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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2001

News Release

Report Shows Widening Salary Gap Between Tenured and Non-Tenured Faculty

Washington, D.C. - The two-tiered employment system for higher education continues to erode salaries among non-tenured faculty, according to recent data collected from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty analyzed and published in the June issue of NEA's Higher Education Research Center Update.

"Tenure is vitally important to sustaining high quality in our nation's higher education system," said NEA President Bob Chase. "Unfortunately there is a shrinking number of tenured faculty members who are the guardians of the long-term educational health and quality of our public institutions."

Tenure allows for "due process"-- meaning that tenured faculty have academic freedom to conduct research and classes without fear of being fired because of political discrimination or censorship by an institution's administration.

Tenure continues to be a controversial issue in higher education in part because the public perception is that tenured faculty coast on previous work. The report's statistics show the opposite -- tenured faculty publish more than non-tenured and tenure-track faculty. Tenured faculty also spend more time on academic committees, which develop and implement the long-term direction of the institution.

Additionally, the study shows the percentage of women faculty members with tenure has increased from 40.8 percent in the 1992-93 school year to 44.5 percent in the 1998-1999 school year. During the same time frame, there was almost no change in the percent of total full-time faculty that are tenured. The report shows there has been an increase in the share of full-time faculty members teaching in institutions that do not even offer tenure to their employees.

The report analyzes data in the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty from the U.S. Department of Education. To look at the June issue of Update, and previous issues, visit www.nea.org/he/heupdate/index.html.

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.