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SPONSOR: |
McSorley |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Use of Non-tenure Track Faculty in NM |
SB |
SJM 36 |
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ANALYST: |
L. Baca |
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APPROPRIATION
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Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
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NFI |
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Responses
Received From
Commission
on Higher Education (CHE)
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
Senate Joint Memorial
36 requests the New Mexico Legislative Council appoint an appropriate interim
legislative committee to review the use of part-time and non-tenure track
faculty in New Mexico’s post-secondary educational institutions and requests
the Commission on Higher Education study the effect of the use of such faculty
in place of tenured or tenure track, full-time professional faculty on
educational standards and report to the interim legislative committee.
Significant
Issues
The quality of education in a college or
university requires the use of full-time, permanent tenured faculty and that
courses be taught by highly qualified people, whether they are full-time or
part-time employees. Various national
studies have shown a trend toward the hiring of part-time, non-tenured faculty
who often teach in substandard conditions. These highly qualified individuals
should be rewarded in a manner consistent with their qualifications and
commensurate with tenure track faculty.
National professional organizations representing university and community
college faculty, administrators and trustees have agreed, that fair compensation
for part-time and non-tenure track faculty should be on a pro rata rather than
per-course-hour rates, at least as a goal.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
The CHE reports
implementing this memorial will have a major impact on CHE staff time.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
Quoted
below, as cited in the CHE analysis, are the conclusions of “House Joint Memorial
73, 2001 Regular Session, which requested that the CHE study staffing patterns
for full- and part-time faculty and classified staff at New Mexico institutions
of higher education and make recommendations for ratios of full-time to
part-time faculty and classified staff.
The quality of education and services delivered to clients of the higher
education institutions was the concern of the memorial.
“The
CHE published Report of Full-time/Part-time Faculty and Staff Ratios 2002. The study came to the following conclusions:
1) Outside of public
research universities, the data from New Mexico institutions for the use of
part-time faculty does not appear to be far out-of-line with the data gathered
nationally for similar institutions.
Relative to the
2) For part-time staff
employees, the
3) There is little in the
literature to suggest that the utilization of part-time faculty is a detriment
to quality, and the advantages and disadvantages of using part-time faculty and
staff is about evenly weighted.
4) In a time of some
economic uncertainty, where institutions may be required to display some
flexibility, and since there are no strong negative indicators in the use of
part-time faculty and staff, the conclusion drawn is that no recommendations
should be provided to the institutions relative to the use of part-time
employees.”