Replaceable Professors: An Observation.

This article is an extension of a comment made by one of the authors relative to the future of college and university professors and their collective bargaining units. In it, one of the authors suggested that professors may be easily replaceable and thus collective bargaining units could find a new avenue of survival with health, disability, pensions, life insurance and other amenities for the growing army of adjuncts, Snell (2000:8)

Discussion

This theme was first visited in an article entitled "Junior Faculty in an Age of Scarcity" numerous years ago, Snell et. al. (1976:245-252.) In that essay, one of the authors suggested that times would probably not improve for faculty. Years later, that appears to be valid. Recently, Community College Week (2000:6-8) did a nationwide survey of community colleges and discovered that most were struggling to make ends meet. Additionally, the NEA ADVOCATE (2000:3) indicated that a national survey suggested that there is a concern among full time faculty over the increased use of adjuncts.

As community colleges remain labor intensive, numerous strategies have been tried to stabilize tuition. One is to cap enrollment. Another is to cut entire departments. A third is to raise tuition. A fourth is to cut faculty numbers and increase class size. All have been met with varying degrees of success.

It would appear that one of the alternatives most viable is to continue to increase adjunct professors. This alternative gives an educational institution remarkable fluidity to adapt to changing markets, hold cost down, and provide small classes. Community College Week (2000:18) indicates that 65% of all community colleges teachers are part time. There is a movement to organize collective bargaining for adjuncts, however, as Professor Roueche (League for Innovation) indicates, the money is not there to hire more full time staff and part timers are plentiful.

Thus, it would appear that adjunct armies remain with us. However, there appears to be two things that community colleges can do to acknowledge the value of adjuncts. One is to notify collective bargaining agencies that there is a pool of applicants that may participate in numerous insurance programs. The school would NOT underwrite any of the benefits. A second is to encourage title inflation. Thus, adjuncts could become Lecturers or non-tenured assistant professors. Therefore, an adjunct is called "Professor Jones."

The title applies only during the semesters that they teach at the host institution. In the meantime, tenured instructors remain so until they have an ongoing contract or tenure. Fulltime also can move from instructor ultimately to full professor. Adjuncts can not. Fulltime may receive Professor Emeritus status and this would not be available to adjuncts.

It would appear that in the immediate future, the need for more teachers at fewer costs is the most probable future for community colleges. If this is the case, giving adjuncts access to group insurance programs and title inflation does not seem an extraordinary demand. It may be in the future, that a faculty of 1,000 really only has 100 to 150 who are full time and receive full time benefits.

Conclusion

This has been a discussion of the use of adjuncts particularly at community colleges, but may also apply to senior institutions.

References

Burnett, Sara (2000, June 26) Part-time teachers, full-time problems, Community College Week, 10-12.

MacNeil, William (2000, June 12) Higher education, higher tuition, Community College Week, 6-8.

-- (2000,May) In the know, a faculty career satisfaction poll, NEA Higher Education Advocate, 3.

Snell, Joel C. (2000, March) I'd like to say: intrigued by trinity of articles, NEA Higher Education Advocate, 8.

Snell, Joel C., Webb, Vincent, Hoffman, Dennis, and Bill Wakefield (Fall, 1976) The college student teacher in hard times: junior faculty in a new age of scarcity, College Student Journal, 245-252.

Joel C. Snell and Saul Mekies, Professors, Department of Social Studies, Kirkwood College, Cedar Rapids.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Joel C. Snell, Department of Social Studies, Kirkwood College, Cedar Rapid, IA 52406-2068.