In a Central Michigan Life survey of more than 300 randomly selected undergraduates, 44.2 percent say they don't see a difference between temporary instructors and tenured or tenure-track professors when asked if they have a preference between the two.

"I would say that the majority of students, especially freshmen and sophomores, they don't have any idea at all as to whether their faculty is temporary," said Bruce Roscoe, dean of students.

Tenured faculty favored by students

Some students prefer tenured professors because of their qualifications. In fact, 22.4 percent of polled students said so.

Chrissy Fritsch said she has had 100-level courses taught by temporary instructors, which resulted in a less than satisfactory education.

This partially leads to her preference of tenures because they do have terminal degrees.

"I figure the teachers I have that have had doctorate degrees have been here for awhile," the Midland freshman said. "They better know how to interact with students. They also seem like they know the information better because they've been teaching longer."

Troy senior Kenny Brezenski said he prefers tenured professors over temporaries because temporaries aren't bound to stay at CMU.

"I just think (tenures) are more committed," he said. "Temporary instructors are just here and then they're gone."

However, of the students surveyed, 19.6 percent prefer temporaries because they define themselves as teachers.

Roscoe said there can be real benefits to being strictly a classroom educator, as opposed to a researcher like tenures are.

"They often have a lot of experience in the classroom," he said. "Because they're temporaries, they understand the pressure of performing well year to year in order to be rehired."

Shannon McEown said it seems like temporaries have something to prove and that they are beneficial because some come from the professional world to teach on a part-time basis.

"They work harder in order to make it so students will like them and recommend their classes to other students," the Mount Pleasant sophomore said. "I don't pick my classes based on my professors. I just found the classes taught by temporary professors to be more fun."

Adjunct drawbacks

Students are affected in several ways as more of their classes are instructed by temporaries, regardless of the quality of that instructor.

John Curtis, American Association of University Professors director of research and public policy, said having large numbers of instructors not participating as regular faculty members can have negative effects on students.

"It means for the student they don't have a chance to develop a relationship with a faculty member," he said.

Adjunct instructors might also lack the advantages of academic freedom, Curtis said, because the psosition "can't take on anything that might be controversial or raise something to students in class."

Temporaries, unlike tenured professors, are also not required to carry out any service to the university, which includes academic advising.

"Students who may like their temporary faculty would like to have that person as their adviser," Roscoe said. "And the person says, 'I can't be your adviser. I'm hired to teach, I'm not hired to advise.'"

In a November interview, Interim Health Professions Dean Thomas Masterson said the funds dedicated to temporary positions in his college have increased.

These are the same funds that pay for anything from department initiatives to paper clips, but he said the funds increased because more temporaries were added to accommodate larger student demands.

Masterson said in the case of over-production, those funds are supposed to be invested in a new program or initiative within the college.

"It's not to say we don't do that, we just might be able to do more of that if we didn't have temporary faculty," Masterson said. "It's kind of a double-edged sword because you need the temporary faculty so you can increase the number of classes that you teach."

university@cm-life.com