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The American College Teacher: National Norms for 2001-2002

There is increasing polarization in the political identification of college and university faculty, a new UCLA study shows.

Today, only 34 percent of college and university faculty identify as “middle-of-the road” politically (down from 40 percent in 1989). Although the percentage of faculty identifying as “conservative” or “far right” (18 percent) has changed very little, the percentage identifying as either “liberal” or “far left” has grown from 42 percent to 48 percent.

Movement toward “liberal” or “far left” political identification over the last 12 years has been especially strong among women faculty: from 45 percent to 54 percent.

Since 1989, there has been a 9 percent increase in the percentage of women who self-identify as “liberal” or “far left” compared with just a 3.5 percent increase among men. Today, 54 percent of women, compared to only 44 percent of men, identify as politically “liberal” or “far left.” In 2001, 21 percent of male professors and 14 percent of female professors defined their political views as either “conservative” or “far right.”

"The disproportionately greater shift we see toward liberal political views among women faculty may be attributable to their dissatisfaction with the Republican Party’s current position on issues that often impact women’s lives more directly such as abortion, welfare and equal rights,” said Jennifer Lindholm, UCLA visiting assistant professor, associate director of the Higher Education Research Institute’s Cooperative Institutional Research Program and lead author of the faculty survey.

The 2001–02 faculty survey is the fifth triennial survey conducted since 1989 by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), housed at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. The latest survey involved 55,521 faculty and administrators at 416 colleges and universities nationwide. Of those, questionnaires from 32,840 full-time undergraduate teaching faculty at 358 institutions were used to compute the national norms. The numbers were adjusted statistically to represent the nation’s total population of approximately 442,000 college and university faculty.

Faculty more attentive to students
Compared with faculty in 1989, today’s faculty indicate greater attentiveness to students’ overall well-being. Faculty are more likely to view their colleagues as being interested in students’ academic problems (83 percent, up from 76 percent) and personal problems (78 percent, up from 74 percent).

The study revealed an even larger increase (46 percent, up from 34 percent in 1989) in the view that it is easy for students to meet with professors outside of their regular office hours.

Additionally, since 1995, faculty perceptions of students’ academic preparation have also improved. Although less than one-third (32 percent) of today’s faculty feel that students at their institution are well prepared academically, today’s figure is up from 28 percent in 1998 and 24 percent in 1995.

Greater focus on diversity issues
Faculty today are more likely than ever before to believe that American colleges and universities are promoting multiculturalism. Between 1989 and 2001, the percentage of faculty who perceive that their institution places a priority on creating a multicultural campus environment has increased from 40 percent to 54 percent.

Today, 91 percent of faculty also agree that a diverse student body enhances students’ educational experience, while 60 percent endorse enhancing students’ knowledge of other racial and ethnic groups as an “essential” or “very important” goal for undergraduates.

"Nevertheless, distinct gender differences persist with respect to faculty beliefs about, and commitment to, diversity issues,” Lindholm said.

Among today’s faculty, women are substantially more likely than men to indicate that promoting racial understanding is a “very important” or “essential” personal goal (68 percent versus 54 percent).

Women are also more likely than men to agree that a diverse student body enhances students’ educational experience (95 percent versus 88 percent) and less likely than men are to believe that the pursuit of diversity yields more under-prepared students (19 percent versus 33 percent).

More innovative teaching methods
Compared with their counterparts in previous years, the study also finds that faculty today are using a wider variety of teaching methods.

"Not surprisingly, given the rapidly growing use of technology in American society today, the greatest changes we see are in the faculty’s use of computer- and machine-aided instruction," Lindholm said.

Today, for example, 50 percent of faculty place and collect course assignments on the Internet (up from 36 percent in 1998) and 9 percent have taught a course exclusively on the Internet (up from 2 percent in 1998).

Today’s faculty are also increasingly more likely to use collaborative instructional methods such as cooperative learning and group projects. In addition, they are incorporating more writing activities across the curriculum.

"Both men and women faculty have broadened their teaching and evaluation methods over time," Lindholm said. "However, women continue to be more likely to use instructional approaches that encourage students to participate more actively in the learning process."

Continued gains in support for tenure
Faculty support for tenure continues to rise, despite an ongoing debate regarding the viability of the tenure system. The majority of both tenured and non-tenured faculty disagree with the statement, “tenure is an outmoded concept,” and increasingly agree, “tenure is essential to attract the best minds to academe.”

"The strongest advocates for the tenure system continue to remain the most highly ranked tenured faculty, while the greatest opposition to tenure continues to come from untenured professors,” Lindholm said. “However, over the past three years, untenured full professors show the largest increase in their support for tenure (up from 41 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2001).”

The Higher Education Research Institute is housed in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA. The institute serves as an interdisciplinary center for research, evaluation, information, policy studies and research training in postsecondary education.

Copies of the fifth triennial report, titled “The American College Teacher: National Norms for the 2001–2002 HERI Faculty Survey” (Jennifer A. Lindholm, Alexander W. Astin, Linda J. Sax and William S. Korn), are available to members of the public for $25 from the Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, 3005 Moore Hall, Box 951521, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521.

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