Many academics view the tenure-track and full professor titles as the end goal of many academics, yet these appointments are constantly dwindling and being replaced by contingent positions. Amid these discussions of tenure are conversations about equality within higher education — massive gaps remain for women and minority faculty. These gaps are often attributed to institutional prestige and networking advantages that favor graduates from elite universities. The University of Michigan is among the five doctoral-training universities — also including the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, and Stanford University — that collectively represent one in eight faculty members who studied at U.S. institutions.
There are other advantages to attending one of these five universities. The concept of “self-hiring,” or universities hiring students who have completed their Doctor of Philosophy program at that same university, is not new. At the University, associate and full professors generally receive tenure while assistant professors are on the tenure track. To be considered for tenure, a committee completes a thorough review of the faculty member to ensure their scholarship, research, teaching and service meet the highest standards and are congruent with the needs of the institution. For most colleges at the University, the review process is completed in the sixth or seventh year of an untenured faculty member’s period. However, large gaps persist in the rate at which underrepresented faculty are advancing to higher faculty ranks.
A study found that a major determinant in whether one receives a tenure-track faculty position is where one received their PhD. This influences the underrepresented minority representation within tenure-track faculty. In fall 2023, URM groups made up less than 15% of the graduate and professional students in Ann Arbor. This data tracks similarly at the other top four doctoral-training universities.
Non-Tenure Track Faculty Has Increased in the Past Decade
Dependence on instructional staff who lack tenure track access for teaching has increased at colleges over the past 10 years, with the percentage of faculty members in full-time tenured positions dropping from 39% in 1987 to 24% in 2021. This has affected who is receiving tenure. Because increased reliance on contingent faculty by colleges has heavily impacted the tenure process, it has disproportionately affected women and minority faculty.
Female Lecturers Outnumber Male Lecturers by 75% on Average
Male professors have continued to outnumber female full professors at the University. While the percentage of female professors has increased by 6% from 2015 to 2024, there remains a larger gender disparity in full professorship compared to associate and assistant professors, and especially in comparison to contingent positions, such as lecturers.
This has also generated increased concerns in times when education has been under increasing scrutiny from the government. Some professors worry that shifting to more contingent faculty is a threat to the purpose of tenure, protecting what faculty can teach without fear of punishment or political and institutional pressure. Several state legislatures have introduced bills that would limit or eliminate tenure in recent years.
A 2020 American Association of University Professors report states that women comprise about 43% of full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty but roughly 54% of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty. Women remain more represented in positions that often lack the long-term job security and institutional influence that tenured roles offer.
White Faculty Made Up 75% of Tenured Faculty in 2015 and 70% in 2024
Tenured and tenure-track faculty at the University have become more diverse in the past 10 years, but a large disparity between white and minority professors remains. While academia positions itself as a meritocratic system, women and URM have faced challenges in applications for positions, research presentations and teaching evaluations — key factors for promotion and tenure decisions.
A study found URM faculty received 7% less votes and were 44% less likely to receive unanimous votes from promotion and tenure committees. Aside from the disadvantages URM students face in the start of their careers in graduate school admissions, they also face barriers in the peer review, grant funding and patent acquisition processes.
Lecturer positions and adjunct positions also represent the most diverse positions at universities nationwide. For full-time, non-tenure-track appointments, the ratio of white faculty to underrepresented minorities has shrunk from about ten to one in 1993 to seven to one in 2013, according to a 2016 faculty diversity study.
In December 2024, the University eliminated the use of diversity statements in the hiring, promotion and tenure processes. Candidates no longer have to explain how they will contribute to the University’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts. Diversity has been found to produce more innovative research, yet the efforts of underrepresented groups continue to be devalued and discounted.
In 2021, the University’s ADVANCE program, which focuses on faculty recruitment and retention, along with the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, conducted informal discussion groups with Black, Indigenous and People of Color tenure-track faculty. Some of the main themes brought up include unconscious bias, lack of representation and having to constantly prove their value in ways that white colleagues do not. In eight of 12 discussion groups with faculty, the feeling that their service was invisible was brought up. Faculty members mentioned that students of Color sought them out for support and felt pressured to contribute to DEI work but were unsure if this mentoring and service were truly being valued and considered in annual reviews.
In eight of 12 discussion groups with faculty, the feeling that their service was invisible was brought up. Faculty members mentioned that students of color sought them out for support and felt pressured to contribute to DEI work, but were unsure if this mentoring and service was truly being valued and considered in annual reviews. A previous ADVANCE study also found that faculty of Color were less satisfied with their department leadership than White faculty.
Over the past 10 years, U-M has seen a shift in the composition of its faculty; however, many trends related to the tenure-track remain similar. Similar to national trends regarding the diminishment of the tenure-track, the University has increasingly relied on lecturers and other non-tenure-track faculty to meet instructional demands. Although these positions include more underrepresented groups, many worry about the future of higher education with reduced job security.
Michigan Daily Data Journalist Zora Tucker can be reached at zrtucker@umich.edu
