Exploring Faculty Dispositions When Long-Term Contracts Are Offered Instead of Tenure Across an Institution

Abstract

This article examines faculty job security and satisfaction at a burgeoning public college that offers faculty long-term contracts for the ranks of assistant, associate, and full professor, but does not offer tenure to any faculty. Through focus groups, interviews, and a survey of over 100 faculty, we find that promotion in conjunction with long-term contracts at this non-tenure-granting institution offers faculty moderate levels of job security and satisfaction, particularly for men. Promotion may have different effects on security and satisfaction, depending on gender and the degree to which the respondents believe they understand their contract. Since the faculty’s contract satisfaction is associated with their perceived understanding of its terms, we argue that it is important that those terms be transparent at this institution and others that may implement a similar long-term contract structure.