Court decisions regarding appointment, renewal, and termination of nontenured faculty members are reviewed with the conclusion that if further incursion of the courts into the internal affairs of universities is to be avoided both faculty and administrators should reexamine and change policies and procedures to comply with current court decisions.…

The development of professional and career-oriented programs within the traditional liberal arts college is discussed, along with the impact such programs might have on the character and climate of the institution and on the jobs of untenured classics professors. (Author/LBH)

Reviews recent studies on the plight of part-time faculty at the college level and attempts to achieve a perspective that fits the treatment of part-time teachers into an overall scheme. (CRH)

In a personal narrative reflecting on 27 years of teaching, an adjunct faculty member realizes that she knows quite a bit firsthand about the adjunct. Judith Gappa and David Leslie, in their 1993 book, "The Invisible Faculty," state that budgets are balanced and classes assigned on the assumption that 20 to 50% of all undergraduate…

Existing regulations, case law, and limited legislative history indicate that an institution can continue to employ faculty without tenure after age 65. However, once tenure is removed, the faculty member is entitled to all the protection of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. (MSE)

Nontenured faculty's claims to tenure as a property right, by virtue of common law principles, are examined from historical and litigation perspectives. The common law analysis proposed is applied to employment relationships in private and public institutions. (MSE)

Reports survey results of psychology departments with graduate programs relative to staffing of introductory psychology courses at large research-oriented universities. Discusses concerns generated by the use of nontenure position people as instructors. Cites supervision of instruction, televised courses, and incentives for teaching as examples of…

Employment of part-time, temporary, and non-tenure track faculty can be hazardous to programs, institutions, individuals, and even the character of the academic profession, but in some situations, when carefully applied, it may lead to substantial benefits. (Author/MSE)

Discusses the growing community college reliance on adjunct professors to absorb greater numbers of students in the face of declining budgets. Describes policies for assigning courses, benefits for students from adjuncts' expertise and special skills, concerns held by adjuncts and other faculty, and opportunities for administrators to show support…

Many colleges and universities are hiring full-time faculty on contract instead of on tenure tracks, saying alternatives to lifetime job security are needed to control costs and assure flexibility. The number of full-time non-tenure-track professors almost doubled between 1975 and 1995, while full-time faculty on tenure tracks fell 12%. (MSE)

Even at institutions where highly trained, highly motivated, and deeply committed part-timers teach, part-time instruction can adversely affect teaching, the support of students, the general quality of education, and morale in departments.

In this introduction to the papers in this volume, the author argues that the central role of contingent appointees in undergraduate education is beyond dispute, and, yet, the implications for undergraduate learning are very much in dispute. Understanding of this issue and correction of such problems as may exist begin by focusing discussion of…

Over the last generation, the instructional staffing system in American higher education has experienced a significant reduction in the proportion of jobs for full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members and a dramatic growth in fixed-term full- and part-time instructional jobs without tenure. About 70 percent of the people teaching in…

This annotated bibliography offers summaries and evaluations of 23 research reports originally published from 1968 through 1995 concerning the status, acceptance, and professional development of new and junior faculty at institutions of higher education. Studies report on the sources of stress faced by new faculty, sources of aid, and programs…

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…