New York
Colleges’ growing reliance on adjunct faculty members can have a detrimental effect on the educational experience of undergraduates, according to research presented on Friday at a conference of senior administrators and policy makers in higher education.
The increased use of instructors who are not on the tenure track correlates with declining graduation rates, particularly at public comprehensive institutions, said Ronald G. Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. He spoke during a panel discussion at a conference organized here by the TIAA-CREF Institute, the research arm of the pension-fund giant.
The growing dependence on adjuncts also could obstruct the pipeline for graduate education, Mr. Ehrenberg warned. Students who are not encouraged to do research by faculty members who are actively engaged in their own studies may be less likely to pursue doctorates, he said.
But John E. Sexton, who is president of New York University and was also a member of the panel with Mr. Ehrenberg, defended the hiring of adjunct instructors at his institution, saying it made sense because of the university’s mission and location. Sixty-two percent of professors at NYU are adjunct instructors, the highest of any institution studied by Mr. Ehrenberg.
By hiring adjunct faculty members, he said, NYU can draw on New York’s deep pool of talent. The law school, for example, can employ top litigators to share their practical experience in the classroom. Mr. Sexton noted that the filmmaker Spike Lee, an NYU graduate who is based in New York, has taught at the university’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Satisfaction with the quality of instruction at NYU has increased, said Mr. Sexton, whose appearance at the conference was picketed by graduate students who have threatened to strike this week unless administrators agree to negotiate a new contract (The Chronicle, November 1).
Mr. Sexton also called for greater innovation in faculty hiring, such as creating the position of master teacher for established faculty members who may want to devote more time to the classroom than to the laboratory or library (The Chronicle, April 16, 2004).
The panel’s third member, Kermit Hall, president of the State University of New York at Albany, said the changing missions of colleges may affect the makeup of their faculties. For example, he said, faculty members interested in applied research may be more attractive to public institutions looking to prove their economic-development value to state lawmakers.
In other sessions at the conference:
- Several university presidents discussed how they had carried out significant changes at their institutions. A “hell or high water” leader is key to setting an example and encouraging others to support such efforts, said Kenneth A. Shaw, a former chancellor of Syracuse University. Robert H. Bruininks, president of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, said he had won early support for a new strategic plan for the university, including the consolidation of several colleges, by reaching out to campus groups, regents, and civic and business leaders. “We spend too little time making the case for change,” he said.
- The president of the University of Georgia said construction projects on his campus had been completed in record time since the creation of a special real-estate foundation to raise money for new campus facilities. The nonprofit foundation has permitted the university to complete $200-million in projects in the last six years, at a time of shrinking state financial support, said the president, Michael F. Adams. But some audience members questioned the use of private fund-raising arms to pay for capital construction, especially as the use of nonprofit foundations have come under scrutiny at a number of colleges, including Georgia (The Chronicle, April 29).
Background articles from The Chronicle:
