Part-time Faculty and Confronting the Quality Question
On August 25, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis was a guest on National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation.” In response to a question from a part-time faculty member who called in to the program, the secretary said that she “think[s] the continuance of involvement on the part of part-time faculty members . . . is a legitimate issue and should be looked at. Because as it stands, you also find that that faculty member is not as inclined to stay committed to those groups of students that they do teach because they’re off to different—other—what they call, freeway traveling or teaching because they’re going to find wherever they can get their salary paid. And it’s unfortunate that that’s what it’s kind of turned to.”
As innocuous as this may sound, Solis’s response nonetheless “worried some activists concerned about contingent faculty working conditions” enough to spur the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) into action. Within days, the AFT had sought and received clarification from the secretary: “I certainly was not implying that adjuncts are not committed to their students, or that they are anything other than excellent educators.”
This little flare-up demonstrates just how difficult a needle the part-time faculty issue can be to thread. On the one hand, to say (or even imply) that adjuncts are bad teachers is unfairly to blame them for dreadful teaching conditions over which they have no control. On the other hand, to say that they’re great teachers is to risk undermining the argument for improving those dreadful conditions. So what’s a worried activist to do?
One answer may be to educate parents and students about the issue and to try to get them involved. To that end, the AFT has launched a new campaign that encourages parents and students to ask representatives of the colleges and universities they’re considering a series of questions, including these:
- How likely is it that a first- or second-year student at your institution will be taught by full-time, permanent faculty members?
- What percentage of undergraduate classes and discussion sections are taught by part-time faculty and graduate assistants?
The obvious implication is that parents and students should prefer colleges and universities where the likelihood is small and the percentage is low. But why, exactly? Is the AFT itself “implying that adjuncts are not committed to their students, or that they are anything other than excellent educators”? Well, not really. But the line is pretty finely drawn. “Most of these professionals are great teachers,” the AFT assures parents and students, “but they usually work part time, are poorly compensated and lack basic professional support.” In other words, most could be great teachers if they were teaching under different conditions—which, by the way, they’re not?
The AFT isn’t the only group urging parents and students to pose tough questions about who’s actually doing the teaching at colleges and universities. In its College Guide, the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) recommends that, during campus visits, students and their parents ask: “What percentage of classes is taught by teaching assistants (TAs) in the first two years of classes? What is the percentage in the third and fourth years? Who is doing the grading?” And the ISI is somewhat less delicate in explaining why they should ask this: “There is simply no substitute for the knowledge and expertise of a mature faculty member.”
It’s surely a very good and right thing for parents and students to pressure and embarrass colleges and universities by asking them to reveal their disinvestment in quality instruction. And the AFT is no doubt correct that “faculty members’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.” But in the end, these are campaigns premised on the threat that prospective students will vote with their feet, choosing to matriculate at colleges and universities where they will be taught by full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members. Sadly, the pervasive and probably irreversible staffing trends in higher education are making that an empty threat.
(AAC&U’s March 2010 meeting on “Faculty Roles in High-Impact Practices” will specifically address the challenges of engaging contingent faculty.)
