Jay L. Chronister

Teaching without Tenure: Policies and Practices for a New Era.

The growing use of full-time non-tenure-track faculty represents a controversial change in the pattern of staffing colleges and universities. Teaching without Tenure provides the first comprehensive examination of this important phenomenon. Examining the issue from the perspectives of both institutions and faculty members, Roger G. Baldwin and Jay L. Chronister offer a systematic look at who non-tenure-track faculty are, the roles they play in higher education, and the policies that control the terms and conditions of their employment. Teaching without Tenure utilizes findings from a national study of full-time non-tenure-track faculty, including survey data, policy analysis findings, and information gathered from site visits with faculty and administrators at a cross-section of four-year colleges and universities across the United States. This timely study emerges in an environment in which many constituents of higher education have begun to question the feasibility of retaining the academic tenure system in its present form. Baldwin and Chronister discuss the internal and external factors influencing an institutions decision to hire non-tenure-track faculty and make recommendations for policies and practices that can support the work and career development of faculty in these positions. Designed to assist faculty, academic leaders, and institutions, Teaching without Tenure examines developments challenging the status quo in the American academic profession and offers guidance as higher education moves into an uncertain future.

Full-time Women Faculty Off the Tenure Track: Profile and Practice

Women are overrepresented in the growing number and proportion of full-time non-tenure-track faculty. Data from NSOPF-93, institutional surveys, and interviews show these women clustered in the lowest faculty ranks and in traditionally female disciplines. They carry heavier teaching loads than their male colleagues, are paid less, and have fewer opportunities for advancement. Full-time non-tenure-track women with a doctorate are the least satisfied of all faculty. These findings suggest substantive institutional changes in politics and practices dealing with non-tenure-track faculty.

Full-time Non-tenure-track Faculty: Current Status, Condition, and Attitudes

Abstract: The early stages of faculty careers are viewed as times of considerable stress and uncertainty. This study identifies similarities and differences in the perceptions of careers and work environment between untenured tenure-track faculty and the non-tenure-track faculty colleagues. The findings indicate that although both cohorts of faculty face uncertain careers, the non-tenure-track faculty are the most pessimistic and have less positive feelings about their work environment.

Exploring Faculty Issues and Institutional Planning for the Twenty-first Century

During the coming decade, American higher education will face a number of significant faculty issues. In this study, the authors used data derived from fifty-six institutions to appraise the planning to meet future faculty staffing needs. The study provides insights into such factors as the abolition of mandatory retirement for both capped and uncapped institutions, tenure ratios, faculty supply/demand, and faculty retirements.

Destination Unknown: An Exploratory Study of Full-Time Faculty Off the Tenure Track.

A variety of recent books and reports (Astin, Korn, and Dey 1991; Bowen and Schuster, 1986; Carnegie Foundation, 1989; Bowen and Sosa, 1989; Lynton and Elman, 1987; National Center for Education Statistics, 1990) has focused attention on the condition of the American academic profession. Several of these reports discuss the difficulties many institutions of higher education are likely to encounter as they try to maintain faculties qualified to meet the education demands of the twenty-first century. In response to staffing challenges, many higher education institutions with tenure systems have chosen to hire more non-tenure-track (NTT) professors. Many persons hired in this status work full-time and perform most of the same functions as other faculty members. To an outside observer, their role is often indistinguishable from that of a person hired on the tenure track (TT). However, the majority of non-tenuretrack appointments come with the explicit understanding that they are temporary. Eventually, the person hired in this capacity will be required to leave the institution and seek employment elsewhere, in or out of higher education. Colleges and universities derive substantial benefits from hiring non-tenuretrack faculty. Temporary professors enable an institution to preserve flexibility in a period of financial constraint; they help to stretch limited resources; and they make it easier for colteges to respond rapidly to shifting market forces and enrollment patterns. Non-tenure-track positions may be appealing to some academics as weil. Some individuals choose to remain off the tenure track for a variety of reasons. A non-tenure-track appointment may impose fewer demands for scholarship,