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Table of Contents: Community College Historians in the United States |
Perspectives on the Community College Job Market: What to Expect
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With more than half of America's undergraduate student enrollment, community colleges are now a cornerstone of undergraduate teaching and learning. The missions and goals of two-year colleges are now multifaceted, serving the diverse needs of their local populations with increasingly sophisticated vocational training for the high-tech workplace, lifelong learning opportunities, and a multitude of specialized programs to directly and pervasively affect and improve the quality of life in their communities. On the eve of the twenty-first century, community colleges are equal and complementary partners in U.S. higher education. The number of community colleges has risen dramatically since Joliet Junior College opened its doors in 1901. By 1996 there were 1,113 public and private two-year institutions.(1) In 1994-95 they served "more than half of the nation's undergraduates and nearly 5 percent of its adult population."(2) Despite a slight decline in student enrollment in the mid-1990s, current projections indicate that the number of students at two-year institutions will rise in the decades ahead. (3) In 1995 there were 5.49 million students enrolled in public and private two-year institutions. For 1997 the projected student enrollment is 5.50 million. The projection for the year 2000 is 5.76 million and for 2007, 6.17 million.(4) In the next eight years California's community colleges are facing an anticipated tidal wave of 400,000 students in addition to the 1.40 million they currently educate annually.(5) Job Prospects Does this mean a corresponding increase in community college teaching jobs? After all, in 1993 some 7 percent of all full-time community college faculty were between the ages of 60-64, nearly 15 percent were between 55-59, and more than 20 percent were between 50-54.(6) And in 1993 more than 32 percent of full-time faculty indicated that they were very likely to leave or retire within three years, with 11.5 percent very likely to leave for a full-time job.(7) The answer is "yes." There will be jobs available, but it is highly likely that most of these jobs will be part-time, rather than full-time tenure-track positions. This is not surprising, given that there are an estimated 26 million part-time workers in America today.(8) In fact, "since 1973, the number of full-time faculty has held relatively steady, while the number of part-time faculty tripled." By 1993 full-time faculty members constituted only 35 percent of the total number of community college teachers across the country. The remaining 65 percent were part-time faculty.(9) In the fall of 1996 California's 106 community college system served 1.39 million students, with 16,000 full-time faculty and 26,700 part-time faculty.(10) Efforts to raise the ratio of full- to part-time faculty by instituting a 75 to 25 ratio of class instruction through state legislation (Assembly Bill 1725) have not significantly increased the number of full-time hires, because budgetary constraints cause many community college districts to rely on part-time faculty.(11) In the history department at the 23,000-student, single-campus El Camino Community College District in Los Angeles, for example, the number of full-time faculty members has dropped discernibly over the past decade. In the 1987-88 academic year there were twelve full-time historians in the department. By the fall of 1997 the number had dropped to five full-time historians. During this ten-year interval, three full-time positions were filled because of retirements.(12) Does this mean that El Camino College has not met its 75 to 25 obligation? Quite the contrary. What has happened is that the full-time hires have been in such areas as the natural and physical sciences, math, English, and Spanish because of growing student enrollments and difficulties in finding a sufficient number of part-time instructors to meet those needs. Unfortunately for the history department, student enrollment has steadily declined in the past five years, and there has been a ready supply of part-time historians to teach the general survey courses.(13) The difficulty has been in finding faculty to teach in such high-demand specializations as multicultural, Latin American/Mexican, and world history. Things have not fared better at the Miami-Dade Community College District in Florida, which serves 52,000 credit students. Twenty-five years ago there were more than twenty historians teaching at three campuses. Today, there are less than six historians at six campuses, none of whom has a full five-class-a-semester load exclusively teaching history classes. This decline reflects the fact that history is not a general education requirement, nor is it part of the transfer requirement to the state university system. Students can use history courses to fulfill a "distribution" requirement, but most choose other options.(14) Despite this bleak outlook, what can applicants for community college teaching positions expect? Although a master's degree is the minimum requirement, many community colleges are hiring faculty who have their doctorates in hand or who are in various stages of their doctoral programs. The three full-time faculty positions at El Camino College, for example, were filled by historians who had completed their doctorates. Newcomers will find that history departments are receptive to colleagues who are willing to experiment with new technologies, distance education, and various strategies to respond to the growing number of part-time and nontraditional students--many of whom are the first in their families to attend college.(15) Newcomers will also find that their colleagues across the campus are active in their respective disciplines and that many publish as much as their counterparts at four-year institutions. Part-time faculty in the community colleges are a heterogeneous group who "teach to perform, to contribute, and to support themselves and their families."(16) The life of the part-time community college faculty member is often not an easy one. "Happy to be doing what they love to do," part-time faculty face "low pay per course, no health or retirement benefits, a limit on the number of courses that they can teach, an irregular pay schedule, and job insecurity." To survive, many teach at more than one college or hold nonteaching jobs. For some, being a part-time faculty member has advantages. It provides excellent opportunities for graduate students to gain teaching experience and for qualified high school teachers. Furthermore, full-time, off-campus experts in various professional and vocational fields enjoy sharing their state-of-the-art knowledge with students to help them compete in the workplace. For many of these faculty (the full-time, off-campus experts), questions of comparable benefits are frequently not of great concern.(17) For college administrators struggling to contain costs, the use of part-time teachers has allowed them to meet the demands of new course and program requirements, particularly in rapidly changing technical areas when full-time faculty have not kept up-to-date.(18) By using part-time faculty, colleges are better able to respond to scheduling demands of part-time students, who constitute nearly two-thirds of the students at community colleges.(19) It is clear that dependence on part-time faculty is not an aberration, but a fact of life. As such, colleges face the challenge of integrating part-time faculty into their institutional culture to ensure curricular integrity and a quality educational experience for students.(20) Tips on Finding a Job at a Community College Although tenure-track vacancies may be found in such national publications as the Chronicle of Higher Education, most community college teaching jobs, and especially part-time positions, are advertised locally.(21) The easiest way to find out about vacancies is to contact the community college's personnel office for the following information: • Current and anticipated job openings in history. • The college's hiring procedures. • Copies of the application materials. Fill out the forms completely and accurately. Do not take shortcuts such as writing "see attached." If you do not meet the required qualifications as indicated in the job description, provide a supplemental page that explains in detail how your qualifications are the equivalent to those requested. • The length of time the application remains in the applicant pool before being cycled out. • How applicants are notified about vacancies. • Forthcoming job fairs and registries such as a statewide job bank.(22) • The name and title of the individual who is administratively responsible for historians on campus. This is important because most community college historians are part of interdisciplinary departments rather than separate history departments.(23) In addition to completing the paperwork for the college's personnel office, applicants should send a resume and a one-page letter of interest directly to the administrator in charge of the history program. That letter should address the administrator by name and title, briefly summarize the applicant's background as it relates to teaching, and request a meeting to discuss teaching opportunities at the college. It is also important to emphasize that you are available at a moment's notice, because assignments can be made immediately before or after the start of the semester, or sometimes in the middle of a semester in the case of an emergency or in response to unanticipated needs. Graduate students have an advantage in the job market if their advisers have established collegial relationships with neighboring community colleges through disciplinal interchanges and a track record of providing competent adjunct and substitute teachers. What should you expect if you are called for an interview, or at the very least, for a meeting with the administrator? • Do your homework before you appear on campus. At a minimum, this means getting copies of the college catalog and class schedule beforehand and arriving early to walk the campus to get a feel for the institution's culture. • Because of the teaching focus, you may be asked to give a teaching demonstration. If you are informed of this beforehand, find out as much about the parameters as possible; if not, be prepared anyway. Have copies of your teaching performance evaluations ready to share or to leave with the interviewers. • Whatever happens, it is important to complete the process by sending a follow-up thank you letter. While disheartening, failure to get the job does not mean the end of any future relationship with the college. How you comport yourself throughout the entire process sends a powerful message to the hiring committee and could open the door to future opportunities. After all, each full-time faculty position is a $2 million investment.(24) Some Final Observations For the determined and dedicated history teacher in search of that elusive full-time job, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic. Jobs are beginning to materialize, albeit in minuscule proportion to other disciplines. In the spring of 1997, for example, the multicampus Los Angeles Community College District advertised for fifty-four full-time faculty positions, although only one was in history.(25) And at El Camino College, we have placed a full-time, tenure-track position in world history in sixth place on a priority hiring list for 1998-99. In the meantime, prospective applicants would do well to find part-time jobs to gain actual classroom experience, build a reputation as an excellent teacher and cooperative colleague, and develop an understanding and commitment to the unique mission of two-year institutions. It is also imperative that applicants are comfortable with infusing computers and other technologies in their teaching. At colleges with limited funds to purchase library materials, instructors should be prepared to introduce students to the Internet as a rich source of new and expanded instructional materials. Applicants should remember that a chauvinistic monocultural approach to teaching U.S. history will not prepare our students to understand and effectively deal with domestic and international realities, unless this approach includes an expanded cast of characters and themes that reflect the rich and multifaceted mosaic of all Americans as well as an honest account of our relations with other nations. In addition to U.S. history, applicants should be prepared to teach another survey course in areas such as African, Asian, Latin American, and world history. Finally, never forget that the vast network of community colleges is a uniquely American concept, reflecting the notion that access to educational opportunities is at the heart and core of a truly participatory democracy. More than any other segment of U.S. higher education, two-year colleges directly meet the educational needs of individuals, exercise a pervasive influence on the quality of life in their communities, and serve the public good. Teaching at the community college provides rewarding and exciting opportunities to respond to the needs of individual students and the overall community to ensure that we produce competent, confident, and compassionate citizens who will not merely survive in the new millennium, but soar. Notes 1. See Kent A. Phillippe, National Profile of Community Colleges: Trends and Statistics, 1997-98 (Washington, D.C.: American Association of Community Colleges, 1997), 7. The Almanac edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education (August 29, 1997), 8, identified 1,462 public and private two-year institutions and 1,023 public and private four-year institutions. 2. See Phillippe, National Profile, 7. Community colleges "served more than 9.1 million credit students (and approximately 5 million more non-credit students) in the 1994-95 academic year, 5.2 million in the fall term alone." 3. Phillippe, National Profile, 24. The change in enrollment between 1974-94 was 39.3 percent; between 1985-94 it was 22 percent; and between 1990-94 it was 5.5 percent. 4.See Chronicle of Higher Education (August 29, 1997), 18. 5. "Save the 2-Year Colleges," Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1998, p. B-7. The article also lamented the "chronic underfunding (the state gives [community colleges] $3,821 per student compared to a national average of $6,626)..." 6. See Phillippe, National Profile, 99. 7. Phillippe, National Profile, 100. 8. Louise Lief, "An end to the dead-end job? It's not easy, but temps and part-timers are beginning to find career paths," U.S. News & World Report, October 27, 1997, p. 86. 9. Phillippe, National Profile, 85, 97. 10. See Randal C. Archibold, "Unification Is One Big Job," Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1997, p. B-2. Seventy percent of the 1,396,400 students were part-time students, while 30 percent were full-time students. 11. FACCC (Faculty Association of California Community Colleges), Briefing Paper for Legislators, Spring 1995 Community College Briefing, available online at http://www.faccc.org/briefing.htm [cited 7 December 1997]. 12. One position was filled in 1988; two were filled in 1989. In the fall of 1997 there were twelve part-time historians. 13. For example, enrollment dropped from 2,584 students in the fall of 1993 to 1,894 in the fall of 1997. 14. Historian Jon Alexiou, president of the Wolfson Campus (the downtown Miami campus of the Miami-Dade Community College District), has been with the Florida district for thirty years. He does not recall filling a full-time history position in the past ten years and is not optimistic about future full-time hires in the face of declining student enrollment in history in his district as well. 15. Because "nearly two-thirds of community college students attend college part-time, compared with just 40 percent of students at four-year colleges," two-year colleges offer a wide range of courses offered at such nontraditional times as weekends and through such mechanisms as television and the Internet. See Phillippe, National Profile, 20 16. John E. Roueche, Suanne D. Roueche, and Mark D. Milliron, Strangers in Their Own Land: Part-Time Faculty in American Community Colleges (Washington, D.C.: American Association of Community Colleges, 1995), vii. The authors found that "the terms part-time and adjunct could not be used interchangeably at many institutions, that the term adjunct sometimes identified a tenure-track or a 'full-time part-time' employee" (see page 24). 17. See Todd F. Cooper, "Part-Time Faculty at Two-Year Colleges," OAH Council of Chairs Newsletter (December 1994): 9-12. 18. See Roueche, Roueche, and Milliron, Strangers in Their Own Land, vii. 19. See Phillippe, National Profile, 20. 20. The impact of part-time faculty on the teaching profession continues to be of concern to the professional organizations. This concern was recently addressed at an AHA cosponsored "Conference on the Growing Use of Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty," held on September 26-28, 1997, in Washington, D.C. See Terri Snyder, "Conference Addresses Growing Use of Part-Time Faculty," and Elizabeth Kessel, "Part-Timers Fare Little Better at Community Colleges," OAH Newsletter (November 1997): 6, 8. Kessel (Anne Arundel Community College) observed that unlike many four-year institutions, community colleges provided clerical support, telephones, mailboxes, and parking to adjunct faculty; however, salaries are lower at two-year colleges. At that conference, a participant noted that "four-year colleges and universities have increasingly established a parasitic relationship with community colleges, expecting them to provide instruction in required, labor-intensive courses. Thus, colleges and universities may focus on courses that can be taught with larger class sizes or more specialized ones. Historians are just beginning to consider broad guidelines on the content and intellectual skills to be developed in survey courses and how best to foster a successful transition between two-year colleges and four-year institutions. See Barbara N. Ramusack, "Good Practices and Common Goals: The Conference on Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty," Perspectives (January 1998): 28. 21. See Oliver B. Pollak and Valerie L. Garver, "Where the Jobs Are: Survey of Listings in the Chronicle," Perspectives (May/June, 1997): 33-34. According to El Camino College's Barbara Perez, faculty coordinator in the human resources department, who has advertised for the college's job openings, most community colleges with full-time faculty vacancies place ads in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The absence of openings in history may be due to the lack of jobs in the discipline. 22. In California, for example, two community college statewide job fairs are held at the beginning of every calendar year, one in the north and the second in the south. In addition, there is a statewide job registry that is maintained by the California Community Colleges' Chancellor's Office; the web site is http://registry.yosemite.cc.ca.us. The job bank began as a staff diversity registry and now sends out monthly listings of all community college vacancies, both full- and part-time. 23. See Charles A. Zappia, "Survey of Community College Historians," OAH Newsletter (May 1995): 8. 24. Thomas M. Fallo, president and superintendent of El Camino Community College District, anticipates that each new faculty hire with a thirty-year tenure possibility commits the district to $1.6 million (including salary and benefits at $80,000 a year). Additional expenses for conferences, training and workshops, support activities, office staff, and ancillary costs (including costs into retirement) add $400,000 for a total of $2 million. "Putting a dollar amount on this selection," Fallo says, "often focuses on the importance of each decision. After all, learning is the community college's primary mission, and we depend on the faculty to nourish our students and to provide the community with greater than expected returns on its human investments. In the end, public higher education pays rather than costs the taxpayer." 25. See the California Community Colleges Job Bank Newsletter (November 1997). |
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