Instructor boom professor bust

They tend to be social creatures, congregating in clusters throughout the United States. Mating often occurs late in life, and migratory patterns level off at 35. The preferred habitat is among books, artifacts, compositions and equations. \nSpecies: tenure-track professors. \nThe question is whether or not the classification is protected.\nA new breed of instructors is increasingly evident in this habitat. IU has seen a 63 percent increase in the number of full-time, non-tenure track faculty teaching classes from 1991 to 2001. Meanwhile, the number of tenure-track professors has decreased by almost 1.5 percent, while IU enrollment has seen a 7-percent upswing. \nAdministrators predict the trend will continue; it has the potential to save IU money as state appropriations continue to fall. It also has the potential, some educators say, to undermine the quality of an IU diploma. \nLegally Instructing\nChristian Freitag is of the other species. He's never defended a dissertation, but he has defended clients in the courtroom. This semester is his fourth teaching Law and Public Policy for the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He holds a law degree from IU and has completed a clerkship with the chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. \nHe's had speakers in his class including an Indiana Courts of Appeals judge and an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. He's arranged student meetings with the chief justice.\n"The willingness they have to come speak is a product of relationships I've developed professionally," Freitag said. \nFreitag has worked for the Sierra Club and heads the Sycamore Land Trust, a local organization that preserves land in Monroe County. He brings personal and professional ideals to students. \n"I ask students to think about what kind of world that want to live in and have other people help me expose them so they can develop opinions of their own," he said. \nHe was in line at the northside Marsh grocery store when he heard students complaining about a class -- a class taught by an instructor without a Ph.D. Their tone conveyed distaste. \n"I don't think the presumption can be made that non-tenure faculty aren't as good," Frietag said. "Sometimes students can get just as high a level of education. It comes with big asterisks. There are some good and some bad on each side."\nHe's heard the criticism before, but he contends that some of his best instructors at the IU School of Law were litigators, not scholars. He sees the increase in non-tenure faculty as a way to cut cost without compromising quality. \n"If they're scraping tooth and nail to find any person to teach a subject, that would be one thing," he said. "But if they're going out and finding really high quality people to teach, I commend the University."\nBack to the ring\nJoe Louis was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1937-1949. The "Brown Bomber." Final drafts of his biography have been sitting unattended on the desk of William Wiggins, interim chairman of the department of Afro-American Studies. \n"Thank goodness I have an understanding editor," Wiggins said. \nHe has been busy with "one juggling act after another" to make sure all the classes in the department are taught, at a time when the department is launching a graduate program. The faculty has declined from the equivalence of 12.5 full-time, tenure-track professors in 1991 to eight in 2001. The strain has caused faculty to forego research, Wiggins said. \n"We also serve on inordinate number of committees across the campus," he said. "There's a smaller pool (in the department) and the same needs from the campus at large."\nDespite difficulties, the department has met the need for its classes, Wiggins said. He feels supported by College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kumble Subbaswamy and looks forward to the addition of the incoming chairman of the department, John Stanfield. \n"We're looking toward replenishing our faculty and getting back up to speed," Wiggins said. \nAs for Joe Louis? \n"He's beckoning me back to the ring as we speak," Wiggins said. \nAcademic Bonds?\nWhen Stephen Watt was hired into the Department of English in 1986, the department was eyeing the goal of 70 tenure-track professors. Now he's the chair of a department with 53 tenure tracks filled. \nHe sees professors going the way of the dodo, and he's concerned. A study he conducted for a book he co-authored, "Academic Keywords," shows a surge of 88 percent among non-tenure track faculty from 1973 to 1993, nationwide. \nHe estimates that a non-tenure instructor costs his department $20,000 less than a tenure-track position, not accounting for the difference in the benefits package. For the 1999-2000 school year, the Bloomington Faculty Council suggested $28,760 as the minimum pay for instructors (non-tenure track) and $38,839 for an associate professor. \nThe University saves money, but there are costs.\n"What is academic freedom?" Watt said. "It's linked with tenure. I have tenure. If I wanted to stand up and criticize the president or dean I could do so without the fear of losing my job," \nThe threat to academic freedom looms for students also, he said. \n"If they have an unconventional proposal for a project, it seems that someone without tenure would be less likely to let them pursue certain things."\nWhile Watt hasn't seem examples of ideological infringement at IU; the issue is volatile at some universities, he said. Here, the decline in tenure-track professors led to a diminished range of courses offered and narrowed the pool of professors to bear the burden of service work. Tenure-track professors serve on committees that govern retirement benefits, administrative searches and dissertation defenses.\n"The choices (made in committees) have a significant impact," he said. "If you don't have the number of people to serve on the committees, everyone pays a price," . \nWatt also questions the commitment instructors have to the institution.\n"What if a student comes back three years later for a letter of recommendation?" he said. "Chances are they're gone."\nRoom to grow...or shrink\nLooking at the makeup of the IU faculty is Moya Andrews' job as dean of faculties. She's watched non-tenure track faculty enter universities en masse, and chalks the trend up to a need for flexibility. Since tenure implies a high degree of job security, it was attractive for universities to employ those who could be dismissed and hired in response to surges and slumps in various departments' enrollment. \nNow, if would-be business students vie for English degrees instead, the Kelley School of Business could make a quick recovery from a case of Enronitis. \n"This is not ideal. No one wished for this, it's the only way for higher education to deal with moving enrollment," Andrews said. "We've got to have some kind of flexibility when the budget is driven by the number of students."\nThirty percent of public research universities took action to reduce the size of their full-time faculty by an average of 6 percent between 1993 and 1998, according to a National Center for Education Statistics report. \nThe trend poses challenges to IU's mission to pioneer innovative research or publish any fresh ideas. \n"We have to maintain our profile as a research-one institution, and that places a larger burden on the tenure-track professors," Andrews said. \nBruce Jaffee, associate dean for academics in the Kelley School of Business said the trend presents no problems as long as it is guided with an eye on excellence. \n"What's the best way?" he said. "Make decisions based on quality, learning, scholarship and experience rather than 'who's the cheapest person I can find?'"\nCurrently IU faces record enrollment and a $100 million cut from the state for the next two years. Jaffee predicted the proportion of non-tenure faculty will occupy a larger share of the classroom lecterns. \n"We don't have a choice," he said. "The trend is going to have to increase. I'd like it to be strategic decision rather than one based on budget cuts."\nMOney's Worth\n Freshman Jennifer Schleicher sees distinct differences between the delivery style of assistant instructors and professors.\nFrom the first: hesitation. A pause, a stutter.\nYet professors seem readily capable of releasing a crystal-clear stream of knowledge that flows from the moment of silence after the last student is settled to the second class is over.\nLast semester -- the first of her college career -- Schleicher had only one professor. Currently, she estimates that half of her classes are taught by professors, and half by instructors without a Ph.D. Some are young and one has a tendency to stand at the dry-erase board, stumped.\n"She got confused pretty often," she said.\nThe instructor deferred to the professor in several instances. The professor, however, was not there.\n"A.I.s are younger, less confident. They mumble and stutter," Schleicher said.\nWhat about you, Sara Goble?\n"Professors can talk all about what they know without (preparation)," the freshman added with a casual wave of her hand.\nSchleicher cited the flip side to professorial expertise.\n"A.I.s can be terrible at explaining things," she said.\nGoble: "It kills the moment." The women agreed that even if the message delivered by an instructor and a professor is the same, it carries more gravity from an older figure. A.I.s don't have the same authority in Schleicher's view.\n"It would be like if I got up there and started teaching," she shrugged.\nBoth agreed that IU should prioritize the hiring of full professors.\n"If we're putting all this money out, it seems like we should get the best education possible," Schleicher said. \nNo Magic Wand\n Even in the shadow of state budget cuts, advances are being made within the University to ensure the level of researching professors remains high. Patricia Goodall, systems information manager, said the IU Foundation bolstered the levels of "world class" professors through a campaign that brought 18 endowed chairs to the University. Those hires would have been too pricey considering the diminished operating budget, she said. \nAlso, IU President Myles Brand has continued to encourage the hiring of high-level faculty throughout the economic downturn. \n"We have made out like bandits…We're in a good position," Goodall said, compared to universities that have frozen hiring budgets. \nIs there a quick solution to the problems associated with students flooding into the University and professors -- and state higher education dollars -- starting to leave? \nImpress the importance of supporting higher education upon legislators, Andrews, dean of faculties, said. She cited Brand's efforts to band with K-12 and business leaders to lobby legislators for more funds. To remind the people in the statehouse that the health of Indiana elementary education, higher education and business are closely connected. \nWith the release of the 9 percent tuition hike, a University statement cited "a primary goal…to preserve student access to top-notch instructors and researchers." The 2002-03 IU budget includes a 3.5-percent increase in faculty salaries. \nVarious departments have placed a cap on the number of non-tenure track faculty allowed to teach. Others, as the baby-boom generation of professors starts to retire, are hard-pressed to find qualified people to fill positions. \nAndrews said the staffing issues are guided by a strong sense of values. \n"We want the very best researchers and the best teachers," she said. "Sometimes you don't get both in one person. So we assign positions so people can do what they do best"