It has been some time since our last post looking at the expansion of for-profit colleges and universities, when I promised to take up the question: "So what? Should we care about the particular set of circumstances that has led to this expansion?" My short answer is yes. The longer answer is after the jump.

We're in the middle of a recession, unemployment is high, and many of you worry about job security because colleges and universities across the country are cutting budgets, avoiding hiring full-time tenure track faculty, and eliminating wherever possible. We realize this isn't exactly breaking news for the majority of you who are in the trenches.

But what is news is the fact that Working America is sending out its twelfth Ask A Working Woman survey in an attempt to capture the depth and extent of your employment worries. This is a chance to let Working America know about the challenges you face as full- and part-time faculty - the survey includes a section to explain your current employment situation and tell your story.

Since women are found in greater numbers in non-tenure-track positions, we know you are hurting the most and worrying the most. Please take a minute in solidarity with Working America to complete the survey and add your voice to the millions of other female workers who are concerned about job security in all sectors of the economy.

We just needed to take a minute to share a chuckle we had here this morning reading a new post over at the Chronicle's "Building and Grounds" blog about an address given by Ira Fink at the Society for College and University Planning meeting.  As Fink discusses the ever important issue about offices with windows, this sentence caught our eye:

"Faculty are the capital of the university, and you need to treat them with some diligence, and say, We respect you. Part of this respect is that we'll give you a good office space."

Right.  That is why the majority of faculty members on campus today neither have offices (with or without windows) nor are they compensated based on the expectation that they will meet with students outside of class.  That is definitely some great space utilization, but I am not so sure about that whole respect issue.

And check out the comments for a few opinions on how staff members are respected vis-à-vis office and workspace.

A lot happened while we were away at the AFT Convention, but two important reports that crossed our desks last week deserve attention.  Warning: the news is not good.

First up is the release of the Delta Cost Project's Trends in College Spending, 1998-2008 which is accompanied by a new on-line tool that can be used to analyze how individual colleges and universities were funded and how they spent those funds (or to compare institutions based on those same categories of revenues and expenditures).  DCP has been looking into these issues for some time now, and has found consistent declining investment in instruction. Here is the key finding from DCP's press release:

The share of spending going to pay for instruction has consistently declined when revenues decline, relative to growth in spending in academic and student support and administration. This erosion persists even when revenues rebound, meaning that over time there has been a gradual shift of resources away from instruction and towards general administrative and academic infrastructure.

While that is not good news or new information for those of us monitoring these issues, perhaps what is most important is DCP Executive Director Jane Wellman's assessment of our current position and future outlook:

The current prolonged recession means that we can no longer expect new revenue to pay for increasing attainment in higher education," says Jane V. Wellman, Executive Director of the Delta Cost Project. "In the next decade, we are going to be lucky to hold onto the resources we have. That means that all institutions - from the Ivies to the community colleges - are going to have to develop investment strategies that support goals for attainment. That will require new habits: looking at spending, and promoting the values of efficiency and cost effectiveness as co-partners to the never-ending search for new revenues.

In short, if we believe that instruction is the core function of institutions of higher education and that secure, well-supported instructional staff are fundamental to the success of our institutions, then we are going to need to demonstrate that fact as clearly as possible with regard to student attainment and making institutional investments that matter. 

Lest you think things won't get worse if we do not successfully defend the central role of faculty in higher education, we turn now to the new Policy Matters Brief from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.  It is called Outsourcing Instruction: Issues for Public Colleges and Universities.

This brief points out that:

never before has outsourcing functioned at the core of the academic enterprise-the teaching of students in credit-bearing courses and degree-granting programs . . . [but] facing intense financial pressures and in a changed, highly competitive environment, institutional decision-makers are making different calculations than in the past, and some have begun to view the outsourcing of instruction more as an opportunity than as a threat.

The brief suggests that outsourcing is perhaps a logical next step given the direction U.S. colleges and universities have been heading with regard to how they staff classes.

Finally, higher education has witnessed tremendous growth in the use of adjunct and other non-tenure track faculty, reducing the number of full-time faculty hires and affecting the traditional tenure-based employment system. Though not defined as "outsourcing" since contingent faculty operate under the direct control of academic departments, this trend changes the nature of the student-faculty relationship and affects how students are taught. Contracting out to for-profit companies for instruction may be just the next step in this process.

The brief goes on to explore three types of outsourcing already in practice and considers the pros and cons of outsourcing instruction.

Both of these reports deserve a read.  They are yet another stark reminder of the direction in which we are headed with regard to academic staffing in higher education.

At the 81^st convention of the American Federation of Teachers, the over 3,000 delegates denounced the administration of East-West University for its strong-arm anti-union tactics in response to a majority of contingent faculty at East-West filing for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  In a Special Order of Business brought to the floor by AFT Washington President Sandra Schroeder, the delegates resolved that AFT:

• denounce the anti-union actions of East-West University and do so in writing to East-West University administration; and
• call upon the East-West University administration to cease its intimidation practices immediately and work responsibly through the law to permit a democratic union election to go forward.

As FACE Talk readers know, in an effort to improve their working conditions through the collective bargaining process, the adjunct faculty of East-West University in Chicago, Illinois, working with the Illinois Education Association, organized and filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (Board) on May 26, 2010.  Immediately after the election petition was filed, all adjunct faculty received a letter from the University Chancellor M. Wasiullah Khan indicating that no adjunct faculty members would have their employment contracts renewed for the summer term and that any adjunct faculty member seeking employment in the fall term would be required to meet with the chancellor before he or she is hired.

Schroeder, who also chairs AFT's Higher Education Program and Policy Council, asked the convention to consider the Special Order of Business since the actions of the East-West administration occurred after resolutions were due for submission.  "It was imperative that AFT stand in solidarity with these faculty members and send a clear message to this administration that these tactics must cease and these workers should have the right to elect a union" said Schroeder after the resolution passed.

Read the press release.