PSU's Incredible, Shinking Tenured Positions
As bargaining continues, we are beginning to collect together some data that track important trends here at PSU. In several earlier posts I documented the national trend of relying on non-tenured faculty to teach classes. Below, you can see the trend mirrored here at PSU. Let's start with the raw numbers and finish with some talking points. Below is a table illustrating the decline of tenured positions at PSU.
But it's really when you divide tenure and non-tenure positions that you see the dramatic decline (click to enlarge):

The numbers tell the story: as elsewhere, PSU's administration has been shifting the teaching load away from tenured faculty to fixed-term faculty. This saves the administration money and allows them more "flexibility." But we have an important secondary data point that shows even more starkly what this means. Have a look at the table below. In it, you'll see that not only has the teaching load shifted, but the number of students has shifted too (CH = credit hour):
As you can see, fixed-term faculty are expected to teach more students than tenured faculty. The upshot when you combine the two sets of data is this: a far greater number of a student's classes will be taught by non-tenured faculty than would have been the case a decade ago.
Talking Points
AAUP's membership is comprised of more than just tenured faculty. (I'm a fixed-term researcher, in fact.) It's easy to think in terms of our own job category and, for those of us who aren't tenured, to wonder why we should care about this. For me the answer is straightforward. Over the past two decades, we've seen support to faculty diminish in terms of benefits and salary when adjusted for inflation. (Credit where credit is due: our health insurance has remained consistently good.) During that time, even as our salaries flatlined, the administration was saving costs by shifting the teaching load to lower-paid faculty who have no long-term job security.
We have asked PSU to provide details about the growth of administration jobs and salaries during the same period. If it follows national trends, we will expect to see that both salaries and overall job numbers (in terms of total FTE) have grown far faster on the administration side. These are all critical points of information as we look at potential salary cuts for the coming year or two. The takeaway should be this: if the administration has grown fastest during fat times, it should shrink fastest during lean times.
Table: Decline of Tenured Positions at PSUA graph of these data begins to show the decline of tenure positions (click to enlarge):
__________________________1996___2002___2007
Tenure Track/Tenured_______54%____49%____39%
Fixed Term, Full-time______12%____21%____26%
Fixed Term, Part-time______17%____21%____27%
Other (TAs, emerita, etc)__17%_____9%_____7%
But it's really when you divide tenure and non-tenure positions that you see the dramatic decline (click to enlarge):
The numbers tell the story: as elsewhere, PSU's administration has been shifting the teaching load away from tenured faculty to fixed-term faculty. This saves the administration money and allows them more "flexibility." But we have an important secondary data point that shows even more starkly what this means. Have a look at the table below. In it, you'll see that not only has the teaching load shifted, but the number of students has shifted too (CH = credit hour):
__________________________Mean____Mean____Median
_________________________Class___CH Per___CH Per
__________________________Size____FTE______FTE
Fixed Term________________23.8____37.5_____31.5
Tenured/Tenure-track______22.0____25.5_____20.1
As you can see, fixed-term faculty are expected to teach more students than tenured faculty. The upshot when you combine the two sets of data is this: a far greater number of a student's classes will be taught by non-tenured faculty than would have been the case a decade ago.
Talking Points
AAUP's membership is comprised of more than just tenured faculty. (I'm a fixed-term researcher, in fact.) It's easy to think in terms of our own job category and, for those of us who aren't tenured, to wonder why we should care about this. For me the answer is straightforward. Over the past two decades, we've seen support to faculty diminish in terms of benefits and salary when adjusted for inflation. (Credit where credit is due: our health insurance has remained consistently good.) During that time, even as our salaries flatlined, the administration was saving costs by shifting the teaching load to lower-paid faculty who have no long-term job security.
We have asked PSU to provide details about the growth of administration jobs and salaries during the same period. If it follows national trends, we will expect to see that both salaries and overall job numbers (in terms of total FTE) have grown far faster on the administration side. These are all critical points of information as we look at potential salary cuts for the coming year or two. The takeaway should be this: if the administration has grown fastest during fat times, it should shrink fastest during lean times.
Labels: Assault on Tenure-Track, data, talking points

