The composition of the faculty is undergoing a rapid transformation, including perhaps the swiftest-ever redistribution of types of academic appointments, moving to greater reliance on non-tenure-track faculty members, said Jack Schuster, professor of education and public policy at Claremont Graduate University, during a concurrent session. “This is a radical departure from past practice, and has led to a ‘respecialization’ among faculty,” he said, adding that the phenomenon is especially relevant to CIC institutions because of the importance of faculty members in the teaching/learning process, which is emphasized at these institutions.
     The consequences in terms of benefits and costs of this academic restructuring are many, Schuster said. Among the benefits and costs:

• For the institution: Benefits—Greater financial flexibility and responsiveness to students; increased ability to redeploy instructional staff; and increased competitiveness. Costs—Corporatization and de-emphasis of academic values.
• For the faculty: Benefits—More specialization and thus more efficient staffing. Costs—Increased workload for small core faculty; reduced influence of faculty members; and fewer “all positions” faculty members (teaching/research/campus service).
• For the students: Benefits—More of a student-centered than faculty-centered focus and more cost-efficient instruction (thus fewer cost increases for students). Costs—Academic standards are subject to market forces.
• For the academic profession: Benefits—None. Costs—Limited opportunities for traditional academic careers; stratification of fields by level of market demand (e.g., business over physics); a chronically depressed job market in the traditional arts and sciences; and increased difficulty in recruiting and retaining the “best and brightest.”
• For society: Benefits—Increased efficiency in achieving definable outcomes; increased responsiveness to societal needs; increased capacity to manage costs of higher education; and increased access to higher education. Costs—Increased polarization of higher education into elite/traditional/residential venues and the unknown costs to society of higher education’s diminished ability to attract/retain top talent as faculty.