|
QUICK CLICKS: |
Table of Contents |
|
In the KnowA Faculty Career Satisfaction PollThe nation's faculty love teaching—and their professional autonomy and intellectual freedom—but worry that workloads are too demanding and students underprepared. The new American Faculty Poll, a nationwide survey of professors, finds that over 90 percent of faculty are generally content with their career choice. But the poll finds considerable concern among faculty about a variety of issues ranging from tenure and teaching loads to student preparation and the increasing use of part-time teachers. Faculty also worry, says the survey, about a lack of institutional support for scholarly work-and feel that public support for the academy is eroding. The survey of 1,500 full-time faculty members at two- and four-year institutions was sponsored by TIAA-CREF and conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. By far the most compelling factor for those deciding to pursue an academic career is a basic love of teaching, the poll found, closely followed by a deep commitment to learning, professional independence and autonomy, and intellectual freedom. "The intrinsic rewards of higher education highlighted in this poll prove what we've known in our hearts all along," says National Education Association Council for Higher Education President Barry Stearns, who served on the committee that commissioned the survey. "Teaching and preparing students for the workforce is enormously rewarding." On the other side of the ledger, a substantial number of faculty feel that institutional support, in the form of financial resources and release from other assignments, is not adequate to promote faculty research and scholarship activities. The absence of this support, faculty note, thwarts the ability of professors to advance knowledge in their field of expertise. This lack of institutional support is felt more strongly by women and non-white faculty members. Faculty at four-year public institutions also cite this problem more often than than faculty at independent universities. Another key source of discontent with academic life: teaching load. Only 20 percent are "very satisfied" here. Only 13 percent, meanwhile, are "very satisfied" with salary and benefits, and only 30 percent currently are "very satisfied" with the time they have for family and personal needs. Assaults on tenure and the increasing use of part-time and adjunct faculty are also, the poll found, major faculty concerns. The full report is available online at www.norc.uchicago.edu/online/tiaa-fin.htm.
|
||
