The Effects of Part-Time Faculty on First Semester Freshmen Retention: A Predictive Model Using Logistic Regression

Abstract

Part-time faculty clearly serve a valuable purpose in higher education; however, their increased use raises concerns for administrators, faculty, and policy makers. Part-time faculty members spend a greater proportion of their overall time teaching, but the initial evidence suggests that these instructors are less available to students and are less engaged with the campus environment. Recent research attempts to connect part-time faculty utilization to student outcomes. This study explored the effects of exposure to part-time faculty instruction on student retention. Typical first-year students entering the study institution between 1999 and 2003 received over one-quarter of their total first-year instruction from part-time faculty. Furthermore, results show that as exposure to part-time faculty instruction increases, the odds of being retained decrease. Because the use of part-time faculty varies based on institutional type, additional research should focus on diverse institutional settings.

Faculty Appointments and Scholarly Activity: A Changing of the Guard?

“…These findings are not surprising given that contingent faculty often lack adequate office space, access to computers on campus, and workshops in the use of teaching with technology. These results showed contingent faculty are less likely to be engaged with students outside of the classroom, consistent with Jaeger (2008). She found that although part-time faculty are often unavailable for advising, committee work, and other non-instructional duties, this is also not part of their assignment.…”

“…The large proportion of non tenure-track faculty primarily teaching undergraduate level classes may raise questions regarding the type of instruction graduate or professional courses taught and students are receiving in foundation courses. For example, two studies showed that new college students had more than 25% of their academic credits taught by contingent faculty and students taught by contingent faculty had a reduced likelihood of persisting to the second semester (Harrington & Schibik, 2004;Jaeger & Hinz, 2008). Faculty who teach foundation and general education courses can enrich or diminish student learning by the attitudes, beliefs, and skills they have as teachers (Meacham, 2002).…”

“…"Faculty and their work are the heart, and thus determine the health, of every college and university and have a lasting impact on the many lives they touch" (Gappa et al, 2005, p. 32). Based on the growing trend of colleges and universities to eliminate tenure-track positions and replace them with non-tenure-track faculty and adjunct faculty, there is a perception among many in the academy that academic quality is threatened (Curtis & Jacobe, 2006;Haeger, 1998;Jaeger, 2008;Johnson, 2011;Ochoa, 2011;Roworth, 1997;Schuster, 2003;Townsend, 2003).…”

“…Huber (1997), consistent with Davis' view of teaching, found that during the Fall of 1996, community college faculty reported spending around 15 hours a week teaching undergraduates, where faculty at baccalaureate and master's institutions reported spending 10 hours a week. At the two-year institution level where contingent faculty (adjunct) comprise up to 70% of the faculty according Jaeger (2008) and up to 83% according to Thedwell (2008), Ried (2008) found that as the number of part-time faculty increases, graduation rates decrease. Interestingly, faculty at doctoral institutions and research institutions reported just 7.5 hours and 6 hours per week, respectively (Huber 1997).…”

“…Johnson continued to report a lower quality of academic instruction and less quality of impact on students' academic experience as a whole. Ultimately, since contingent faculty are hired primarily for classroom duties, access to them and their involvement in activities outside the classroom make them less accessible to students (Jaeger, 2008). Yet, with the use of more contingent faculty as contract workers, one can begin to seriously question the commitment to teaching and its quality across the academy as a primary work of faculty, which is to provide general instruction to the students.…”