4 —The Daily Collegian Tuesday, Oct. 21, 1986
'Gypsies' teach
Part-time faculty members
By MARTY IRVIN
Collegian Stall Writer
Penn State students, along with other college
students nationwide, can now find gypsies teach
ing many of their classes.
“Gypsies,” as they are commonly called in the
education field, are instructors with part-time or
temporary full-time jobs, and they have become
increasingly prevalent on college campuses over
the past decade.
Federal government figures show that part-time
faculty made up 35 percent of college teaching jobs
in 1984, a 13 percent increase since 1970.
A report by the University Office of Planning
and Analysis titled “Academic Staffing Patterns”
shows that Penn State employs 613 part-time
workers.
The Office of Planning and Analysis divides
these part-time employees into two categories:
Fixed Term I and Fixed Term 11.
Fixed Term I is composed of full-time workers,
while Fixed Term II workers are employed part
time. Neither category provides a continuous
contract or elegibility for tenure-track. The Uni
versity employs 359 and 254. faculty members
under the Fixed Term I and Fixed Term II
categories, respectively.
Tenure-track is described by Iris Molotsky,
public information officer for the American Asso
ciation of University Professors, as being the
evaluation which a faculty member receives con
cerning tenure after working for seven years.
Faculty members not on tenure-track do not
receive this evaluation, Molotsky said.
Other statistics provided by the AAUP illustrate
the recent nationwide increase in part-time fac
ulty.
A 1983 National Research Council Data survey
indicates that 40 percent of the professors hired in
basic humanities disciplines in 1982-83 were ten
ured or placed in tenure-track positions, and over
30 percent of all full-time faculty members in
political science in 1984-85 received non-tenure
track positions.
A 1984 AAUP annual survey of 2,100 higher
education institutions indicated 40-45 percent of
non-tenure-track posts were held by women.
“A striking statistic” the report concluded,
“when one considers that, women held only 25
percent of the total number of full-time faculty
positions covered in the survey.”
Overall, between 10.6 percent and 12.6 percent of
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‘Students are denied a stable
learning environment and
often cannot interact with the
part-time instructors.’
—lris Molotsky, public information
officer for the American Association
of University Professors
5,000 time faculty members were not on a tenure
track in the spring of 1984, according to a survey
conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching.
College and University officials have different
opinions about the sudden interest in hiring “gyp
sies.”
Kenneth Mortimer, University vice president
and vice provost, sees temporary faculty as a way
to fill fluctuations in teaching loads, along with
giving instructors flexibility in assignments.
“There has been an opportunity to bring people
to the University who would not always come,” he,
said.
He also believes that temporaries may be more
familiar with certain areas of expertise, and “can
provide special skills which other full-time in
structors may not be qualified in.”
Carol Cartwright, dean for undergraduate pro
grams and associate provost, gives'other reasons
for hiring temporaries. They are: workload pres
sures to open additional sections of popular
courses; national shortages in fields where teach
ers arc often hard to get, such as engineering and
business administration; and specialized skills
which full-time employees may not always have.
The American Federation of Teachers, a teach
er’s union, is concerned about the recent trend in
hiring “gypsies.”
Carolyn Trice, a director for an AFT division,
said the union is particularly concerned about
whether the teachers are being hired because of
oversized classes and a legitimate need for in
structors at a short notice, or if universities are
hiring a few temporaries to replace one full-time
instructor.
This is a major concern for the union because
many temporaries receive no benefits and are
hired only to save the University money, Trice
said.
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Trice said she can forsee a limit in hiring
temporary teachers as a negotiating item in future
union contracts. She said that this will depend on
the individual university, however.
Other reasons given in the AAUP study on hiring
temporary instructors include:
• Increased flexibility in shorter contracts
• Growth in student enrollment.
• Minimized costs.
• The filling of traditional teaching fields,
Molotsky believes, however, that many of these
reasons are not valid arguments and that non
tenure-track appointments “are very detrimental
to faculty members and students.”
“The teachers,” she stated, “receive less-desir
able assignments and teaching loads, and this
permits a teaching underclass.”
She said teachers who work under these condi
tions have an uncertain professional future and
must often work under unprofessional conditions.
Faculty members are not the only persons who
receive a detriment from this system. The AAUP
believes there is an adverse effect on student
learning processes.
“Students are denied a stable learning environ
ment and often cannot interact with the part-time
instructors,” Molotsky said.
She said she believes freshmen often receive the
greatest adverse effect, since temporaries are
often assigned to freshman-level and large
classes.
Cartwright said a drawback of hiring "gypsies”
is a lack of continuity and stability in the educatio
nal system. She said that this may depend upon
how faculty members operate within the depart
ment.
It is difficult to tell whether or not temporaries
have an effect upon student learning, she said.
This factor is dependent upon the interest in
teaching which each individual instructor has, and
not whether the faculty member is full- or part
time.
Mortimer, however, said he does not feel stu
dents are getting short-changed in their education.
“We do not compromise on our quality of efforts
in hiring part-time faculty,” he said, adding,
“How well a student learns is specific to the
faculty member how well-prepared the individ
ual faculty member is for the job.”
Mortimer is concerned with the extent to which
temporaries are used. He does believe they are
overused at some colleges, but does not feel Penn
State is near that point.
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If you would like an appointment with Mr. Brown
lo discuss law at the Catholic University of America
please contaci the Political Science Department in
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1:00p.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
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THE HIGH LIFE TOUR 'B6
Philadelphia
with 4,000
Beach Boys
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - When
City Representative Dianne Seming-
son tried to collect a bad debt for the
city, she ended up with 4,000 copies of
a Beach Boys album that can't be
sold in record stores.
The city seized the records from the
Love Foundation to help cover a
$267,000 debt from a July 4, 1985,
Beach Boys concert the organization
arranged.
Before raiding the Love Foundation
Warehouse, Philadelphia won a $267,-
000 judgment against the group but
found 'only $1,600 in the foundation’s
California bank account, said Linda
Berman, the former assistant city
solicitor who handled the case.
The foundation had hoped to pro
mote the records on a local radio
station and distribute them through
Parkway Publishing Co., but the city
wasn’t certain the proceeds from the
sale would be applied toward the
debt.
“We didn’t get the assurances that
we had asked for repeatedly, that
there would be a deal,” Berman said.
The foundation’s attorney, Robert
Ilirschman, said the city acted too
quickly because contracts were in the
works to sell the records. By seizing
the albums, he said, the city has
The Daily Collegian Tuesday, Oct. 21, 1986—5
stuck
unsold
albums
taken away the foundation’s ability to
pay.
“The city’s senseless, thoughtless
act put the foundation out of business
in Philadelphia and thereby rendered
it unable to make any substantial
payments on the judgment in favor of
the city of Philadelphia,” Hirschman
said in an Aug. 14 letter to City Solici
tor Handsel Minyard.
Meanwhile, 4,000 copies of “Fourth
of July (A Rockin’ Celebration of
America)” sit in a warehouse.
Under an agreement between the
foundation and the recording artists,
the records cannot be sold where they
will compete with the artists’ other
record labels, said Brian E. Appel,
the assistant city solicitor who is now
handling the case.
The album features 11 songs by the
Beach Boys and several other artists,
including the Oak Ridge Boys, The
Four Tops, Three Dog Night and
America. Most of the songs were
recorded at the 1985 July Fourth
concerts in Philadelphia and Wash
ington.
Semingson worked out the city’s
original deal with the Love Founda
tion for the 1985 concert and gave
final approval for the arrangements.
She declined to, discuss the subject.