Tuesday, November 20, 2007

NYT Piece on Tenure and Adjunctery

University officials agree that the use of nontraditional faculty is soaring. But some contest the professors association’s calculation, saying that definitions of part-time and full-time professors vary, and that it is not possible to determine how many courses, on average, each category of professor actually teaches.

Many state university presidents say tight budgets have made it inevitable that they turn to adjuncts to save money.

“We have to contend with increasing public demands for accountability, increased financial scrutiny and declining state support,” said Charles F. Harrington, provost of the University of North Carolina, Pembroke. “One of the easiest, most convenient ways of dealing with these pressures is using part-time faculty,” he said, though he cautioned that colleges that rely too heavily on such faculty “are playing a really dangerous game.”

Mark B. Rosenberg, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, said that part-timers can provide real-world experience to students and fill gaps in nursing, math, accounting and other disciplines with a shortage of qualified faculty. He also said the shift could come with costs.

Adjuncts are less likely to have doctoral degrees, educators say. They also have less time to meet with students, and research suggests that students who take many courses with them are somewhat less likely to graduate.


ATSRTWT


(Nod t Anonyman)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This reminds of things I read in the 80's about autoworkers that went something like:

Autoworkers say that robots are bad. Auto company executives say robots rock the house...........

Mungowitz said...

And, NOW, there ARE no.... autoworkers.

Angus said...

...and robots most definitely rock da house!!!

Anonymous said...

And mungowitz, perhaps you should think of embracing our new robot masters.......

Mungowitz said...

well...i did spend about 30 minutes out on the lake today, yanking my Johnson.

Actually, it was an Evinrude, but the same company.