The Student as the Customer, and the Faculty Dilemma

Abstract

College and university faculty members today may be facing an identity crisis brought about by an unlikely cause, business economics. In the recent past, say, thirty years ago, college professors were held in the highest regard by peers and students, and recognized for their sagaciousness, wisdom, expertise, and contribution to the community. However, recent data shows that some professors nowadays feel expendable, as second-class citizens, and servants to their patrons, college students or so-called customers. By sheer nature of referring to the student as the customer conjures up the notion that professors work for the students and it is the professor’s job to make sure they are educated, yes, but mostly kept happy and committed to staying enrolled to meet university fiscal demands. Consequently, research shows that faculty members are attempting to reconcile the customer satisfaction of students with the rigor, scholarship, and professionalism expected from them by their university employers. In a new poll, faculty members described how they receive conflicting objectives from well-intended school leaders that simply cannot be done without the risk of losing their teaching position or losing dissatisfied students to the plethora of competing universities marketing themselves to a diminishing number of new student candidates. Therefore, customer satisfaction is apparently a key driver in determining whether faculty members are retained or retired, regardless of their reputation, tenure, or tenacity.