The incoming faculty representative to the Fort Lewis College Board of Trustees wasted no time or words in laying out his colleagues’ most pressing concern – the declining number of instructors, particularly tenured faculty.
The trend of replacing tenured or tenure-track professors with adjuncts doesn’t bode well for academia, said Justin McBrayer, who teaches political science and philosophy, in a seven-page report.
McBrayer is correct about the decline in tenured ranks, and the administration shares his concern, campus spokesman Mitch Davis said Monday. Davis attributed the fall off to a drop in enrollment and the $4.5 million state funding cut in 2010.
In recent years, faculty hiring and student enrollment have become more stable, Davis said. In 2013, 11 tenure-track professors were hired, and 15 were added this year, he said.
“It should be noted that faculty salaries were 85 percent of the national peer average in 2010,” Davis said. “Today, faculty salaries stand at 101 percent of the national peer average.”
All the statistics he presents refer to FLC and were gathered from publicly available sources, McBrayer said.
Among the points McBrayer makes are:
The number of FLC instructors is dropping in absolute terms – from about 220 in 2000 to about 180 in 2013.
Tenured or tenure-track professors who comprised 95 percent of the FLC faculty in 1990, accounted for just less than 70 percent of all teachers in 2013.
The campus also is losing teachers in relative terms.
Teaching personnel, who comprised almost 80 percent of all FLC employees in 1970, in 2013 represented 30 percent of the payroll.
Budgeted teacher salaries accounted for 45 percent of all cash expenditures in 1970. In 2013, the figure dropped to 20 percent.
The shock wave from loss of faculty is felt in declining student enrollment and concurrently an increase in the ratio of students to instructors, particularly tenured or tenure-track professors, McBrayer said.
In 1970, there were 23 students per faculty member, a number that fell to 20 in 2013. But the ratio, now 21, is one of the worst in state.
In fact, FLC has more undergraduate students per instructor than any of 11 other state institutions of higher education except for Colorado Mesa University and Metropolitan State University – tied at 27 – the report shows.
The University of Denver has eight undergraduates per instructor. The University of Colorado, Boulder and Colorado State University, Fort Collins each have nine undergraduates per instructor.
At FLC, the ratio of students to tenured or tenure-track professors has risen from 27 in 1970 to 30 in 2013.
McBrayer’s report came before FLC trustees gather Friday on campus for their first meeting of the academic year.
A higher student-faculty ratio lowers student retention. In 2011, 65 percent of FLC first-time freshmen returned; in 2012, it was 64.9 percent; in 2013, the number was 60.8 percent.