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The doctorate is out

Contingent faculty members dominate Xavier’s English Department

Patrick Stevenson
Editor-in-Chief

Out of the 38 English Composition courses being offered at Xavier over the 2007-08 academic year, not one is being taught by a “principal faculty” member.

Principal faculty, according to Dr. Allison Russell, chair of the English Department, includes those professors who are tenure-track and tenured professors (who have Ph.D.s and are active in their fields of scholarship).

“In 1975, tenured and tenure-track faculty together constituted 57 percent of faculty nationwide. By 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, that combined group had been whittled down to merely 32 percent. Contingent faculty had meanwhile grown from 43 percent to 68 percent of the professoriate,” stated Cary Nelson, President of the American Association of University Professors.

The increase of contingent, or non-tenure track instructors (which includes both adjunct instructors and visiting professors), teaching lower-level courses represents a universal trend in academia. According to Russell, this is “mostly due to budget issues but also due to scheduling needs.”

“The reason that you don’t see more tenured or tenure-track faculty teaching English 101 is mostly due to our need to use their areas of expertise in courses for the major/minor and for our graduate program, as well for courses in the core. But we simply don’t have enough principal faculty, as they are called, to cover all of the English courses offered,” said Russell.

“When I was chair 25 to 30 years ago, there was less emphasis on publication and [principal] faculty taught four, not three courses a semester. All of us in English taught at least one freshmen writing course. We cannot go back to that era since we have now a much more professionally active faculty,” said Dr. Ernest Fontana, an English professor at Xavier, who served as the chair of the English department from 1975-1984.

While it may seem that the drop in the amount of principal faculty teaching freshmen courses would lead to a decline in the quality of education, Fontana thinks Xavier is better off than many schools.

“Many of our adjuncts are excellent teachers and are often more seasoned than the graduate students who teach lower-level introductory courses at large state universities,” said Fontana.

Don Prues, a visiting professor in the English department, thinks that being a contingent faculty member actually helps improve the quality of education his students receive.

“Every semester [visiting professors] have to teach four courses, and sometimes that means teaching up to 120 students a semester. Grading all those quizzes, exams and papers is quite time consuming. If I were asked to spearhead a search committee for a new position or something [a principal faculty duty], I definitely would have to cut back on the time I put into my courses,” said Prues.

Part of the need for a large amount of contingent faculty arises from the unbalanced scheduling of English 101 courses.

“The English department has to offer about 30 sections of English 101 each fall as that core curriculum course is a pre-requisite for most of the other English courses. But in the spring semester, we need to offer only a third as many sections of English 101. The disparity in the number of sections that we need to offer of certain courses in fall and spring creates the need for non-permanent faculty who can help us with course coverage as needed,” said Russell.

But what happens when spring semester rolls around and there a fewer classes to teach?

Prues, a popular professor at Xavier, lost his full-time status last spring due to the budgetary and scheduling concerns.

“That was a big financial blow to me, but I understand why that had to happen. My performance as an instructor had nothing to with it; economics did,” said Prues.

Russell agreed that this is a problem. “We sometimes have nothing to offer some excellent part-time staff in the spring semester. The department has recently discussed this problem; we’re trying to figure out how we can avoid letting go of some great part-time faculty each spring. Also, various Department Chairs are currently discussing the need for the university to improve adjunct pay—important if we want to retain good faculty in those positions,” said Russell.

Janice Walker, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, did not reply to a phone message inquiring about the feasibility of improving adjunct pay.
While this is obviously a complex systemic issue, there appear to be ways to improve the condition of contingent faculty.

“I’m hoping the university will finally settle on granting visiting profs what’s termed “permanent instructorships.” As I understand this concept, we visiting professors who do well will become permanent employees, and we’ll be evaluated regularly, but there won’t be that looming anxiety of “Will I be teaching full-time next year?” We will not, of course, be tenured, and the pay will be lower than tenured professors, but that’s okay with me,” said Prues.

Prues is concerned that some part-time instructors may be spread too thin to provide students the attention they deserve.

“A potential problem that may occur with some adjuncts teaching at other non-private universities with lower admission standards -- they may get so used to seeing bad or mediocre prose that they unconsciously lower their standards and accept mediocrity as above average. I say this b/c I know I’m at times stunned at how poorly some students in my post-Comp courses write, and when they get a paper back from me they’re shocked and invariably tell me, “I’ve never received such a low grade on a paper. I even got an A in Comp.” That worries me, b/c some of these students should not have passed Comp, as they lack fundamental writing skills. That said, many of those students did not take Comp at Xavier, or they had an instructor no longer with us,” said Prues.

Despite the potential pratfalls of employing part-timers, Prues thinks that most part-time instructors at Xavier are doing an excellent job.

“Most adjuncts teach for the love of teaching and not for the pay; the income is meager. In that case, instructors can be most devoted and, therefore, valuable. They teach because they want to, not because they have to,” said Prues.

Russell agrees that contingent faculty positions “allow us to hire excellent teachers who won’t be burdened with other responsibilities. Similarly, some of our adjuncts find that a part-time schedule works well with their other commitments such as raising a family or working other jobs.”

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Bringing home knowledge

Conference in the Vatican highlights need for interfaith awareness at Xavier

Katie Rosenbaum
Campus News Editor

Xavier delegates, who attended the First Lay Conference on Jewish-Christian Relations in Rome, are trying to strengthen relationships and dialogue between Jews and Christians on Xavier’s campus and in the Cincinnati community.

President Fr. Michael Graham, Director for Hillel at Xavier Rabbi Abie Ingber, Dr. Arthur Shriberg, Director of the Brueggemen Center for Dialogue Dr. James Buchanan, Catholic student Maggie Meyer and Jewish student Michael Loban were the Xavier representatives.

Xavier groups, including Student Government Association, International Student Society and the Peace and Justice Programs, are trying to increase inter-faith relations on campus. They are trying to establish an on-campus place of worship for Muslim students during Ramadan.

Meyer said that this trip gave her a perspective on the importance of these programs. Before Rome, “I can’t say that I fully understood the strong significance of these efforts; I thought that they were just two small pieces to a big puzzle of celebrating all walks of life,” said Meyer.

“While they certainly do fit that mold, I have realized by coming to better understand the historical context of inter-religious dialogue that such efforts are truly large strides.”

Graham said that Xavier is currently discussing developing a partnership with Hebrew Union College (a rabbinate) to create a Jewish Studies program at Xavier.

Furthermore, Graham said that Xavier, through the Brueggeman Center, will sponsor speakers and conversations to continue the inter-faith dialogue.

Dr. Shriberg said that although historically the relationship between Jews and Christians is not good, Xavier “is committed to interfaith dialogue.”

Shriberg did not mention any specific ways Xavier would continue to increase dialogue, but he emphasized the international significance of the conference and the experience that the delegates had to develop a greater understanding of the situation.

Loban said that the conference was a time to realize relationships between different faiths grow through dialogues focusing on the future. “I think that new programs have to be focused on learning and practicing the art of dialogue,” said Loban.

Meyer was chosen to go after talking to Ingber about a shuttle to transport Jewish students to synagogues on religious holidays.

They shared stories, and Ingber asked her to accompany them to Rome.

Funds for Meyer’s and Loban’s trip came out of Fr. Graham’s office, although the exact cost of the excursion is unknown.

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John LaFollette 
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Rachel Peters
Ann Tassone
Darren LaCour
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