colleges will be faced with hiring many new full- and part-time…

This article discusses employment of part-time faculty at the community college level, including historical reasons for their current status, alternatives to this status, and specific steps to change it.