By Emily Williams, For The Miami Student
The national shift away from tenured faculty positions and its potential to change the quality of higher education has caught the attention of faculty members at Miami University. The newly established Miami chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) hopes to address this concern and defend the educational mission of the university with a stronger faculty voice.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, nationally, full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty now make up just 30 percent of all faculty in higher education. The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges reports that in 1969, tenured and tenure-track represented 78 percent of faculty at colleges and universities.
Tenured professors are the faculty members with the most job security. Those offered tenure-track positions must earn tenure within six years of being hired are then considered full-time continuing faculty.
The AAUP, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is a national organization designed to promote academic freedom, professional values and economic stability for students and faculty at higher education facilities.
In its mission statement, the AAUP has identified the decrease in support from state funding for public universities, the incorporation of corporate culture and strategies in university administration, and an increased reliance on non-tenured faculty as the main issues infiltrating college campuses nationwide.
Miami is the 15th school in Ohio to bring the AAUP to its campus, following other peer schools like the Ohio State University, Ohio University, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Dayton, which already had their own chapters of the faculty advocacy group.
Karen Dawisha, a political science professor and co-president of the new Miami chapter of the AAUP, expressed her concern that the shift toward fewer tenured faculty positions could threaten the quality of education offered to students. She stressed the importance of establishing relationships with students that last throughout all four years of their undergraduate education.
Such relationships can be difficult to establish for adjunct professors who are paid per credit hour and are not always offered the same amenities as other full-time faculty, such as offices where they can meet one-on-one with students. It can be particularly challenging to form relationships with students and colleagues for the 17 percent of adjuncts who the AAUP reports teach at two or more institutions.
"They drift like ghosts in between campuses," said Dawisha.
Keith Tuma, an English professor at Miami who will serve as a co-president with Dawisha, said the chapter wants to ensure that when students are being taught by non-tenured faculty, those instructors are being well treated and fairly paid, citing the importance of the faculty in fulfilling Miami's high educational standards.
"We are the people who deliver the core mission," Tuma said.
Tuma expressed the need to develop two-way communication with the administration on these concerns, which directly influence faculty and student well-being.
"The Board of Trustees is always thanking us, but they're not talking with us," he said.
Nationwide, 51 percent of the faculty at higher education institutions hold part-time positions, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Based on data from the 2013-2014 school year, only 40 percent of Miami's faculty is part-time.
Richard Campbell, the chair of Miami's Media, Journalism and Film Department, helped many faculty members move from adjunct teaching to full-time positions, which offer benefits and more job security.
"If you're going to hire somebody to teach three sections of a class, you should hire them full time, not pay them per credit hour," said Campbell. "That's where Miami, I think, does a better job."
The percentage of part-time faculty does differ between the Oxford and regional campuses, with 45 percent making up the Hamilton and Middletown campuses' faculties and only 31 percent at the main campus.
Full-time faculty includes traditional tenured faculty as well as visiting assistant professors, lecturers, clinical or professionally licensed faculty and some instructors.
In his 36 years teaching at Miami, economics professor James Brock has seen a shift in the emphasis placed on research for traditional tenure-track faculty. Brock said the expectations for research publication for tenure have steadily increased during his time as a tenured faculty member.
"That's a very powerful signal that if you want to be tenured and you want to stay here and be promoted that you better spend a lot of time on research and not as much time on teaching, especially undergraduate teaching," said Brock.
According to Brock, this leaves students essentially paying twice for faculty - once for the tenured faculty members and again for the non-tenured faculty whose primary role is to teach undergraduates. Brock said he has seen this emphasis on research discourage new tenured faculty from focusing on teaching.
"It's undermining an important balance that got Miami into its third century," said Brock. "You want faculty to be scholars. You want faculty to be active. I'm for a balance between research and teaching."
Matthew Gordon, a history professor at Miami who will serve as the AAUP chapter's treasurer, emphasized the need for a strong faculty voice when addressing any issues that affect the quality of education at Miami.
"The priority is the educational mission," said Gordon. "That's what we're so concerned is being lost."
Miami's AAUP chapter will be hosting an event April 29 in Upham Hall Room 001 to announce its presence on campus. Rudy Fichtenbaum, the president of the national AAUP, will be present, and university president, Board of Trustees and Provost, as well as any faculty and students interested, will be invited to attend.