College students across the country may want to get used to seeing unfamiliar faces in lecture classes.
There has been a significant increase in the number of both full-time faculty members with no tenure-track status and part-time faculty members over the past 20 years, according to a recent study conducted by the American Council on Education.
Between 1981 and 1999, the proportion of part-time faculty increased by 79 percent to constitute 400,000 of a total one million instructors at colleges and universities nationwide.
The analysis reveals that colleges and universities hired more part-time instructors to meet growing enrollments during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Entitled "The New Professoriate: Characteristics, Contributions and Compensation," the study urges policymakers to address "concerns about whether colleges and universities treat these individuals fairly."
Based on findings from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, the study referred to full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty members as traditional; full-time, non-tenure track and part-time faculty members were classified as nontraditional.
In 1998, a tenured or tenure-track instructor was reported to earn $59,000 and their non-tenure-track counterparts $41,500, while part-time instructors received $11,500.
But despite large disparities between salaries of traditional and nontraditional faculty members, the study concluded that they are equally productive in terms of workload.
According to ACE Research Associate Eugene Anderson, author of the study, all types of full-time faculty members typically teach four courses, though tenured professors served on more committees.
"There are stories in the higher education press where part-time faculty at particular institutions is pushing to unionize in order to gain more bargaining power," Anderson said. "There certainly is something going on to spur that."
According to data collected in 1998, 40 percent of employees attributed their part-time status to personal preference, while 25 percent cited a lack of full-time positions.
"Generally speaking, our part-time teaching faculty are hired to meet a particularly business-oriented need," said Ellen Whitener, senior associate dean and commerce professor. "Our use of part-time faculty is driven by their expertise."
In addition to the advantages of having local professionals teach specific courses, the ACE study identified other motivations for hiring part-time teaching faculty as the desire to keep undergraduate classes low, as well as a familiarity with the latest technologies that tenured professors might not have.
At the University, 96 percent of the full-time faculty has tenure or is on tenure-track. Part-time instructors only account for 12 percent of the total 3,019 faculty members, according to the Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies.
Part-time faculty members "are not substituting for a tenure-track position," Whitener said. Rather, they "are complementary."
Of the Commerce School's full-time faculty, 45 to 50 are tenured or on tenure-track, five are not and a remaining five are part-time, she said.
Although the University has a general policy that allows individuals to receive tenure after six years, each department has its own promotion policies.
The study emphasized the decreased costs of hiring nontraditional faculty,but a University-wide hiring freeze stemming from budget cuts has remained in effect since August.
It is for this reason that the Engineering School is not planning to use any adjunct faculty to teach classes this spring, according to Bill Turneck, Engineering School assistant dean for administration and academic affairs.
"We've all been under a strain the last year, but still the classes must be taught," Turneck said.
All adjunct professors teaching a course in the Engineering School have a Ph.D., according to Turneck. Nationwide, the study found that only 18 percent of part-time faculty members hold doctorate degrees.
The study also identified that the majority of all instructors are male, although women comprise 45 percent of part-time faculty as opposed to only 37 percent of those working full-time. In addition, 85 percent of full-time faculty members are white, as is 88 percent of part-time faculty.
According to Anderson, the study was designed to encourage "self-study" so that colleges can determine and address their own specific issues.
"We're giving them benchmarks to find out where they are in comparison to their peers," he added.
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