One of the highest priorities of American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Higher Education over the past several years has been the shift away from a corps of full-time, tenure-track faculty to a contingent instructional workforce in American colleges and universities. This document focuses on one aspect of that shift: full-time faculty who are not…

This book addresses the counterproductive conditions in which part-time and non-tenure-track composition faculty must teach, using case studies, local narratives, and models for ethical employment practices. It presents and evaluates a range of proactive strategies for change, both for local conditions and broader considerations. Section 1,…

New assistant or associate professors command more money than current professors with seniority or higher rank. This faculty-pay dilemma is known as "salary compression." Salary compression occurs when colleges are pressured by the job market to pay competitive salaries to attract scholars at lower ranks. (MLW)

The faculty career is changing in response to external and internal pressures. Discusses pressures for institutional change, current faculty demographics, and possible institutional responses including modifications to traditional tenure systems (changes to the probationary period and time base of tenure, productivity concerns) and faculty career…

A Canadian study examined the employment patterns of seven cohorts of faculty entering Canadian universities seven years after initial appointment. Results showed that a consistent and meaningful proportion of each cohort entered the tenure stream, accounting for half the faculty who remained in academe. Disadvantages to women and young academics…

Contingent faculty members spend a greater proportion of their overall time teaching, but the preliminary evidence suggests that these appointees are less accessible to students, bring less scholarly authority to their jobs, and are less integrated into the campus culture. The purpose of this chapter is to offer some reflections on the ascendancy…

The authors compare the ideal versus actual academic reward structures at a representative sample of nondoctoral four-year institutions and make recommendations. (Contains 2 tables.)

Among personal memories for one minority instructor in literature is witnessing the civil rights movement, that defining period in which people of African descent broke out of the chrysalis of "Jim Crow" and transformed themselves from "colored" to "Black." In 1995, 1,000,000 Black men once again converged on the…

This book is a practical guide to the college faculty tenure process and offers concrete advice on strategies to increase a faculty member's chances of obtaining tenure. Chapter 1 defines tenure and touches on elements of the qualifications, professional regulation, and institutional investment. Chapter 2 urges candidates to actively manage their…

An overview is provided of the issues, procedures, and prevailing judicial rationale for faculty tenure decisions in the state of Washington. All legal cases decided in Washington and cases from other jurisdictions that have had an impact on Washington law are summarized in this digest. Each case summary consists of an introduction of issues…

Advice is provided to teachers and scholars entering the academic profession at a college or university. The report reviews the usual standards and practices governing faculty employment in higher education and offers candid suggestions about how untenured faculty members might protect their rights. This information is designed to inform the…

The possibility that sex differences in geographic mobility patterns underlie some of the sex differences in college faculty career patterns is addressed in this study of career advancement. Two major hypotheses were tested: (1) that women's mobility patterns are different from men's because women are less likely to move and more likely to be…

When a large group of nontenured part-time English department faculty were summarily dismissed, a significant segment of the English curriculum was left largely unattended, and other problems arose throughout the institution. (MSE)

A discussion by endorsers of the American Association of University Professors' (AAUP) 1940 statement on academic freedom and tenure is summarized, including the topics of academic accuracy watchdogs, government constraints on academic freedom, irregular faculty appointments and periodic review, special issues at church-related colleges, and the…

Reflecting the national trend toward less costly undergraduate education, ranked college faculty at the University of South Florida (USF) have generated steadily decreasing portions of total university instructional full-time equivalence (FTE), going from 72% in 1983 to 57% in 1994, while less costly graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and…