AAUP Releases New Report on the Economic Status of the Profession
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) PROFESSORS published the Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2020–2021 this past July. It details “how years of unstable funding, combined with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, have created an existential threat to shared governance and academic freedom in higher education that severely weakens our nation’s ability to effectively educate our communities.”
The report presents findings from three related AAUP studies: 2020–2021 Faculty Compensation Survey, a follow-up COVID-19 survey, and key findings from secondary data analyses on faculty/staff employment and institutional finance data.
The 2020–2021 Faculty Compensation Survey concluded in March 2021 and its main takeaways focus on change in real wages for full- time faculty. Not only did the survey find that real wages for full- time faculty decreased at 67.9 percent of institutions surveyed, after adjusting for inflation, but also that the real wages decreased (-0.4 percent) for the first time since the Great Recession. The degree of change in real wages for part-time faculty is unclear since data was not collected on part-time faculty during the 2020–2021 academic year. That being said, outside research notes these faculty members have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 in terms of layoffs and furloughs.
AAUP’s follow-up COVID-19 survey was administered in March 2021 and focused on college and university responses to the pandemic. Institutions across the country are still struggling to balance their budgets and implemented furloughs, layoffs, salary cuts, and hiring freezes to stay afloat during the pandemic. The survey found nearly 54.7 percent of institutions implemented salary freezes or reductions, almost 5 percent of institutions terminated full-time tenure-line faculty appointments, and nearly 20 percent of institutions terminated appointments or denied contract renewal for full-time non-tenure-track faculty members.
Lastly, the AAUP Research Department’s three secondary data analyses on faculty contingency, administration growth, and institutional debt contributed to the Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2020–2021. The faculty contingency study discovered 63 percent of faculty members were on contingent appointments, 26.5 percent were tenured, and only 10.5 percent were on a tenure track. Unlike faculty appointments, administration compensation and positions grew within the last decade. The growth administration study found the “numbers of staff classified as ‘management’ increased 12 percent per FTE student [and] real average salaries increased 7 percent.” In terms of institutional debt, an AAUP study revealed U.S. higher education long-term debt grew 71.1 percent, more than $336 billion, between the 2008–2009 fiscal year and the 2018–2019 fiscal year.
The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2020– 2021 concludes with an urgent call “for governing boards, legislators, and other policymakers to provide funds for a substantial readjustment of academic salary levels to avoid irreparable harm to the U.S. higher education system.”
Department of Education Pledges Renewed Commitment to International Education
On July 26, the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of State released the Joint Statement of Principles in Support of International Education. It marks the first time in nearly 20 years that the federal government issued a statement on America’s commitment to international education.
According to the statement, the agencies hope their coordinated national approach to international education will “welcome international students, researchers, scholars, and educators to the United States in a safe and secure manner” as well as “encourage U.S. students, researchers, scholars, and educators who reflect the diversity of the U.S. population to pursue overseas study, internships, research, and other international experiences.”
While the statement does not outline specific policy plans, it does state both agencies aim to implement policies and procedures “to facilitate international education and authorized practical experiences while promoting program integrity and protecting national security.”
International education experts praise the joint statement’s goal to increase global academic engagement. The statement “is a welcome initiative that signals an exciting advancement in rebuilding and restoring U.S. engagement with the world,” said Esther D. Brimmer, the executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators in a July 26 statement.
Department of Education Issues Resources on Title IX
ON JULY 20, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) released “Questions and Answers on the Title IX Regulations on Sexual Harassment” and a related appendix. According to a Department of Education July 20 press release, the 67-page Q&A document “clarifies how OCR interprets schools’ existing obligations under the 2020 amendments, and the Appendix provides examples of Title IX procedures.” While these clarifications of guidance do not present any major changes to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, higher education leaders are still waiting to learn the extent of changes to Title IX to come under the Biden administration. The Q&A document is online at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/202107-qa-titleix.pdf.
Selective Bias Report Finds “No Strong Evidence” of Admissions Discrimination Against Asian American Students
On July 15, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) released Selective Bias: Asian Americans, Test Scores, and Holistic Admissions. The report evaluates common arguments made by affirmative action critics and Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit membership group currently suing Harvard University over their admissions practices.
Report Authors Anthony Carnevale and Michael C. Quinn found “no strong evidence” of admissions discrimination against Asian American applicants at 91 of the most selective colleges in America. Their research focused primarily on data related to enrollment, standardized test scores, and admissions systems.
According to Selective Bias, the enrollment share of Asian American and Pacific Islander students at America’s most selective institutions “has kept pace with their growing share of the four-year college-going population” and not decreased due to admissions discrimination. The report goes on to state Asian American and Pacific Islander shares of enrollment at the majority of elite institutions studied increased by 4 percent “even while their enrollment share at all four-year colleges grew by just 2 percentage points between 1999 and 2018.”
Standardized test scores are key to college applications, and the report authors analyzed SAT scores of applicants who scored 1300 or above to determine if any correlation existed between admissions racial bias and test scores. Carnevale and Quinn found that Asian American applicants were 15 percent more likely than non-Asian applicants to apply to elite colleges regardless of their test scores. Therefore, “they are more likely to be denied a seat, which is not evidence of bias,” said the report.
Carnevale and Quinn also grappled with questions about test-only admissions systems vs. holistic admissions systems throughout the report. Their research concludes that the gain for Asian American applicants in a test-only admissions system at elite colleges is marginal: fewer than 3,000 seats compared to the roughly 14,500 seats Asian American students typically occupy in an admissions year. Regarding holistic admissions systems, Selective Bias discovered 21 percent of Asian American students and 39 percent of non-Asian American students would actually lose their seats at elite colleges to students with higher test scores. “The holistic admissions system generally seems to benefit many Asian American applicants,” said Quinn in a July 15 press release.
Hope College’s New “Pay It Forward” Model Is Tuition-Free
On July 14, President Matthew A. Scogin of Hope College, a private Christian liberal arts college in Michigan, announced the launch of “Hope Forward.” This tuition-free financial model asks students to donate to the college every year after they graduate to fund the next generation of students. During his inaugural address, Scogin stated the new model will “free up our students to pursue real impact, to really provide hope into the world rather than chasing income in order to pay off their student loan bills.” The first tuition-free cohort will be 20 students, but Hope College aims to raise $1 billion over the next 10–15 years to fully fund all 3,000 undergraduates for years to come.
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