A revamping of the operation of the current academic labor market by drawing upon the system found in professional sports is suggested. To stimulate thought, it is proposed that rules governing free agency, professor reservation, first refusal, trading, and salary arbitration be applied to higher education to replace current, outdated procedures.…

Flexible tenure contracts are proposed as an alternative to the current college faculty tenure system. Such a contract would make more explicit, and potentially more varied, the contributions expected of the candidate, but avoid the tenure-track/non-tenure-track distinction. It could also help resolve conflicts over the relative weights to be…

A survey of 44 institutions of higher education with full-time faculty and staff between 800 and 5,500 were surveyed for information about personnel office staffing patterns, workload, benefits program participation, record-keeping, coverage by union contracts, and provision of personnel services. Results are summarized, and institutions are…

Principals today are expected to competently perform a variety of roles, particularly those of instructional leader and school manager, under increasing public scrutiny. In general, the school principal has few statutory protections and limited constitutional due-process rights. The problem is that in many cases, principals' employment contracts…

The collective bargaining agreement between the University of California and the Santa Cruz Faculty Association covering the period June 30, 1983-June 30, 1984 is presented. The American Association of University Professors affiliated union has 295 members. Items covered in the agreement include: unit recognition, meeting and conferring to…

Three case studies are presented to document different approaches to providing the job security which would encourage acceptance of technological changes that could result in productivity improvements. The intent is to assist union and management practitioners in handling similar problems in their own firms. Focus is on the utility of attrition…

To acquaint the faculty and administrators with the scope and breadth of community college collective bargaining agreements, excerpts of selected topics are reproduced in this document without comment. On each topic two or three excerpts from different agreements are reproduced. The following topics are treated: (1) recognition of the employee…

The rapid hiring and firing of college athletic coaches, the litigation brought in breach of employment contracts, and the special problems presented by coaching contracts have raised hard legal questions about proper methods of contract enforcement and recovery of damages. (MSE)

Institutions of higher education have become involved in contracting out staff services to affect budget reductions or to improve quality of service. The experiences of Portland State University in contracting out all custodial services are reported, including a checklist for contracting out analysis. (MLW)

This report, one in a series about the priorities of the professoriate, presents a narrative summary of information received from 280 higher education institutions that responded to an American Association for Higher Education survey on tenure policies, practices, and trends. Provosts were asked to indicate whether their campuses had considered or…

Legal problems that colleges and universities might avoid are identified. Colleges are being sued over a broad range of legal issues and are expending money for legal and court fees, settlements, and judgments. Legal problems include right of admission to particular colleges, the right to stay in school, questions of faculty promotion and tenure,…

A rebuttal is offered to James O'Toole's July 1978 article, "Tenure: A Conscientious Objection." Focus is on his points that academic tenure is unnecessary and that tenure systems frustrate a health rate of faculty turnover. It is suggested here that tenure provides a rigorous standard of senior faculty quality. (LBH)

Results of a national survey concerning medical school policies for employing nontenured clinician-educator faculty, the titles given to faculty members in these tracks, and special features of employment are presented. (MSE)

Possible administrative policies to defer the tenure decision and slow the addition of tenured faculty are examined, including extended probationary periods, suspension or abolition of the "up-or-out" rule, term contracts, and change in tenure quotas. Examples of current use, strengths and weaknesses of alternatives, and opinions within the…

Although it is widely believed that unionization in higher education is incompatible with traditional academic practices involving collegial self-governance, the University of Connecticut Chapter of the American Association of University Professors found that unionization can augment the faculty's role in peer self-governance. (JMD)