Red flags rise on tenure

The percentage of faculty not on the tenure track has increased significantly over the last decade, a report released this summer shows. Between autumn 1992 and autumn 1998, the proportion of full-time instructional faculty and staff working in non-tenure-track positions grew from 19 percent to 22 percent.

Looking at the data from a slightly different angle, the percentage of faculty working off the tenure track or working at institutions where there was no tenure system increased from 24 percent in 1992 to 28 percent in 1998.

The data come from the 1993 and 1999 results of the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, which the National Center for Education Statistics analyzed and released as Tenure Status of Postsecondary Instructional Faculty and Staff: 1992-98.

More broadly, the report shows that the proportion of tenured faculty in public and private four-year and two-year institutions has declined slightly in the same time span, from 54 percent to 53 percent. However, in 1987, the percentage of tenured faculty was at 58 percent. What's most disturbing about the 1998 figures is what they suggest for the future stability of higher education, say union leaders.

These numbers portend "a major shift in the nature of higher education," says Eileen Landy, secretary of the United University Professions/AFT at the State University of New York. This will affect the academic freedom and job stability of faculty as well as students' access to advisement and letters of recommendation, she notes.

The national trends reflect a situation the UUP has been trying to address for 12 years, says Tom Kriger, UUP director of research and legislation. "In the mid-1990s, we had well over 10,000 full-time tenured or tenure-track academics. Now, we're down to 8,600." The battle to replace lost full-time tenured faculty lines "has to be fought on all fronts," says LandyÑin negotiations and in the legislative program, for example.

The NCES report can be downloaded at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002210.pdf.