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Center for the Study of Academic Labor

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/234335
CSAL is an interdisciplinary research center that supports scholarship, commentary, artistry and activism on contingent academic labor and the future of higher education. This digital collection includes reports and data from faculty members and affiliates.

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Browsing Center for the Study of Academic Labor by Subject "academic labor markets"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Contingency in higher education: evidence and explanation
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Schulman, Steven, author; Academic Labor: Research & Artistry, publisher
    This paper summarizes recent evidence on the trends in contingency in higher education. Contingent faculty employment, defined as the sum of full-time non-tenure track faculty employment and part-time faculty employment, increased both absolutely and relative to all faculty positions between 2002 and 2015, despite a modest downturn after 2011. The long-term growth of contingency since 2002 has primarily occurred in doctoral degree universities. The short-term decline in contingency since 2011 has primarily occurred in public associates' degree colleges and in private for-profit colleges. The short-term decline in contingency since 2011 is due to the contraction of the for-profit sector combined with a one-time drop in public associates' degree colleges. The explanation of the long-term growth of contingency as an inevitable response to financial exigency is rejected. Contingency has increased due to the priorities of higher education administrators, not state budget cuts or other drops in revenue.
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    Contingent faculty report
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015-12) Schulman, Steven, author
    In Fall 2010, the Coalition for the Academic Workforce surveyed non-tenure track faculty members (also called "contingent" faculty or "adjunct" faculty) in colleges and universities across the United States. 28,974 of these faculty members responded, making the CAW data set one of the largest sources of information available about the characteristics and work conditions of contingent faculty.
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    The costs and benefits of adjunct justice: a critique of Brennan and Magness
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017-03-21) Schulman, Steven, author; SpringerLink, publisher
    In their controversial 2016 paper in this journal, Brennan and Magness argue that fair pay for part-time, adjunct faculty would be unaffordable for most colleges and universities and would harm students as well as many adjunct faculty members. In this critique, I show that their cost estimates fail to take account of the potential benefits of fair pay for adjunct faculty and are based on implausible assumptions. I propose that pay per course for new adjunct faculty members should be tied to pay per course for new full-time non-tenure track instructors or to pay per course for new assistant professors. That framework for adjunct faculty justice yields an aggregate cost range of $18.5–$27.9 billion, one-third to one-half lower than the range computed by Brennan and Magness. Its opportunity cost would not be borne by students since students and faculty are complements, not substitutes, in the educational process. Instead it could be financed by reducing spending on non-educational purposes. Current adjunct faculty members would be protected from job displacement in this justice framework. The real obstacle to achieving justice for adjunct faculty is the priorities of university administrators, not budget constraints or opportunity costs.