On April 11, The New York Times reported on a study detailing an annual report on the economic status of positions in academia. The study, which surveyed more than 1,300 colleges and universities, showed that these institutions are continuing a long-term trend of using graduate student employees, part-time professors and non-tenure-track instructors. In fact, according to The Times, these types of appointments now make up over three-quarters of the total faculty and in the last three years, the number of tenure-track faculty members dropped four percent, while the number of non-tenure-track professors increased by eight percent. Basically, colleges and universities are hiring non-tenure-track professors to replace tenure-track faculty.
There are trade-offs involved in this changing academic landscape. While the addition of short-term instructors would allow institutions to keep up with current trends in teaching and changing student ideas and styles of learning, tenured professors hold a wealth of knowledge and experience that fresher faces simply cannot maintain. It is a staple of the typical collegiate education to enroll in a class taught by an older, wiser instructor who has been teaching for years.
However, by that same token, new instructors bring new ideas that could benefit students’ academic experience. Additionally, professors may sometimes work toward tenure, but as soon as their job is secured, they don’t put nearly as much time and effort into teaching as they once did. This symptom of tenure would be cured by the increase of non-tenured positions at the university, but how much do we really want to regulate teaching style in the collegiate world? States implement standardized testing to ensure that teachers are effective from year to year, but those teachers also lose out on the freedom to instruct students in their own way. If collegiate education strays down the dangerous path of regulation, college classes could lose that quality of eccentricity that makes them so unique.
The influx of non-tenure track positions could be attributed to the institution’s desire to cut costs. According to the study, a full professor at a private institution makes $157,282 a year on average, which is $57,878 more than the average salary for an associate and $71,093 more than an assistant. Obviously, the gradual decrease of tenured positions would save universities massive amounts of money. However, a student’s education should be the number one priority when it comes to the way in which classes are run.
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