A new study by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) reports on the exploitation of contingent (lecturer) faculty across the country. In the CSU system less than half of faculty are full-time, tenure-track faculty; there appears to be a conscious strategy afoot to shrink the ranks of tenure-track faculty and rely on contingent faculty to take up the slack.

Of course this is bad news for all faculty, tenure-track and non-tenure-track. Contingent faculty face a job market where opportunities to land a full-time gig are shrinking, and the jobs they can get will provide low pay and no benefits. For tenure-track faculty it means fewer colleagues to share the burden of campus governance. As working conditions for all faculty deteriorate the learning environment will surely suffer. Students are not immune from the effects of a flawed management strategy.

Some of the highlights of the CAW study:

• Faculty respondents in part-time positions saw little, if any, wage premium based on their credentials. Their compensation lags behind professionals in other fields with similar credentials, and they experienced little in the way of a career ladder (such as higher wages after several years of work).

• Professional support for part-time faculty members’ work outside the classroom and inclusion in academic decision making was minimal.

• Part-time teaching is not necessarily temporary employment, and those teaching part-time do not necessarily prefer a part-time position. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they would probably or definitely accept a full-time, tenure-track position at their current institution.

• The median pay per course during the fall 2010 semester, standardized to a three-credit course, was just $2,700.

• Course loads varied significantly among respondents. Slightly more than half taught one course or two courses during the fall 2010 term, while slightly fewer than half taught three or more courses.