Professors

Publisher of newsletter that criticizes CUNY's faculty union sees vindication, as litigation ends without his having to pay anything. But the plaintiff sees victory as well.

National survey finds generally high job satisfaction, but many fault salaries, lack of health insurance or difficulty of moving to full-time faculty ranks.

For many faculty members, this year has been one of adjusting to the reality that their retirement nest egg is smaller than it used to be. Funds took hits of various sizes, depending on the level of risk participants accepted.

The average salary of a full-time faculty member in 2009-10 is only 1.2 percent higher than it was a year ago, the lowest year-to-year change in the 50 years that salary data have been collected by the American Association of University Professors. The association released its annual survey of faculty salaries today.

NEW YORK -- The chair of the National Labor Relations Board gave a strong indication here Monday that, now that the board has new members appointed by President Obama, unions could expect it to back collective bargaining rights for graduate teaching assistants at private universities. Her remarks came as graduate students at the University of Chicago -- in what could be a test case -- are considering affiliation with national unions for an organizing drive.

The faculty union's contract with the City University of New York has a provision designed to prevent part-time instructors from being given a full-time teaching load. These adjuncts are allowed to teach only nine credits a semester at any one college in CUNY (typically three courses) and one other course at a second CUNY college. If a department head wants to offer an adjunct any additional work, say a section at a third college or a fourth section at the primary college, the union must approve a waiver. And until recently, the union has generally done so.

WASHINGTON -- College faculty aren’t any more burned out than the rest of the U.S. workforce on average, but the struggles of the untenured on the tenure track are the most pronounced, according to a survey presented at an American Association of University Professors conference here Wednesday.

In an analysis of professional burnout among professors, a Texas Woman’s University Ph.D. candidate found tenure track professors had more significant symptoms of workplace frustration than their tenured and non-tenure track faculty counterparts.

A steady stream of reports from faculty groups warns of the consequences of having too large a share of sections taught by adjuncts. Many of those reports also say that colleges take advantage of part-time instructors, failing to provide them with adequate salaries and benefits -- or with the prospect of full-time employment. Based on these ideas, the major faculty unions and also many disciplinary groups have called for colleges to hire more full-timers and have them teach more courses -- while also providing part-timers both with better compensation and with more respect.

Research points to varying impacts of faculty careers on having children and of having children on faculty salaries. Males come out more favorably, but not always in expected ways.

HR leaders in academe consider how to keep their best employees -- faculty and administrators alike -- in era of tight budgets.