Wednesday, November 12, 1997
Lecturers face uncertain futures
FACULTY Short contracts characterize positions comprising staff
majority
By George Sweeney
Daily Bruin Contributor
On the first day, there were 80 people packed into the class,
designed for 60. The teacher, Chris Cunningham, was not one of
UCLA’s more famous theoreticians. He was just a temporary lecturer
in English who, if unable to gain a professorship elsewhere, would
have to reapply for his position at UCLA next year.
Cunningham’s plight is not uncommon at UCLA, where faculty hired
for the short term teach a great many courses. Although some feel
that these are ‘expendable’ employees, department depend on
short-term employees to confront changes in enrollment.
Of the 1,639 undergraduate courses taught this quarter, only 677
are being taught by Academic Senate faculty. The other 59 percent
are UCLA’s masses of temporary teachers: lecturers, adjunct
professors, and visiting professors from other schools.
The young academics usually take the position of lecturer as a
temporary job, but they remain concerned by the uncertainty of
reappointment.
"(Being a lecturer) is a good job, it’s just not my ultimate
goal," Cunningham said. "I desire to be a professor. I am currently
on a job search, and there are more jobs in my field so I am
optimistic. But I am in a state of complete uncertainty."
At the beginning of their careers, UCLA lecturers are placed on
one-year appointments. As they are more often reappointed, the
terms of their stay are expanded to up to six-year appointments. A
few lecturers at the university have expanded their stay as
lecturers into careers.
Inevitably, though, many of these lecturers are not looking to
merely seek reappointment. They are searching for full-time
professorships.
Susan Griffin, the university council coordinator with the
American Federation of Teachers, questions the reasoning behind the
heavy use of short-term employees.
"When you are temporary you are expendable," she said. "When
they need to get rid of you, they get rid of you."
In addition, teaching loads are far greater for lecturers than
regular professors. In order to be considered full-time, a lecturer
would have to teach 12 courses, although professors only have to
teach four.
Similar to a high school teacher, a lecturer has no control over
the courses he or she teaches. That’s up to the individual
departments.
For example, Cunningham was required to teach gay and lesbian
literature, although his expertise is in the field of general
contemporary literature.
And finally, the lecturer makes less than a starting assistant
professor. A starting assistant professor makes $42,000, versus
$34,000 for a starting, full time lecturer.
The pay of lecturers is not the only economic concern that
dictates the use of lecturers. The university is constrained by its
own budget.
Dr. Thomas Wortham, chair of the English department, said that
the usage of lecturers allows for flexibility within the
department.
It isn’t fiscally responsible to hire new assistant professors
each time the number of persons enrolled as English majors rises,
said Wortham. The number of students could go down, and then the
department would have a glut of professors with no courses to
teach.
But using professors for every class is not only fiscally
impossible. In fact, there are cases in which the use of a lecturer
is to the benefit of the student. The university uses its lecturers
for many of the classes that no other professor can teach.
"There are certain kinds of specialized courses that we could
not find regular series professors to teach," said Dr. Norman
Abrams, vice chancellor of academic personnel, "where people who
have specialized degrees are most effective as teachers."
Many UCLA’s lecturers are recent graduates of the school’s
graduate programs. Many of the departments give post-doctoral
fellowships to their recent Ph.D. earners so that they can earn a
living while working on their dissertations.
A happy medium, according to Wortham, is 80 percent lecturers to
20 percent professors. But because of the recent rounds of early
retirement, the UCLA English department is about 75 percent
lecturers to 25 percent professors.
While this may be true of the English department,
university-wide the majority of courses are being taught by
lecturers and other temporary employees.
For both Cunningham and Griffin, this is indicative of a trend
that is occurring in universities across the country.
"Universities are being run more like businesses," Cunningham
said.
"So certain things seen in the private sector, such as
downsizing and the use of temporary employees are being used more
at the university," Cunningham. "But instead of dying, it seems to
be growing in strength rather than diminishing. It is a part of the
restructuring of the university."