Faculty Appointments and Scholarly Activity: A Changing of the Guard?

Abstract

American institutions of higher education are experiencing a rapid change in academic staffing, leaving the tenure model for a more flexible, contingent workforce. Nearly two in five of all full-time instructional staff holds non-tenure-eligible positions as term-limited academic appointments. This study compared faculty appointment types by traditional areas of teaching, research, and service by utilizing the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty 2004 data. Statistical results indicated tenured and tenure-track faculty far outperform contingent faculty in all three traditional areas: teaching, research, and service. This is of substantial concern. Since contingent faculty are rapidly increasing, it brings into question who is doing the work and how it affects production in areas of teaching, research, and service.