AFT Report Details and Reaffirms Exploitation of Contingent Labor

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has released American Academic: The State of the Higher Education Workforce 1997-2007.

The report is a 10-year analysis of hiring trends and faculty composition at community colleges and public and private colleges/universities. The findings show accelerated erosion of stable faculty positions with respectable wages and working conditions. AFT's report also shows that the trend of exploitation continues when it comes to "contingent" labor and graduate teaching assistants. Individuals within the academy that were interviewed about the report's findings, from my perusal of early reporting, seem to lay blame on market forces. To that I say, of course BUT individual departments and schools have allowed this to happen AND have even embraced this exploitation to protect the privileges of the already highly paid and tenured who enjoy low(er) teaching loads and academic freedom. This lowers the quality of intellectual exploration and education, as the bulk of the courses taught are done so by contingent labor. It is disgusting to see those in a position to take a stand simply step aside; and, in many cases, to witness the eagerness of continued hocking of bogus goods to graduate students and the nontenured by way of false hopes and promises.

By not owning the consequences of silence and hypocrisy the tenured and tenure-track are killing the academy and its promise. You know who you are.

Here's a great chart, from InsideHigherEd's synopsis of the report, with some key figures.

Distribution of Teaching Positions in Higher Education, 1997 and 2007

Job Type	1997	2007
All Institutions
--Full time, tenured or tenure track	33.1%	27.3%
--Full time, non-tenure track	14.2%	14.9%
--Part time	34.1%	36.9%
--Graduate assistants	18.6%	20.9%
Public doctoral granting universities
--Full time, tenured or tenure track	34.1%	28.9%
--Full time, non-tenure track	14.1%	14.4%
--Part time	14.3%	15.8%
--Graduate assistants	37.5%	41.0%
Public four-year colleges and universities
--Full time, tenured or tenure track	51.0%	39.0%
--Full time, non-tenure track	9.0%	10.9%
--Part time	33.6%	43.9%
--Graduate assistants	5.7%	6.3%
Public community colleges
--Full time, tenured or tenure track	20.6%	17.5%
--Full time, non-tenure track	13.4%	13.8%
--Part time	64.7%	68.6%
--Graduate assistants	1.2%	0.0%
Private doctoral-granting universities
--Full time, tenured or tenure track	34.9%	29.2%
--Full time, non-tenure track	17.3%	17.9%
--Part time	29.9%	31.3%
--Graduate assistants	17.9%	21.6%
Private four-year colleges and universities
--Full time, tenured or tenure track	39.3%	29%
--Full time, non-tenure track	15.6%	17.2%
--Part time	42.3%	52.2%
--Graduate assistants	2.9%	1.6%