by Noah Roberts

THE TREND TOWARD HIRING fewer full-time professors and more part-timers is continuing in academe, according to a study released by the U.S. Education Department in January 2000. The department's data on the ratio of full-time to part-time faculty members are closely watched by academics. But the new numbers from the report, "Fall Staff in Postsecondary Institutions, 1997," don't show any significant or sharp increases in the hiring of part-timers -- just more of the same. That trend won't satisfy members of the professorate who believe the numbers are moving in the wrong direction.

The report, based on a survey conducted every two years by the department's National Center for Education Statistics, shows that colleges and universities were hiring more faculty members than they did in 1995. In 1997, 682,650 faculty members worked at four-year institutions-35,591 more than in 1995. But of those new hires, 11,083 were full-timers and 24,508 were part-timers. During that same period, the number of faculty members at two-year colleges increased to 307,163, from 248,415. Of the 22,748 new hires, 31 percent filled full-time posts, while 69 percent took part-time positions.

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