NP academic job boom

[Derek C. Maus]

On Mon, 3 Jul 2000, Doug Millison wrote:

> The result is that more than 34,000 new professors will have to be
> recruited in the first major hiring program since the 1970s. At stake,
> educators say, is nothing less than the quality of the state's higher
> education system for a generation to come.

The kicker will, of course, be whether or not they choose to hire
temporary help for all of these jobs--i.e., low-cost adjuncts with few or
no benefits and "competitive" salaries predicated on contracts that renew
annually based on enrollment--or whether they make a genuine commitment to
having a professoriate that actually remains fairly steady until the 2050
date they mentioned in the article. My guess is they won't be able to find
34,000 people willing to work for half of what most of the undergraduates
they teach will make on leaving school, but that they will try to do so
anyway.

Do the right thing, Cali.

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