Delphi Project releases new study on future of the faculty

Report challenges pervasive myths college faculty, identifies priorities moving forward

The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, an initiative of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, has released a new report titled “The Professoriate Reconsidered.” Previous Delphi Project publications such as Adapting by Design illustrated the main reasons why a new faculty model is needed but suggested that a lack of shared vision is standing in the way of the creation of a new model. In summarizing the results of a national survey of college stakeholders, “The Professoriate Reconsidered” provides an outline of that shared vision for the future of the faculty role.

“We already know all of the reasons why change is necessary,” said Adrianna Kezar, professor of higher education and co-author of the report. “And yet, the change that we need has been so difficult to get started. It’s past time, but it’s not too late for us to come together—across stakeholder groups and the enterprise, as a whole—to deliberate over and advance a new vision for the faculty.”

The report identifies a strong consensus among stakeholders to reprofessionalize the faculty role by protecting academic freedom, including faculty in shared governance, offering equitable pay and providing opportunities for advancement and professional development.

The report summarizes findings of a national survey that collected the views of stakeholders of all ranks and appointment types: provosts and deans, board members, accreditors and state-level higher education policymakers. It highlights key areas of agreement about priorities for future faculty models, lending points of consensus to move a greater dialogue about the future of the faculty from idea to reality. The survey was funded by the TIAA-CREF Research Institute.

“Too frequently, we hear that disagreements between stakeholder groups and concerns over feasibility are responsible for inaction to change the current, broken faculty model,” said Daniel Maxey PhD ’15, former co-director of the Delphi Project and co-author of the report. “This report identifies common ground that can be the basis for a renewed discussion about our shared future.”

Maxey graduated from USC Rossier this spring and is now a Provost’s Fellow in the Office of the Provost at Santa Clara University. Co-author Elizabeth Holcombe is a second-year PhD student at USC Rossier and also collaborated with Kezar on the Delphi Project’s new tool to evaluating adjunct faculty working conditions. Kezar is also co-director of both the Delphi Project and the Pullias Center.