Quit hiring for the short term

As administrators of any business must do, university administrators make hiring decisions based on costs and benefits. As many universities have done in the last few years, IU has moved from hiring full-time, tenure track professors to full-time, non-tenure track instructors. IU saw a 63 percent rise in non-tenure faculty teaching classes from 1991 to 2001.\nAt the same time, the number of tenure track professors decreased by about 1.5 percent -- with enrollment rising 7 percent.\nHiring tenure track professors over instructors leads to a better overall education for IU students. \n Long-term faculty have shown more commitment to IU. They are more involved in University committees in numerous areas, including the recent selection of a new IUB chancellor, Sharon Brehm. \nInstructors don't perform the same levels of research that long-term tenure track professors do. The number of research, creative projects and books done by tenure track faculty suffers when universities rely on instructors to teach classes. \nContinuity in departments also suffers when instructors are hired over tenure track faculty because instructors often come and go. Students aren't able to pass on information from year to year regarding who they feel the best professors are in their academic area, and students might find it harder to get letters of recommendation from instructors they don't know or instructors who are at a university one year but not there the next.\nTenure track faculty are generally more passionate and dedicated to their subject areas and spend a lifetime developing their knowledge of a particular area. While many non-tenure track instructors are knowledgeable in their areas and dedicated to them, the lack of long-term stability hurts the university as a whole.\nSome instructors can add to the quality of education for students, such as someone from the professional world teaching in an area he or she has worked in and understands first-hand. But the tendency to hire instructors instead of tenure track professors has gone too far.\nAdministrators say it is likely to continue at IU, especially with lower appropriations from a cash-strapped state government. Financial concerns, no doubt, are the impetus behind the use of increasing numbers of non-tenure track instructors, who cost the school less than their tenure track colleagues. But financial considerations shouldn't be the only factor in administrators' hiring decisions. They should instead focus on providing the best education possible for students.\nStaff vote: 8 - 0 - 3