Administrators hope to hire nine new professors to begin next academic year. In 1995, full timers, including full-time lecturers, accounted for 74 per cent of the total faculty, down from 89 per cent in 1989. It quite simply isn't. Whether Hayward is an anomaly in academe is debatable, professors here say, and beside the point. Departments with a heavy reliance on lecturers are losing clout on the campus and stature in the larger academic community, they argue.
Tenured professors say their fight is with the administration.
They don't mean to offend lecturers or blame them. But having a two-tier faculty compromises collegiality, the operation of departments, and the quality of education, tenured professors say. Professors say the lecturers who are here are not necessarily the people they would choose in a normal faculty search. Some claim that lecturers are more likely to give higher grades because their positions are so dependent on good student evaluations. Professors also argue that students lose continuity in their education when lecturers shuttle in and out of departments.