At The University of Memphis and schools across the country, the number of tenured and tenure-track professors is shrinking, while the hiring of part-time or adjunct professors is on the rise.
Money is what is driving the trend, according to higher education experts. Schools save money by hiring adjuncts because they don't get the benefits full-time professors receive. Tenured professors are guaranteed permanent employment after a probationary period.
Last semester, Tina Botts drove from Little Rock, Ark., to Memphis to teach a logic class at The U of M as an adjunct professor. Botts, once a full-time professor at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., said she hopes to get on the tenure-track in the future but does not let it affect her teaching.
"As an adjunct professor, I do not have benefits," Botts said. "In my particular case, I am 100 percent devoted to my students."
"There has been more and more part-time faculty," said Jonathan Knight, program director of the American Association of University Professors.
For the past seven years - as far as the data goes back - there has been a decline in the number of tenured professor at The University of Memphis, according to the Office of Institutional Research. In the fall of 1998, there were 579 professors with tenure. In the fall of 2006, there were only 507 tenured professors.
The U of M numbers reflect the national state of university hiring practices. Every two years, The Higher Education Institute surveys undergraduate professors to determine how many have tenure. The last study in 2004-2005 showed 51.8 percent of college professors had tenure. That was a drop from the first study in 1989-1990 that revealed 66.8 percent had tenure.
To stop the trend, the American Federation of Teachers is pushing legislation in 11 states to mandate that 75 percent of classes at colleges be taught by tenured or tenure-track professors.
Ronald G. Ehrenberg, director of Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, said hiring adjuncts to save money helps the school but hurts the students.
Ehrenberg said the increased reliance on part-time or full-time nontenure-track faculty might have a negative influence on students, even leading to lower grades. However, at two-year colleges, the use of adjuncts might be ideal.
"There always have been many more part-time students at two-year colleges, and it's harder to predict demand for classes, so adjuncts make sense. Also classes tend to be lower level to introductory so you don't need to use Ph.D.s," Ehrenberg said.
Some studies reveal freshmen who have many adjunct are more likely to drop-out, than students with tenure-track and tenured professors.
"It makes sense to me that freshmen taught by mostly part-time (professors) would have a high drop-out rate because, as a rule, part-time employees, in academia or not, are less invested in their work than full-time employees," Botts said.
Although she is an adjunct and a graduate student, Botts said she feels that teaching is her calling.
"I do not view myself as a part-time employee but as an apprentice full-time, tenure-track professor," Botts said.
