On the Lower Levels of the Ivory Tower: What Color Collars do Adjunct Faculty Wear?

Author

Frederick Tucker, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

9-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Sociology

Advisor

Paul Attewell

Committee Members

Mary Clare Lennon

Ruth Milkman

Julia Wrigley

Subject Categories

Adult and Continuing Education | Educational Administration and Supervision | Education Economics | Higher Education | Higher Education Administration | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social Statistics

Keywords

higher education, faculty, graduation, postsecondary value, university administration

Abstract

Institutional reliance on tenure-line faculty reached a historic low after the Great Recession in 2009, remaining at approximately a third of all faculty through 2022. Postsecondary institutions have steadily increased their reliance on full-time adjunct faculty over the last two decades. Part-time adjuncts, meanwhile, were hired in great numbers before and during the Great Recession, as student enrollment increased, but have steadily declined since 2012, as college enrollment waned. Almost all evidence suggests that tenure expansion would benefit both the recipients of tenure and their students, but would come at a cost. There are few studies, however, that distinguish between full- and part-time adjuncts. This lack of research has not stopped many from celebrating the shift from part-time adjuncts to full-time ones as a win for both labor and students.

My research finds no evidence to support the shift from part-time adjuncts to full-time ones from a labor perspective. Most part-time adjuncts are not latent full-time adjuncts, but rather a separate pool of highly educated, well-paid, part-time workers who desire this type of work for a variety of reasons, chief among them being semi-retirement, and the fact that approximately half of part-time adjuncts have multiple jobs, most of which are outside academia. My research also finds no evidence to support institutional reliance on full-time adjuncts over part-time adjuncts from a student-success perspective. I find no significant differences, net of institutional and student-body controls, between institutional reliance on full- and part-time adjuncts when it comes to predicting 8-year graduation rates, or 10-year postsecondary value for enrollees in the 4-year college sector in 2008.

Instead, I find institutional reliance on both full- and part-time adjuncts––disaggregated––to be associated with lower graduation rates and lesser postsecondary value compared to reliance on tenure-line faculty, net of all controls. These results suggest that tenure expansion would benefit both students and faculty––at least those receiving the new tenure-line positions––and should be prioritized by state and federal governments, non-profit stakeholders, college and university administrators, individual academic departments, and faculty unions. Since greater reliance on tenure-line faculty is associated with higher graduation rates and greater postsecondary value than either type of adjunct, with or without controlling for per-student instructional expenditures, tenure expansion should be pursued by all actors with or without additional instructional funds, and regardless of whether it relies on part-time adjuncts over full-time adjuncts to balance institutional budgets.

Recommended Citation

Tucker, Frederick, "On the Lower Levels of the Ivory Tower: What Color Collars do Adjunct Faculty Wear?" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6039