The Status of Non-Tenured Faculty of Color in the Governance Process

Abstract

This article calls for a comprehensive look at research and policy issues affecting nontenured faculty in general, and faculty of color in particular, and at governance issues in American colleges and universities with a special focus on metropolitan universities. The author argues that the confluence of three national trends: ( 1) changing faculty demographics, (2) increasing numbers of women and men of color in the doctoral pipeline at the same time that there are fewer faculty being hired on the tenure track, and (3) shifting student demographics that will bring 2.6 million new entrants into higher education make it imperative that institutions prepare themselves for these profound changes that will shape the academy for the rest of the 21st century.