"Studies have shown that the cost reductions associated with reliance on contingent faculty members do not translate to greater savings or tuition decreases, bu

"Studies have shown that the cost reductions associated with reliance on contingent faculty members do not translate to greater savings or tuition decreases, but that instead more money is spent elsewhere: on recruitment, admissions, athletics, nonacademic student programming, and so on. In other words, the hollowing out of the professoriate is not a viable strategy for making the university cheaper, better, or more nimble; it’s devastating the core functions of the university itself" This sums up the core of the problem. Some here will argue it is a labor oversupply issue, but I would argue it is a problem inherent to American capitalism itself. Our universities have transitioned into a mindset of "running like a business" and thus have adopted the common enterprise mentality of constantly seeking cost reductions. These cost reductions come at the expense of quality. I say this having spent many years working in University administration. It is exactly as the author notes, the cost savings merely get spent elsewhere in nonproductive ways, usually on more expensive administration. You see this in for-profit enterprises as well as they mature the pay inequality skews as executives take more of the profits. "What’s the way forward? Treating nearly 75 percent of the professoriate as disposable, ancillary to the mission of higher education, has become the norm." This is the way though of our current system, we treat employees as disposable cogs in the machine. We outsource to companies who pay bargain basement wages and produce low quality work destroying small businesses. We do this in the name of efficiency, but we neglect quality. I propose no solutions of my own, but agree with the author that some healthy debate is needed on this issue.