Synopsis of the ACS CPT Fall 2009 Faculty Status Survey

Abstract

This report from the ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) discusses the results of a Fall 2009 survey of chemistry departments covering the types of instructional staff, the courses taught by instructors in each category, and the percentage of women and underrepresented minorities. CPT sent the survey to 1012 programs and received a 42% response rate. Overall, 68.5% of chemistry faculty members are tenure-track, with nontenure-track faculty playing a large role in both the classroom and laboratory instruction. For the introductory and organic courses, students are much more likely to encounter tenure-track faculty in courses that are suitable for chemistry majors. Across institution and faculty type, the racial−ethnic makeup of chemistry faculty is predominately white (Caucasian). The distribution of faculty among other racial−ethnic groups remained consistent throughout the different categories of faculty and all types of institutions with Asian Americans comprising the largest group and Native Americans the smallest. While women account for 22% of the tenure-track faculty, their numbers are much greater in the nontenure-track ranks, accounting for nearly 50% of the LT−FT faculty. Nontenure-track faculty receive fewer benefits than tenure-track faculty, with LT−PT faculty receiving the fewest benefits.