The academic community in Illinois is incredulous over the results of an official study on the status of non-tenure-track faculty in the state. Issued by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) at the direction of the Illinois General Assembly, the study concludes that temporary and part-time faculty are as satisfied, if not more, with their jobs as full-time faculty are and also believe that they are fairly compensated.

The report is called "All Faculty Matter! A Study of Non-tenure-track Faculty at Illinois Public Colleges and Universities." The study consisted of public hearings, a collection of data from public institutions, and phone and mail surveys of administrators and faculty. The Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University conducted the study and provided the analysis.

The title stems from the report's primary recommendation--that institutions need to make faculty feel "they have a more secure and productive place within the institution and that their instructional abilities are fully developed to contribute to student learning."

Of lower priority to temporary and part-time faculty, apparently, are their salaries. Those salaries are a median $15,200 for full-time non-tenure-track and $4,000 for part-time faculty at public universities. Or, when calculated on an FTE basis, tenure/tenure-track faculty make twice the salary of full-time non-tenure-track faculty, 2.5 times the salary of part-time faculty and 3.5 times the salary of part-timers at the community colleges. Despite these disparities, the study says that most of the temporary faculty report they are "treated fairly" in compensation. "Their pay is based on market rates and serves as an income supplement for most non-tenure-track faculty," the study's authors helpfully explain.

"I was so flabbergasted by the results that I found it hard to respond to," says Sandy Flood, a temporary instructor at Northern Illinois University who has taught there for more than 20 years. She is president of the University Professionals of Illinois/AFT chapter of instructors at NIU, and worked tirelessly for passage of House Joint Resolution 19, which is the legislation that mandated the study.

Shortly after the IBHE released the report, it met for a regularly scheduled meeting and got a chance to hear reactions. UPI president Mitch Vogel expressed his disappointment with a job left undone. "The report contains no hard data nor any specific recommendations on issues," he said.

Flood has some insights into the problems from two perspectives. In addition to having lobbied for more than a year to have Illinois study the issues of contingent workers in higher education, she was also included in the random sample of the survey. Flood notes that no one from the IBHE asked for input from UPI when the board was drafting the survey. When two staffers from the Illinois Federation of Teachers went to an open early-planning meeting, their written suggestions were ignored.

The questionnaire was convoluted, she says, and so were the conclusions analysts drew from the answers. For example, one question asked: "Which of the following best describes the percentage of your family or household income that was accounted for by your pay for teaching at this institution?" It doesn't ask how much you are paid, she says. This could lead to the conclusion that you work to supplement the family income.

Some people Flood spoke to found another question so offensively irrelevant, they refused to answer it: "Do you have a spouse or other domestic partner?" On another issue, the data analysts defined freeway flyers as part-timers who worked at three or more institutions. Thus, they eliminated those working at two institutions (the most common practice) and deduced that only 5 percent of part-timers were working at multiple institutions. The IBHE report said there was no problem with freeway flyers in Illinois.

UPI is working on a critique to rebut "All Faculty Matter" before the IBHE makes its final decision on whether to accept the report at its next meeting this month. [Barbara McKenna]

April 18, 2002