Westmont Magazine Westmont’s Stark Contrast to National Teaching Trends

The Provost’s Office gathers statistics about the number of credit hours individual professors teach each year. At a time when colleges and universities increasingly rely on part-time professors, the report for 2018-2019 reveals that full-time faculty teach most of the classes at Westmont. During the fall and spring semesters last year, Westmont offered 38,345 credit hours, and full-time faculty taught 31,544, or 82 percent. Counting the courses taught by other full-timers at the college such as coaches, student life professionals and administrators, the total increases to 33,428, or 87 percent. Add in Mayterm, and it climbs even more to 88 percent.

These statistics provide a stark contrast to national trends. According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), tenured or tenure-track faculty teach only 21 percent of courses at American colleges and universities. Nearly half of the teaching faculty are part-timers, and at least 14 percent are graduate assistants.