Much has been written on tenure status among librarians due to the unique work responsibilities they have in comparison to other faculty across campus. This study explores one facet of work often unique to tenure-track librarians--long-term or permanent management responsibilities. In addition to gathering descriptive data about what type of…

Gendered bias in peer-review and other forms of assessments is a well-studied area. But how do researchers actually execute their positions of power in recruitment processes? In Sweden, recruitment for academic tenure and the reviewers' reports are public and thus open for scrutiny. This study uses both bibliographic coupling and close reading of…

For-profit, post-secondary institutions significantly increased in numbers within the last two decades. In the United States, many for-profit colleges and universities offer distance-learning-based and self-paced-based academic and vocational programs from certificate to doctoral degree level to non-traditional, returning, evening and adult…

Guided by Honig and Hatch's (2004) conceptualization of bridging and buffering, we undertook an analysis of reduction in force (RIF) provisions from 546 Ohio teacher collective bargaining agreements. We asked the following question: Are the most disadvantaged school districts providing greater protections to tenured teachers when making RIF…

As part of the promotion and tenure process, colleges and universities have primarily evaluated faculty members on three key functional areas: research, teaching, and service. In this article, we examine how the use of collegiality as a possible fourth criterion for faculty evaluation affects faculty power dynamics, how U.S. courts have addressed…

In recent decades, the employment model in higher education has markedly changed. Tenure-track faculty now represent just about 30 percent of the instructional faculty across all non-profit institutions. Meanwhile, most faculty members who provide instruction at colleges and universities today are non-tenure-track faculty, the majority of them…

In May, we noted that the percentage of women among physics faculty members reached 14% in 2010. The 14% is a new high--the continuation of a trend seen since we began measuring these data in 1998 when it was 8%. This growth in women's representation is seen at all levels of the professoriate--from instructors through full professors. In…

The author reports on the academic job market that is showing signs of turning around after a multiyear slump. Job-outlook data released by professional associations in recent months show an uptick in the number of jobs available in several fields, including history, the humanities and foreign languages, sociology, geography, and political…

Over the past few years a troubling pattern has emerged, one that might be termed the trivialization of the Master of Library Science (MLS). As a result of several factors, not least the closing of library schools, low rates of pay for librarians, and high costs of living in many parts of the country, some college libraries have found it difficult…

Billy Gillispie, like many college basketball coaches, was hired--and fired--in a hurry. But the contract negotiations that dragged on for nearly two years while he coached the University of Kentucky's men's basketball team showed little of the same urgency that defined his entrance and exit. Mr. Gillispie worked for Kentucky under a memorandum of…

Management experts have observed that employment relationship has become contractual, fragile, and short-lived. Downsizings have resulted in some people having far too much work and stress, while increasing numbers have no work at all. As a result, people are taking jobs they do not really want and staying longer in jobs they do not really like.…

The use of contingent faculty in higher education in the United States has grown tremendously over the past three decades. In 1975, only 30.2 percent of faculty were employed part time; by 2005, according to data compiled by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS),…

Forms of insecure employment have been increasing all over Europe in recent decades. These developments have been welcomed by those who argued that these types of flexible employment would not only foster employment but could also help women, in particular, to positively combine work and family life. This vision was questioned by others who argued…

Using a reduced form version of a theoretical expansion of Hoxby's (1996) education production model, we investigate whether bargaining teachers unions are a boon or a bust to the economy of the state. We anticipate teachers, being in the public sector veiled from competition, are less likely to be efficient. Yet, their product, education,…

The effects of reliance on part-time faculty in higher education have been much discussed of late. Most observers now agree that the increasing reliance on contingent academic labor has worrisome consequences for both students and faculty. The authors recently attempted to provide needed analysis of what drives the current reliance on part-time…