Non-tenured faculty numbers increase

IU undergraduate enrollment has increased dramatically over the past five years. Yet, there has been a corresponding decrease in the number of tenured faculty members at IU. \nAt the same time, non-tenure track faculty positions are increasing rapidly. In 1994, there were 47 non-tenure track faculty members on IU's Bloomington campus, and this year there are 182, according to the Dean of Faculty's Office, an increase of about 287 percent. \nIn these same years, tenured faculty members have dropped from 1,030 in 1994 to 998 in 2002, a decrease of three percent. \nThe trend toward hiring more non-tenure track faculty members is a national one. The American Council on Education reports that nationally, there was a 79 percent increase in the number of non-tenured professors between 1981 and 1999.\nFaculty members typically receive tenure after about 6 to 10 years at a university. The main requirement for tenure status is extensive research and publication in one's field of study. \nA decrease in tenured faculty may mean less original research will come out of IU, said Theodore Miller, associate dean of Faculty.\n"This is a research campus," Miller said. "If we don't maintain a very substantial number of tenured and tenure track faculty at this campus, we will lose this."\nCurrently, tenured professors make up about 66 percent of the IUB faculty. Although this is lower than the 73 percent that they held in 1994, it is still a majority.\nThe people in charge of hiring at IU want to keep it this way, Miller said.\n"Everybody wants to maintain a faculty that is predominantly either tenured or on the tenure track," Miller said. "I don't think there's any question about the intentions of the campus, but the real question comes down to money -- can we afford to do it?"\nFunding is the main thing to blame for the trend toward non-tenured faculty, Abhijit Basu, who chairs the Bloomington Faculty Council's Faculty Affairs Committee, said.\n"Often, there is not enough funding to hire tenurable people," said Basu. \nNon-tenure track professors come at a lower price than those who intend to gain tenure status. However, this does not mean that they are inferior to tenured professors, Miller said. Rather, they concentrate on teaching rather than research. \nThere are real benefits to hiring more non-tenure track faculty members," Miller said.\n"People in this category are hired specifically because they are thought to be excellent teachers," Miller said. "This should be a plus to the University on the teaching side."\nSome faculty members, however, point out disadvantages to this hiring trend. \nStudents are better served by tenured professors, Basu said.\n"In a research university, students deserve to be educated by people who are tenurable at that university," Basu said. \nBecause tenured professors focus on research, their teaching will be of more value to students, Basu said. \n"If education means inquiry into knowledge and motivation to know things that we do not know, then usually it would be better served by tenure track people who are into finding out new things," said Basu. \nOverall, there is uncertainty as to whether this trend toward fewer tenured faculty members will continue into the future. \nThis will be an important issue for IU in the future, Miller said, because a great number of tenured faculty members will be retiring in the next five to ten years. Hiring practices will determine the status of IU as a research university in the future, he said. \n"There are some real tensions on the campus right now," Miller said. "The question is, will IU continue to be a research university in the future"