The 1999 MLA Survey of Staffing in English and Foreign Language Departments

In 1999, the Modern Language Association conducted a survey of English and foreign language departments' use of tenured and tenure-track, full time non-tenure-track, and part-time faculty members and graduate teach ing assistants in colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The survey asked for information about who taught what in the fall semes ter of that year, including the number of instructors in each employment category and the number of undergraduate course sections that instructors in each category taught. The survey also asked about the professional sup port, benefits, and compensation for full-time non-tenure-track faculty members, part-time faculty members paid on a per-course basis, and part time faculty members paid a fractional fall-time salary. The survey was designed as a census of all modern language departments in the United States and Canada. Accordingly, in November 1999 the MLA contacted 5,245 departments in twoand four-year institutions identified from its database of departmental administrators. Data collection was com pleted in April 2000. Overall, 2,182 of the departments returned question naires, a 42% response rate. United States institutions accounted for 4,969 departments that received a questionnaire (94.7% of the total) and 2,081 that responded (95.4% of the total). Canadian institutions accounted for 276 departments that received a questionnaire (5.3%) and 101 that responded (4.6%). Departments in institutions that grant the doctorate had the highest