Teaching without Tenure: Policies and Practices for a New Era

The growing use of full-time non-tenure-track faculty represents a controversial change in the pattern of staffing colleges and universities. Teaching without Tenure provides the first comprehensive examination of this important phenomenon. Examining the issue from the perspectives of both institutions and faculty members, Roger G. Baldwin and Jay L. Chronister offer a systematic look at who non-tenure-track faculty are, the roles they play in higher education, and the policies that control the terms and conditions of their employment. Teaching without Tenure utilizes findings from a national study of full-time non-tenure-track faculty, including survey data, policy analysis findings, and information gathered from site visits with faculty and administrators at a cross-section of four-year colleges and universities across the United States. This timely study emerges in an environment in which many constituents of higher education have begun to question the feasibility of retaining the academic tenure system in its present form. Baldwin and Chronister discuss the internal and external factors influencing an institution's decision to hire non-tenure-track faculty and make recommendations for policies and practices that can support the work and career development of faculty in these positions. Designed to assist faculty, academic leaders, and institutions, Teaching without Tenure examines developments challenging the status quo in the American academic profession and offers guidance as higher education moves into an uncertain future.