Submitted by Higher Ed Fan, Aug 28, 2007 15:17

Here's a more reasoned prediction: Students and the city of New York will be the big winners because of CUNY' s commitment to its professional workforce. You can't expect undergraduates to thrive when half their teachers lack the job security, pay, health and retirement benefits, and even office space for planning and meeting with students that their full-time counterparts get. Even if students sit in classrooms and can't tell the difference between a temporary faculty member and a tenure track faculty member, the whole enterprise is on thin ice if you don't invest in the workforce. And CUNY has been relying on a dwindling number of full-time faculty who have had to carry the weight of increasing advising and committee responsibilities that part-timers aren't on campus to do. Now students will benefit from better access to faculty who, in turn, get adequate support from the employer.

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