In 1940, half of American colleges and universities were appointing faculty on one-year contracts. The greatest threat to the teaching of unpopular ideas today is not coming from frontal attacks on the tenure system from right-wing regents. The greatest threat comes from the inexorable trend toward staffing colleges and universities with part timers, adjuncts, and instructors. The stunning fact is that only about one quarter of America's 1.2 million college teachers have tenure. Even among full-time faculty who do not have tenure, only about 40 percent are eligible to apply, in comparison to 60 percent twenty years ago.
Schools can save a lot of money by replacing tenured professors with part-timers.
Of course the part-timers don't get benefits, so they're even cheaper. It's like moving your factory to Mexico, except that your workers all speak English and have Ph.D.s, and you never even have to leave town. Jon Wiener , a contributing editor of The Nation , teaches at the University of California at Irvine. Inc. Readers may redistribute this article to other individuals for noncommercial use, provided that the text, all HTML codes, and this notice remain intact and unaltered in any way. This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author.