This article presents the outcomes from a case at Marquette University (USA), brought by seven Ph.D. adjuncts who had completed their doctoral programs and were currently teaching part-time as they sought full-time positions elsewhere. The case identified a disparity that is happening at many U.S. colleges and universities that increasing rely…

As anyone who has ever defended a thesis or been on a tenure track must know, American institutions of higher education have rigorous and finely calibrated ways of according respect to those who work in them. What they do not have enough of is respect from those beyond their gates. The author argues that the system that created the two-tiered…

Non-tenure-track (NTT) research faculty are perhaps the most under-recognized group of academic professionals on the campuses today, despite their increasingly important role within the expanding academic research enterprise. The American Association for the Advancement of Science reports that the amount of federal spending on R&D has more than…

While study abroad is increasingly popular among students in the United States (IIE 2007), tenure track faculty involvement with these programs has not kept up with demand. University and college-run programs often struggle to find sufficient numbers of tenure track faculty, especially junior faculty, to staff their programs. While older faculty…

The year 2007 marks forty years of indentured servitude on the part of parttime faculty teaching in the California Community College system. Approximately forty thousand dedicated, highly trained, and motivated teachers work alongside twelve thousand tenured full-time faculty. Sadly, for all their efforts, part-time faculty members receive little…

The work of individual professors and members of the "faculty" requires a high degree of autonomy. This professional independence that educators enjoy individually through academic freedom and collectively through peer review and shared governance arises from a social contract, a tacit agreement with the public about the contribution of…

Almost thirty years ago, Justice William Brennan saw clearly that American higher education was coming under the same pressures to "cut costs and increase efficiencies" to which market forces were subjecting businesses. Since Justice Brennan's observation, employers generally have sought to maximize their "flexibility' by creating a…

For decades it has been happening everywhere in academe, but nowhere in particular. The sweeping shift toward non-tenure-track academic labor has been one of the most worried-over trends in American higher education. But it has been charted mostly with broad-brush data, which give little indication of the trend's progress at the institutional…

The concept of tenure is an integral part of the employment relationship between institutions of higher education and individual faculty members (Mawdsley, 1999). Promotion and tenure decisions are often difficult and always have important long-term consequences for both the candidate and the institution (Rhoades-Catanach & Stout, 2000). Mentoring…

Faculty members who work directly to advance the institutional mission of teaching, learning, and at some institutions, research, represent the core human resource of higher education. They are the stewards of campus leadership and decision making. While the faculty role has changed over time, leadership has remained critical to innovation in…

Describes how, in order to survive, Mitchell College in Connecticut adopted a contract system for all new and tenure-track professors. (EV)

This study relates information regarding the role part-time faculty members fill in colleges and universities. Data are from the U.S. Department of Education's National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty, 1999. In that year, 2 of every 5 faculty members taught on a part-time basis, and they taught nearly 40% of all classes and students that were…

To facilitate the success of beginning nursing faculty, a self-governing support group was formed to share information and experiences and conduct scholarly projects. Emotional and instrumental support and tenure-related activities helped reduce stress, increase collegiality, and enhance faculty success. (Contains 15 references.) (SK)

Describes how Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts is using a $500 million pledge, a nontenured faculty, and a group of top students to help develop a new kind of institution, the first independent, four-year engineering college created in 40 years. (EV)

The president of the American Association of University Professors examines the year's activities and asserts that one of the association's most important contributions has been helping to raise the alarm about the serious impact of contingent academic labor on higher education. (EV)